"Fostering innovation and invention, the USJP celebrates "
The University of Sri Jayawardenepura (USJP) celebrated the diamond Jubilee since its establishment as the Vidyodya University in 1959, although it harbours a much longer history dating back to 1873 when the erudite monk Venerable Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero established the Vidyodaya Pirivena.
Marking this milestone, the University together with its Innovation, Invention and Venture Creation Council (IIVCC) celebrated the institution’s plethora of fruitful results and decorative awards.
The university celebrates the research, breakthrough discoveries and inventions produced by the institution with the purpose of highlighting timely social necessities. The IIVCC promotes these novelties integrating them with educational, socio-cultural, environmental and economic needs and challenges of the 21st century.
“We have surpassed expectation and established our own research laboratories. Even universities like Oxford and Cambridge have collaborated with us on new research,” vice chancellor Prof. Sampath Amaratunge expressed.
The IIVCC, while producing social solutions to relevant issues, also produces young entrepreneurs and patent holders, creating employment opportunities for the masses.
“Once dubbed as the ‘university of the penniless’, we have always borne the responsibility of social welfare. Accordingly, we have made it a point to develop our medical, engineering and technology faculties along with our already prospering arts faculty. As a result we have produced an array of new creations,” stated co chairperson of the IIVCC, Prof. Shirantha Heenkenda.
As evidence of the social crises the university’s research addresses, the scientists at the USJP’S Centre for Dengue Research presented their ground-breaking findings.
A team of scientists set out to find why only 10% of dengue patients suffer from severe haemorrhagic fever. They were able to discover that the anti-bodily response to the dengue NS1 protein was quite different within the 90% of mild cases as compared to the 10%. Having constructed the necessary assays to measure such antibodies from scratch, the team was able to aid the development of dengue vaccination through their work. Their research, conducted wholly within the university was published in the globally renowned scientific journal ‘Nature Communications.’
Cancers are grave crises within Sri Lanka and coloerectal cancer alone is the 4th most common.taking this into account, Dr. Bawantha Gamage, Senior lecturer of the Dep. of Surgery of the Medical Sciences of USJP spearheaded the modified Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (MERAS) protocol to enable faster recovery for patients with coloerectal cancer in the country. Replacing traditional methods this system is able to release patients following 4 to 5 days of treatment.
“Currently, coloelectral cancer patients island-wide are experiencing the fruits of our research. Since 2014, we have treated over 100 patients successfully. Our next step is to globalize our initiative, “explained Dr. Gamage whose teams’ efforts made history and won the title of the ‘Best Surgical Team of the Year 2018’ at the BMJ South Asia awards.
Furthermore, numerous success stories from among the students at the USJP were declared as well.
Mr. Dulan Dias who won the Gold Award for the Tertiary Student Project at APICTA 2018 was able to bring glory to both his university and his country. His invention the ‘Komposer- Automated Musical Note Generation based on Lyrics with Recurrent Neural Networks’ employed artificial intelligence to confer human creativity to a machine. His programme designs suitable melodies for input lyrics. He credits the University for pushing his project to reach international heights.
Yet another student achievement the university esteemed was the victory at the RB Global challenge 2018 by three USJP Management Undergraduates. Ms. Virgin Fernando, Mr. Madusha de Silva and Mr. Umendra Abeynayeke introduced a special mobile vaporizer against mosquitoes carrying the Dengue virus. They reined number one from among 19 participant countries representing 80% of the world population. Not only was it the first time a Sri Lankan team won this competition, but also the first time they participated. The three victors were invited to participate in the ‘One Young World’ 2019 youth summit held in London.
The myriad of fruits borne by the IIVCC predominantly tackle economic and social issues presiding within the nation.
Professor Pradeep Jayweera presented the discovery of a low cost Li-ion/s rechargeable battery for energy storage devices using Ilmenite, utlilizing Ilmenite resources of Pulmudai ensuring cost relieving local manufacture. The discussed venture received world recognition at the 2018 Lithium Conference held in Australia.
Exploring the objective of alleviating poverty through science, Prof Nilwala Kottegoda introduced the university’s successful attempt to produce a novel type of fertilizer using nanotechnology.
“When we mix fertilizers like Urea and Phosphate in soil, only 30% goes toward reaping fruit while the remaining 70% is released into the environment,” she explained.
Their cheap and efficient alternative has shown a yield improvement of up to 15% and a 25-50% reduction of the fertilizer usage. The endeavor has received the national award for the “best innovation with commercial potential” in 2011, won the approval of 4 patents and nominated Prof. Kottegoda as one of the top nine inventive women scientists in the world by World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018.
From digestives which eradicate microsleepa leading cause of road accidents to bacteria based non- toxic dyes promoting the local textile industry, the university has published its countless discoveries and innovations on their website.
“The engineering and technological faculties were our latest additions. We have integrated 60 post graduates from around the world to these faculties only during the past two years… my vision is to attach 40 more to our university this year.” Vice Chancellor Prof. Sampath Amaratunge announced with regard to the road ahead.
Believing that the youth possesses the answers to solve the worlds’ problems, Prof. Amaratunge elaborated on the institution’s efforts to nurture its students both physically and mentally.
Concluding on a note of ambitious hope, the USJP thus commemorated over a century of growth with the promise of continuing this stride and guiding the curious mind to better the world of tomorrow.