CSSL hosts 6th ICT Awards and inaugurates NITC-2018

ICT Awards 2018 was organised by CSSL for the sixth consecutive year and was held in parallel with the inauguration of its National IT Conference 2018 (NITC 2018).

President Maithripala Sirisena was the chief guest and Minister Harin Fernando was the guest of honour and over 400 distinguished invitees and ICT professionals participated in the event. The event was held at the main ballroom of Shangri-la Hotel Colombo on the recently.

CSSL ICT Awards is an award ceremony conducted with the view of recognising and motivating those who have served the ICT industry in Sri Lanka. These awards intend to encourage, recognise and celebrate excellence in ICT practice by rewarding the best and the finest of ICT Professionals. The final selections were made by a panel of experts from the ICT industry as well as academia.

This year, CSSL ICT awards recognised for eight best performers of the year that includes ICT professionals, ICT Academics, ICT students and a startup as evident below. Prof. Samantha Thelijjagoda, Student Counsellor and Executive Council Member of CSSL, chaired the project with the guidance of Yasas V. Abeywickrama, the President of Computer Society of Sri Lanka.

The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) is the premier organisation dedicated to promoting and improving professional standards in the Information and Communication Technology sector since 1976.

The winner of CSSL ICT Student award - School category is Ashan Hansaka Rathnaweera. Ashan is a student of Ananda College who will be facing GCE A/L examination this year. CSSL ICT Student of the Year (Undergraduate Category) was won by Kugathasan Janarthanan. He is a final year student of SLIIT, following BSC (Hons) in Computer Systems and Network Engineering with a 3.93/4.00 cumulative GPP. CSSL ICT Researcher of the Year is Dr. Kanagasundaram Ahilan. He is a Senior Lecturer attached to the Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna. He obtained his B.SC Eng Degree with first class from University of Peradeniya and his PHD in Computer Science from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. CSSL ICT Educator of the Year is Prof. Nihal Kodikara. He received his first degree B.SC. from University of Colombo in 1979 and then joined the academic staff of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. CSSL Best Start-up of the Year was awarded to Jendo Innovations (Pvt.) Ltd. Jendo is a non-invasive health monitoring technology for detection of endothelial dysfunction which leads to cardiovascular diseases. It uses temperature and PPG signal measurements and operates on a cloudbased platform to predict disease risk. CSSL Emerging ICT Leader of the Year is Keerthi Kodithuwakku. Keerthi is the Founder and CEO of two successful Sri Lankan startups; Effective Solutions and Jendo Innovations, specialising in IOT solutions and biomedical research and development, with operations in Japan and UK. CSSL CIO of the Year was awarded to Dr. Prasanna Lokuge. Dr. Lokuge is a holder of a PHD in Artificial Intelligence awarded by Monash University, Australia, and counting over 25 years of hands on experience in the IT industry with a proven track record of both local and international achievements.

CSSL ICT Leader of the Year is Kanishka Weeramunda. He has over 17 years of ICT experience and four years in the financial technology domain and eco-system support. He is the Founder and CEO of Paymedia (Pvt.) Ltd. He was titled as the ‘Most Valuable ICT Entrepreneur’ in 2015 and was recently awarded with the ‘Best CEO of the Year’ and the ‘Future Leader of the Year’.