WSO2 Tech Lead wins first-ever ‘Young Woman Engineer” award
C.S.A. Fernando, Senior Tech Lead at WSO2, became the first “Young Woman Engineer 2017” organised by the Sri Lanka Institution of Engineering & Technology (IETSL) in Colombo last week. S.W. Nelundeniya, Civil EngineerCECB won the 1st runners up award and W.U.C. De Alwis, Research Engineer SYNERGEN Technology - won the 2nd runners up award.
The five candidates who got selected into the final round were N.A. Amarasinghe, M.K.D.S. Kumarasiri, W.U.C. De Alwis, S.W. Nelundeniya and C.S.A. Fernando while S.J. Sooriyaarachchi and K.H. Dayani Nayantha were picked as two reserve finalists.
The grand event on December 4 took place at Hotel Galadari with Dr. (Ms.) Idah Riddihough, Country Director of World Bank as the Chief Guest and Eng. (Ms.) R.L. Haturusinha (1st Lady President of IESL) and Prof. (Ms.) Indra Dayawansa (1st Lady Chairman of IET Sri Lanka network) as the guests of honour of the event.
The IETSL is one of the premier professional engineering organisations in Sri Lanka with its headquarters in the UK. As a professional organisation, IET plays a major role in the career development of engineering professionals throughout the world, the institution said in a media release.
The key objectives of this event were to encourage women to engage more in the fields of engineering and technology; obtaining global recognition for Sri Lankan women engineers through IETSL, and reward and motivate young women engineers to contribute more towards the society.
Judges for the finals were Eng. (Mr.) Badra Jayaweera, Eng. N.A.G. Senanayake, Eng. Aravinda Perera, Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda, Ms. Otara Gunawardene, Ms. Yashinka Jayasinghe Alles and Ms. Jayomi Lokuliyana who are distinguished engineers and well-known personalities in the country.
“At the grand finale, the five finalists spoke on the difficulties they had to face in the field as women, how they overcame those problems, importance and their contribution to the engineering field as well as the society as women engineers. Experiences and thoughts they shared and points they presented were able to establish the necessity of having women engineers in the field for a better future,” the release said.