UCL Software Engineering Undergraduate Wins Excellence Award at 99X in 2021

HeshanWickremaratne, a past student from Ananda College is currently a third year Undergraduate of the prestigious University of Central Lancashire, BSc (Hons) Software Engineering degree has had the distinction of winning the “Excellence Award for the Most Outstanding Intern” at 99X I 2021.

“Heshan is without a doubt, one of the best interns I have worked with so far. As a lead developer in Superglu, I get to work with Heshan closely daily in terms of technical skills. He learnt the tech stack (React, NodeJS, Serverless, AWS) fast and started contributing to the project well. He is a fast learner with a great attitude. He is always up for a challenge and takes full ownership of the task which is assigned to him and makes sure it is 100% complete end-to-end. The code he submits is good as well. He makes sure to follow the best practices we have with the team and tests the code well before committing it for review. Heshan also proactively gives his suggestions and ideas to make the overall project better”,states Devon Wijesinghe, Senior Software Engineer at 99X.

We invited Heshan back to UCL campus to share his insights in terms of the award and how his passion was ignited to select the Software Engineering Degree Programme at UCL.

“I'm a 3rd year undergraduate at UCL in affiliation with University of Central Lancashire.I'm skilled in programming languages including, C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, HTML and CSS. Currently I'm learning React, React-Native, Node. js, Serverless and AWS. Moreover, I enjoy designing with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, 3D modelling and animation with Blender”, he opines.

Speaking of his foray into the dynamic world of IT he recalls how his father and mother were both and inspiration to him. “My father taught me a lot. MS Office suit and a lot about getting things around a PC. My Mother is an advanced level Physics teacher and was a mentor. At first, I thought of delving into Biology, but found that different to what I expected it to be. Sometimes I feel I should have pursued Mathematics for A/L but now I am hooked on to Software Engineering and love it”, he grins.

Since childhood computers were a passion and he developed a good knowledge of Hardware. Liked design. Loved Coding. Having obtained a B for Biology and two Cs for Physics and Chemistry, he applied to the University of Central Lancashire Software Engineering Programme as his first preference even though he was selected to