Pearson Lanka strides from ideas to innovations
Over 300 software engineers of Pearson Lanka gathered at ‘Devcon 2018’ held on July 9, 2018, at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla.
The developer conference is a muchawaited annual event in Pearson Lanka’s calendar, organised by the software engineering department. It is the one time in the year where the entire team as well as representatives from some of the other teams come together, with the single objective of sharing ideas and learning from each other.
Themed ‘From Ideas to Innovations,’ this year’s event focused on sharing knowledge and celebrating achievement.
Software Engineering Head Bimal Gunapala said: “Every achievement, every innovation, starts off with an idea; sometimes something simple and at other times, a groundbreaking thought. The tricky thing about ideas is, that it is not worth anything if you cannot make it happen, so we must persevere. The end result, the final innovation, will be much more effective, if it is purposeful - a useful innovation.”
This was reinforced by Pearson Lanka General Manager Anura De Alwis who emphasised that innovation is no longer thought of as an extraordinary phenomenon but expected as commonplace from every engineer.
The key highlight of this year’s event were the guest speakers who had reached dizzying heights in their own spheres and professions. Keynote speaker Prof. Suranga Nanayakkara from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland in New Zealand propelled the audience’s thinking toward the ‘humanness’ of innovation and the importance of leaving a meaningful impact on the way people live. His generosity in sharing his own experiences and insights about the work he is currently spearheading, gave new meaning to how ideas can truly be transformed into impactful innovations.
Johann Pieris, the first Sri Lankan male to summit Mount Everest, kept the audience at the edge of their seats with his experience of climbing to the top of the world. A journey that tested grit and gut, Johann reiterated the importance of never giving up on a dream. He emphasised that lessons in leadership, self-discipline, decision making and appreciating those who help along the way are important for success irrespective job role or industry. He shared profound examples to deliver this message, from his own adventure of failing once just 400 metres short of the summit just two year ago to reaching its pinnacle in May this year. Pearson’s own engineers delivered Tech Talks on progressive web applications and on the evaluation of Java and its relevance today. The teams also had an opportunity to present some of their ideas in two inter-team competitions. The exciting lineup of activities for the day included a fun-filled team building activity that tested the teams’ ability to think on their feet, followed by a competition titled ‘Codechef,’ which tested analytical and engineering capabilities of various teams through live programming on location.