IIT felicitates students who won five awards

Tuesday, 13 May 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

IIT recently held the felicitation ceremony for the five winning teams at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2014 which was held for the 10th consecutive year. IIT organised this ceremony to recognise the victory of IIT students and the Chairman of Informatics Group of Companies, Directors, the staff of IIT friends of media and alumni were present at this ceremony. Five teams from IIT participated in the ‘World Citizenship’, ‘Innovation’ and ‘Games’ categories. All five teams went on to win awards, bringing credit to IIT. IIT secured five awards out of nine awards that were nominated and for the first time in a Microsoft national level competition. Last year IIT won the ‘Innovation’ category and represented Sri Lanka in Microsoft Imagine Cup World Competition in St.Petersburg, Russia and brought the prestigious Samsung Digital Native award in the ‘Innovation’ category to the nation. And this year too, the IIT winning teams in the categories of ‘Innovation’ and ‘World Citizenship’ will hopefully represent Sri Lanka in the big event in Seattle, Washington. Sanduni Jayasooriya, a member of the winning team Silver Chasers stated, “I personally, believe this was an opportunity never to be missed, a memory worth a lifetime. My group and I commenced working on the project with the aim of doing nothing less than the very best and I believe it paid off well, as we walked to the stage to receive the award for being none but a winner.”

She also pointed that, “From the point of formulating an idea all the way to getting it completely functional we were constantly pushed to never give up by our mentor Mrs. Dinithi Nallaperuma and so was the other mentors Mrs. Udayangi Perera and Dr.Thilak Chandima. IIT provided the framework for us to present our solution a number of times to a panel of lectures from whom we received invaluable advice and feedback. Wellington Pereira of Microsoft together with our parents provided much support ensuring we were given the know-how and comfort we require to make our solution a success.” The achievement of all five teams at this prestigious competition is very heartening and a great reward for all who contributed to their success. The team Silver Chasers comprising of Ershadi Sayuri Jayatilaka, Sanduni Jayasooriya, Sachith Ushan and Shamin Rasoja Goonetilaka were the winner of the ‘World Citizenship’ category for project ‘Find Me’ which is a child protection system for tracking misplaced children.

The team Firebird comprising Mohamed Shehan and Tharaka De Alwis who won the ‘Innovation’ category award for the project ‘Dream Mode’, which is a device to help people to dream what they desire as well as being a preventive for insomnia. It is a significant and an exceptional feat for IIT to achieve this success amidst several rounds of judging and stiff competition from other stakeholders. It only goes to confirm the very high academic standards being maintained at IIT since its inception in 1990. This is not the first occasion IIT has achieved such high accolades. IIT won Gold for three consecutive years at the National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) conducted by the British Computer Society. Pix by Lasantha Kumara