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by Kingsley T . Wickramaratne

On a 25-acre picturesque site at Malabe in the electorate of Kaduwela, 10 kilometres east of Colombo, is the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) Campus, which was opened on the 29th of November 2001 and is the only campus totally dedicated to information technology in Sri Lanka.

Today we live in the Information Age. The impact of information technology in Sri Lankan society is only beginning to be felt. The activities undertaken for the future will be pre-fixed by the letter 'e', standing for 'electronic'.

The globalisation of trade will lead to e-business and e-commerce. Publishing will give way to e-publishing. Pictures and movies will be e-images with multimedia capability.

There will be thousands of communication providers and hundreds and thousands of information service providers in the communication and utilisation of electronic data.

Under these circumstances, the IT sector will be critically dependent on highly skilled IT professionals and technicians. In order to reap the benefits of the Information Age and to maintain a competitive advantage as a nation, it was evident that we had to urgently address our mind to the need to educate and train high quality IT professionals.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology was established just for this purpose. This is a unique institution for spurring the development of the IT industry.

Joint venture

The institute is a joint venture of the Ministries of Education and Higher Education.

Internal and International Commerce and Food, and Finance and Planning. This joint venture has been possible due to H.E. the President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's vision that quality education and value-added training would bring about the integration of the Sri Lankan economy with the global economy. H.E. the President's commitment and support made the Institute a reality. As a result, she was invited by the Board of SLIIT to serve as patron of the institution .

The initiative in implementing the project was taken by the Ministry of Internal and International Commerce and Food. The Mahapola Trust Fund came under the jurisdiction of this Ministry. The Chairman of the Trust Fund is the Chief Justice. It was the Mahapola Trust Fund that initially allocated Rs. 500 million for the academic building on the 25-acre land at Malabe belonging to the Trust.

The objectives of the Institute are:

* The education and train ing of information tech nology personnel

* The development of a pool of experts in IT

* The setting up of a soft ware development facili ty, and

* The establishment of a research and develop ment incubator.

The first phase of the development of the main campus consisted of the construction of a 10 storey academic building, a 5 storey administration block and conference centres.

The complex houses the lecture rooms, laboratories, auditoria, library and reading rooms, software development centres, research and development incubator facilities, communication facilities and academic and administration divisions. In the next phase, it would house software parks, residential and recreational facilities, satellite communication centre, a shopping complex and other infrastructure requirements for the convenience of students, staff and researchers.

The research and development incubator facilities are a joint venture of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, several IT companies and a venture capital company. The campus has set up research and development projects and work is done in collaboration with SLIIT.

The software development facility of the Institute has a number of high-end computers for the staff to undertake software development work for which purpose contractual agreements have been reached. It also has a high-end IBM/AS400 computer, which is the largest AS400 computer system in Sri Lanka.

The SLIIT offers various programmes in IT, ranging from Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Degrees, Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters Degrees to professional development programmes for professionals employed in the industry.

Links with Foreign University

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology has established links with Uppsala University in Sweden for academic collaboration and staff training and exchange. Uppsala University invites lecturers from SLIIT to conduct specific courses in information technology at Uppsala.

It is expected that the SLIIT staff will undertake research studies in collaboration with Uppsala University as a means of staff training. SLIIT also has close links with Curtin University of Technology.

SLIIT and the Engineering School of Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia have agreed in principle for the award of the B.Sc degree in information technology from Curtin University.

Under the scheme, students of SlIIT whose performance is up to a prescribed standard at the Diploma level can pursue courses at the SLIIT designed by Curtin University and SLIIT for the third year, and be eligible for the award of the Curtin University degree.

Links with the IT industry

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology has strong links with the IT industry in Sri Lanka Private sector participation in the affairs of SLIIT is by way of:

* Participating in the Advi sory Committee on Academic Matters.

* Establishing partner ships for the training of IT professionals. The IBM World Trade Corporation has already signed an agreement with SLIIT and has accredited SLIIT as an authorized centre for edu cation to conduct IBM certified courses. IBM has also donated Sri Lanka's argest IBM As400 comput er to SLIIT for competen cy development.

* Establishing a research and development incuba tor with SLIIT with a share capital of Rs. 50 mil lion to promote and encourage the establish ment of IT start-up com panies in Sri Lanka and to undertake research and development in It.

* Undertaking consultan cy services and software development projects for both the private and pub lic sectors, and

* Sponsoring scholarships for students.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology has also established links with Nordic Asia Informatics and Morner Kreative Programvare of Norway for business related software development The amalgamation of the Ministry of Ports and Telecommunications with information technology was a logical decision taken by the governments to develop the IT industry with greater speed. Over the last five years telephone connections grew to 1.36 million, resulting in an average teledensity of 4/100.

Foreign investment for the last 3 years in the field of IT software development recorded 1.44 billion rupees.?The infrastructure for the future is almost in place, and the Malabe campus - with its connectivity with the global village - would be Sri Lanka's Cyber Village.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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