Business ICT

SLIIT continues winning streak at Techno 2007

Once again the students of SLIIT have proven their worth by garnering both the Gold Award as well as three merit awards at Techno 2007 National Engineering and Technology Exhibition which was held recently.

The Techno 2007 Exhibition sought to showcase the latest developments in engineering and cutting edge technologies, while providing opportunity to bring in new products and services to the market through innovations and value-additions. First place was achieved by the students of SLIIT for their "Shortest Path Navigation Guidance System" project, in the Student Engineering awards category.

Under the supervision of Dr. Malitha Wijesundara, team members W.P. D. S. De Silva, M.C.L. Perera, D.C.M. Thembiliyagoda, J.M.K.C.Jayamaha and C. O. Rupasinghe devised a guidance system which assists users to travel from one point to another along the best possible path through the use of packet routing concepts in computer networks.

The system is built to dynamically calculate the best path based on road widths, lengths and traffic level which makes it a valuable tool for emergency services like fire trucks, ambulances, etc as well for tourists and local travelers.

Merit awards were also awarded for the projects "A vision based system for goal directed obstacle avoidance", "Electric iron safety power adopter" and "Automated digital weather reporting system".

A fully autonomous rover capable of detecting an object of a specific colour in the environment and also following it while avoiding collisions with obstacles on its path was the project premise of "A vision based system for goal directed obstacle avoidance" by I.H.B. Ahmed, L.L.C. Kasun, Y.A.M. Yehiya, C.M.G. Punchihewa and T.S.A. Gunawardena supervised by Dr. Malitha Wijesundara.

"Electric Iron Safety Power Adopter", or the EISPA project by H. P. Welivitigoda, J. R. W. Vithanawasam, P. Meemaduma, K. Perera, D.R.S.D. Bandara with the supervision of Dr. Malitha Wijesundara, consisted of the creation of an embedded device which can automatically switch off an unattended electric iron when it is in idle state.

While B.A.M. Balasuriya, M.A.C.R. Karunaratne, M.H.G. Hasantha, N.A.A.P. Napagoda, K.I.A.I. Kariyawasam under the supervision of Roshan Chandraguptha created an embedded solution to be implemented for the achievement of three major goals: the measuring of rainfall in remote sites, the collection of them at a central location and conveying of the latest updates to the public efficiently and effectively in their "Automated digital weather reporting system".

All projects were evaluated on their application of Engineering principles, the innovativeness of the idea and the benefit afforded by it to society.

"SLIIT is an institution that prides itself on providing our students with not only the educational resources but also the ability to put their learning in to successful practical use." said Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SLIIT Professor Lalith Gamage.

Organised by the Institution of Engineers of Sri Lanka (IESL), the Techno Exhibition, now positioned as the "National Engineering & Technology Exhibition", started out in the early eighties and celebrates its 22nd exhibition this year.

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Singer launches IT Mobile Knowledge Bus

Singer Sri Lanka launched the Singer IT Mobile Knowledge Bus recently. Chairman, Singer Sri Lanka Hemaka Amarasuriya and Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka Sriyan De Silva Wijeyratne unveiled the bus amidst a large gathering of corporates and distinguished guests.

With the aim of linking people to the future, the concept of the IT Mobile Knowledge Bus took shape with Singer Sri Lanka focusing on enhancing the use of computers by taking the knowledge and skills to the grass root level as well as developing the market for AGC, their own brand of PCs.

With their unmatched presence throughout Sri Lanka as well as being driven by the vision of making the PC affordable to all, the Singer IT Mobile Knowledge Bus will cover Colombo and its outskirts in January, 2008,further expanding its coverage of the entire island, except for the north and the east.

Deputy Marketing Director Singer Sri Lanka Ravi Balraj said, "There is a huge mass who has knowledge of the value of a computer and of having the right skills, but still do not know the basics such as how to put it on and use what is available. The bus will open up the avenue of letting the individual walk into the bus and experience first hand our range of PCs.

If he or she makes a decision to buy the product, the individual comes to the right source. Instead of having the customer come to us, we go to their doorstep and give them the opportunity of having access to a PC he said.

"Our aim is to become the main player in the PC industry. We launched our own brand, AGC Personal Computers two years ago. It is the number one brand in the country to have genuine Microsoft software he said.

We want to further develop our brand and this is our value proposition. We see this initiative as being in synergy with our efforts to help with knowledge building on PCs,"Balraj added.

Microsoft Sri Lanka is supporting this initiative, with all of the AGC computers enabled with genuine Microsoft software. Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sriyan De Silva Wijeyratne said, "In Sri Lanka, software piracy is at an extremely high level as per the IDC survey on piracy which was just released.

This is a big impediment, not only to building the IT industry in Sri Lanka but also for the development of other industries such as the garment and manufacturing industries, which contribute significantly towards the Sri Lankan economy.

International buyers and investors alike value the respect for IPR. On the software side, from the customer's point of view, he is indirectly paying much more, due to the substandard quality of pirated products and existence of virtually no support. In some cases, customers pay for software but may not be getting the real deal.

Therefore we are indeed pleased to support an industry giant such as Singer in their quest to set an example by providing customers with only genuine Microsoft software pre-installed on their computers.

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BOI to develop new IT Park in Malabe

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) and Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) will be developing an IT Park equipped with all modern facilities and services for promoting Information Technology, IT Enabled Services, Business Process Outsourcing and other knowledge based industries in the country.

The BOI along with SLIIT plans to develop this endeavour as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) venture. PPP is currently widely adopted worldwide as a means to develop large-scale infrastructure projects.

The IT Park would be constructed in a 15-acre land within the SLIIT campus in Malabe. It will primarily cater to the growing demand in Sri Lanka for high quality dedicated Information Technology space.

The BOI has carried out a lot of research on how to develop IT parks. The proposed IT Park has been conceptualised with the latest know how relating to such parks and a special emphasis has been given to make the atmosphere appealing to those who will be working there.

The IT Park would be equipped with state of the art technology and would be providing high-speed data communication services including lease line connectivity and fibre optic networks.

In addition, the park will also provide infrastructure facilities such as uninterrupted quality power, water supply, air conditioning facilities and parking facilities.

This IT park is developed to attract world class IT companies, who will house their business operations in Sri Lanka. It is expected that this venture will be a stepping-stone for the future of the Sri Lankan IT Industry.

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Indian IT, ITeS market to cross Rs 1,00,000-cr mark in 2008

Revenues from the Indian IT and ITeS market is likely to touch Rs 1,10,000 crore in 2008, marking a 24 per cent growth, despite a decline in the IT spending worldwide, an industry study has indicated.

"By posting a substantial jump in the domestic IT/ITeS market since 2002, the industry is now on to a new growth trajectory. IDC India expects a significant transition in the Indian IT market as part of the second growth phase," said IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh.

PTI