Dialog’s Ideamart partners Shilpa Sayura Foundation to enable Sri Lanka’s future IoT economy

Friday, 21 June 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Ideamart, a platform for developers and content providers presented by Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, has partnered with the Shilpa Sayura Foundation for ‘NextGen IoT’, a program that works to educate, train and mentor young Sri Lankans to gain industry skills in Internet of Things (IoT) and Information Security. NextGen IoT assist individuals to gain employment in the industry by creating a learning path for IoT and Information Security, identifying, training and incubating IoT developers and supporting the development and monetisation of innovative IoT applications.

NextGen IoT will consist of three phases over a period of 12 months; the first being three workshops covering Raspberry Pi, Linux, IoT development, Innovation and the Dialog IoT Portal, the second being the provision of equipment and support for product development and finally, an IoT hackathon. The first of these events, ‘Step into Linux’ was successfully conducted at the Dialog Axiata Auditorium, with 100 participants from across the country. The workshop began with a session conducted by Niranjan Meegammana, Program Director at Shilpa Sayura, followed by Sandaru Suranjaya, from Ideamart team, who briefed participants on Ideamart APIs and monetisation through the usage of Ideamart APIs. Then, Danidu De Silva, from Ideamart team focused on a demonstration of Dialog IoT portal and NB-IoT development board, with N P Vishwa Kumara from Shilpa Sayura concluding the workshop with a comprehensive session on Advanced Linux and IoT development tools. Participants were also given time to network with each other and the resource team.

Commenting, Shilpa Sayura Foundation Youth Development Director Poornima Meegammana said, “This foundation was launched to empower youth with the knowledge and skills required to face emerging socio economic and environmental challenges using social innovations, powered by emerging technology and NextGen IoT is the ideal program to instil this mentality and skillset in Sri Lanka’s future developer generation.”

Ideamart MIFE Business and IOT Head Viranga Seneviratne said, “To ensure that Sri Lankans across the country have access to the resources required to build their knowledge and talent in the industry has always been an integral part of Ideamart’s DNA. We are excited to partner with Shilpa Sayura for NextGen IoT, which works with budding developers and will in turn amplify Sri Lanka’s IoT economy.”