UoM Research Week 2021

• University of Moratuwa launches event for celebration of research and the #UoMResearcher

The University of Moratuwa, as one of the nation’s pioneering research institutions is to launch UOM Research Week 2021. This week will celebrate impact-oriented research at the University of Moratuwa. Industry partners, professors, students, scholars, and the general public are all invited to attend the research week, which provides a platform for presenting and networking with UOM stakeholders. The University of Moratuwa’s research week promotes the skills, accomplishments, and effects of their research conducted by various university groups.

This one-week based, series of events provides an opportunity to be informed and inspired by UOM’s enthralling and thought-provoking scholars from all faculties. Three research conferences from the three faculties of Architecture, Business and IT – ICITR 2021, ICBR 2021, and FARU 2021, as well as a Postgraduate day, Undergraduate research projects, a global research forum, and Research Centres Sessions, constitute this week’s program.  

A highlight as the week starts on 30 November is the keynote speech of Prof. Mohan Munasinghe. His keynote is titled ‘Transdisciplinary research to address climate change and sustainable development issues – the key role of universities’. Prof. Mohan Munasinghe is the Chairman, Presidential Expert Commission (PEC) on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision and Strategic Path; Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking University, China; and Honorary Senior Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka. He was Vice-Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4), who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace, and more recently received the 2021 Blue Planet Prize, also called the ‘environmental Nobel Prize’.  

The keynote is followed up with a session targeted towards Postgraduate Research where local and overseas speakers would have a session to guide research students towards high-impact research and publishing.  

University of Moratuwa has a very strong undergraduate student base. It believes that students, faculty mentors, and the institution all benefit from launching and maintaining undergraduate research initiatives. Students can improve self-governing critical thinking abilities as well as oral and written communication skills by combining a research component with a solid academic background. Students must choose an area of interest for their UG research projects, perform specialised research on that domain, and contribute to knowledge and practice in their field of study.

 In essence, the UG research project is the first platform that allows students to excel professionally and personally in ways that conventional lecture and laboratory courses do not allow. During this session, some undergraduates will demonstrate how they interact with various stakeholder groups and industries to do extensive research, as well as how their research extends outside the institution to have social influence. 

An important discussion is on 2 December – Global Research Forum. The University of Moratuwa, as the country’s premier research and academic centre, is focused on developing a people- and/or economy-centric R&D and Innovation echo system. The Global Research Forum hopes to develop a successful discourse around the following major sectors of the country by starting with a larger economic perspective and then emphasising the urgency of the situation. The discussion is on how R&D can support growth and the role of the university as a national institution. 

Through the involvement of local and global industry and academia partnerships, the Global Research Forum expects to identify multidisciplinary research domains and possible experts to tackle these key areas. The symposium will examine how these debates might be used in policy planning, business investments, and academic research to generate good contributions to the country and policy establishment for long-term economic growth through R&D.

Multidisciplinary Research Centre’s facilitate synergistic collaboration among different faculties and departments, as well as with other local and foreign universities and industries. The MRCs’ research fields cut across and bring together the university’s full realm of competence in a myriad of areas. Researchers’ perspectives on their discipline are enriched through multidisciplinary study. The ability to get insights into other fields is the second most often mentioned benefit of interdisciplinary collaborations. Multidisciplinary Research Centres will demonstrate how they collaborate with various stakeholder groups and industries to produce impactful research, how their research goes beyond the university to have a societal impact, and how they help academics and Early Career Researchers develop their capacity through local and international collaborations during this session.

The first UoM Research Digest 2021 would be launched on the day. This publication serves as a record of the impact-oriented research taking place in the University of Moratuwa and should be of value to the industry stakeholders. UoM is reaching out with announcing what it is doing and hope the industry response to realise impact.

The publication exemplifies the capabilities, accomplishments, and effects of research conducted by various university groups. In par with the theme of the UoM Research Week 2021, the UoM Research Digest serves as a platform to communicate and connect with our stakeholders including, industry partners, academics, students, and scholars.

UoM has also set aside space in this issue for their multidisciplinary research centres, faculty and department level research groups/projects to showcase their contribution to the respective field of study and their anecdotes. We have also provided space for our scholars currently reading for PhDs, M.Phils. and M.Scs. to share knowledge on their ongoing research work. University of Moratuwa is happy to invite all those who are interested in establishing a partnership to join in.