Engineering excellence feted

IESL President Ranjith Gunawardane said this event should have been introduced long time ago. "IESL, with a history of more than 100 years, qualifies to become one of the earliest professional bodies, to have been established, in this part of the world," he said.

Engineering can make a huge difference, to the world, in which we live. Engineering projects make an enormous contribution to the development of a country, and its economy."

"We can also be proud of, some of the accomplishments of our recent engineers, like Late D.J. Wimalasurendra, who proposed the advantages of hydro power generation, Late A N S Kulasinghe, who invented a post-tensioning system and founded the State Engineering Corporation; Late B D Rampala, who as the General Manager of the Sri Lanka Railways, mooted the idea of railway electrification; and Engineer M Chandrasena," he said.

"Although the objectives of our institution require us to maintain high standards, we were rather slow, in recognising those who achieved and maintained those very same high standards, that we expect our members to adhere to."

"It is in this backdrop, that we decided to inaugurate this event. We also believe, that the IESL's Engineering Excellence Awards programme, gave an opportunity to showcase the achievements of the engineering profession, to a wider audience, outside our own profession, and that it will contribute towards enhancing the reputation of Sri Lankan engineers and engineering organisations."

The awards, were two main categories, one for individuals, and the other, for engineering organisations. Under the individual category, there were two sub categories; the awards for, eminence in engineering, and the awards for, excellence in engineering. The eminence in engineering award, is something that one can receive, only once in a life time.

The Excellence Awards were in eight different fields, such as highways and transportation, research and development, electrical and electronics.