The team from the Faculty of Engineering, the Dean Professor A. Atputharajah, Heads of the Departments Dr. T. Thiruvaran, Dr. A. Anburuvel, Dr. A. Kaneswaran and Dr. B. Ketheesan from Department of Civil Engineering, visited to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on 10th June. This visit was coordinated by Professor K. Chelvakumar and supported by care for education.
The Waste for Life is a project was initiated by Dr. Randika Jayasinghe (who completed PhD in this field) together with the leadership of Profesor Caroline Baillie (who is the Chair of Engineering Education at the School of Civil Environmental and Mining Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics at University of Western Australia). This was one of the excellent project which proven its outcome. This was initiated in August 2014.
The team from the Faculty of Engineering, the Dean Professor A. Atputharajah, Heads of the Departments Dr. T. Thiruvaran, Dr. A. Anburuvel, Dr. A. Kaneswaran and Dr. B. Ketheesan from Department of Civil Engineering met few Engineering professionals during the dinner time discussion at California USA. The team stayed with the Engineering professionals residential places and therefore the discussions were held during 7th to 9th June 2017 at their residential places in small groups. It was excellent and nice to meet the graduates, who graduated from Universities of Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Ruhuna. The discussions were on meeting friends, possible collaborations, networking, possible financial support for poor students, motivational awards for students and possible logistic supports for students exchange program. The faculty team thanking all the members in California and care for education, who helped for organizing this excellent activities while networking with leading professionals.
Dr. Ravindra Wijesiriwardana take part in two conference held in Shanghai China and conducting a guest lecture at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He conducted a lecture on nonlinear acoustics at the Media Design PolyU on an invitation by Dr. Gino Yu. He also got the chance to see their lab facilities, virtual reality projects, Ambisonic setups and discuss with Ph.D. Students. This opened up possible collaborations with the Ambisonic group at PolyU and possibility of jointly or remotely supervising some of their Ph.D. students. Also the team agreed to give the full support for Ravindra’s research requirements of advanced acoustic tests. Ravindra also delivered an invited presentation at Consciousness Science Technology and Society Conference (CSTS) held on the 9th of June 2017 in Shanghai. The talk was “Emptiness of Consciousness from Buddhism and Science Perspectives” it is available at Research gate online.
The team was separated in to two category such as Administration and Technical. The technical team includes the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies – Dr. A. Anburuvel and Dr. B. Ketheesan from Department of Civil Engineering visited to the University of California San Diego. This visit was done on 8th June morning and it was coordinated by Professor N. Ravichandran and supported by care for education. The team visited centrifuge and shake table facilities at the University of California San Diego.
The administrative team includes Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Professor A. Atputharajah, Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – Dr. T. Thiruvaran and Head of the Department of Computer Engineering – Dr. A. Kaneswaran visited to the California State LA University in USA. This was done on 8th June morning. This visit was coordinated by Professor Nanda Ganeshan and supported by care for education.
The team was separated in to two category such as Administration and Technical. The technical team includes the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies – Dr. A. Anburuvel and Dr. B. Ketheesan from Department of Civil Engineering visited to the California State University Fullerton. This visit was done on 8th June afternoon and it was coordinated by Professor N. Ravichandran and supported by care for education. In this visit, the team visited the geotechnical laboratory and research laboratory of Prof Binod Tiwari and Dr Beena Ajmera. Also the team looked at the on-going student projects and university-School collaborative projects.
The administrative team includes Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Professor A. Atputharajah, Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – Dr. T. Thiruvaran and Head of the Department of Computer Engineering – Dr. A. Kaneswaran visited to the California State Polytechnic University in USA. This was done on 8th June afternoon. This visit was coordinated by Dr. Siva K. Sivathasan, who is Vice President and Principal Engineer of the Converse Consultants Company, and supported by care for education.
Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – Dr. T. Thiruvaran, Head of the Department of Computer Engineering – Dr. A. Kaneswaran and Dr. B. Ketheesan from Civil and Environmental Engineering visited to the Clemson University in USA. This was done on 6th June morning to the see the outdoor research activities. Then the Dean Professor A. Atputharajah and Head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies – Dr. A. Anburuvel join the team on 7th June and spent full day there. This Clemson visit was coordinated by Professor N. Ravichandran and supported by care for education.
The Dean Professor A. Atputharajah and Head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies Dr. A. Anburuvel visited to the Iowa State University on 6th June 2017. This visit was coordinated and supported by Professor Sritharan together with care for education. It was good learning points on how they conduct classes for the similar two groups of students, usage of online materials for teaching, work load of human resources there in both tenure and non-tenure tracks. Further visited the engineering carrier services unit and learnt their functions, internship to the students, internship supervisor and feedback from internship. Also we met their lecturers and a group of students separately to understand the results of the operations as interested on design and Independent work. Number of independent group study rooms and sections were observed. Further during the break, summer courses are offered to the students to improve their communication skills. Also we visited few laboratories. It was excellent discussions on different aspects and steps taken to motivate and provide opportunities to the students on learning.