ICTA showcases FITIS Young Computer Scientist winners at APICTA Vietnam

Friday, 6 December 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The winning students with FITIS Chairman Abbas Kamrudeen, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) Director Prof. K P Hewagamage, UCSC Senior Lecturer Dr. Samantha Maatharaarachchi, ICT Branch Director Education P N Illapperuma, Ministry of Education Assistant Director of Education Tharanga Dilhani, ICTA Program Head Sachindra Samararatne and FITIS CEO Aruna Alwis

The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) through its mandate to promote tech entrepreneurship and innovation join hands with FITIS to facilitate the winners of Young Computer Scientist (YCS) in showcasing their ICT innovations at the APICTA Awards in Vietnam.

The FITIS Young Computer Scientist Program enjoys a history of 18 long years and is recognised as an important competition which exposes the computing talents of school children at their early stages and encourages them to develop their talents and earn recognition. Conducted in association with the Ministry of Education and the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), the winners of the YCS competition will have the opportunity to showcase their ICT innovations at the APICTA Awards, which is dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of the ICT industry.

This year there are six outstanding young Sri Lankan innovators between the ages of 10 and 20, adjudged overall winners at the Young Computer Scientist Competition 2019, who will take part in the APICTA competition.

The students who represent Sri Lanka at the APICTA Awards were B.G.N.A. Gamarachchi (age 18) from Ranabima Royal College Kandy, H.M.M.K.K.B. Herath (aged 19) of Poramadulla Central Kandy, W.N.D. Fernando (aged 20) of Ch/ Medagama Abhaya from Chilaw, S.B. Karunasena (aged 15) of OKI International Biyagama as well as L.Y. Jayasinghe (aged 13) of Thurstan College Colombo and K.R. Dhanapala (aged 10) of Sri Rahula College Anuradhapura.

Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka is the apex ICT institution of the Government. In terms of the Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003, and as amended in 2008, the ICTA has been mandated to take all necessary measures to implement the Government’s policy and action plan in relation to ICT. The ICTA assists the Cabinet of Ministers in the formulation of the national policy on ICT and provides all information necessary for its formulation. The Industry Development Program of ICTA implements Spiralation tech startup incubator, the Disrupt Asia startup conference and innovation festival, ImagineIF startup bootcamps and supports like-minded initiatives such as YCS to develop the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem in Sri Lanka.