Sri Lankan students win another Gold at APICTA 2016

Two students from St. Anthony’s Collage, Kandy have brought glory and fame to Sri Lanka by winning the most coveted Gold award at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) awards held in Taipei, Taiwan recently with the distinguished presence of President of the Republic of China Tsai Ing-wen as the Chief Guest. 

Gajindu Kavinda Bandara and Kavindra Gimhan the winners of the Young Computer Scientist (YCS) competition organised by the Federation of IT Industry Sri Lanka in association with Ministry of Education who were nominated to participate in the APICTA competition have made history with this achievement. 

Their entry known as the ‘Smart Walking Stick’ which is a modern walking stick for those who need help, like blind and deaf people, to do their work and day-to-day transportation by themselves without others’ help, competed with nominations from over 16 other countries in the Asia Pacific region and was selected as the best under the student category of APICTA awards. This is the third time that Sri Lanka won the Gold Award in Asia Pacific Level. Pasindu Chathuranga and Charith Wickremasinghe from Ananda Collage won the APICTA 2014 Gold Award two years back in Indonesia and Ganindu Nanayakkara won Gold in APICTA 2009. 

However, the students had to return to Sri Lanka immediately after the competition judging to sit for their GCE Ordinary Level Exams which fell on the following day. APICTA Executive Council Member Ruwan Amarasekera received the award on behalf of the students. 

A group of students from Gateway College Colombo who represented under the same awards category won the Merit award for their Triplex CNC (Multi-Purpose CNC Machine) and five other Merit awards have been won by the Sri Lankan companies competed under commercial category and tertiary students’ category. 

“Winning at international competitions shows the capabilities of our young generation. We are really excited and proud about our initiatives as the organisers of the YCS competition that makes our school children show their talents and excel both at national and international levels,” said FITIS Chairman Wasantha Weerakoon. “As the biggest industry association in the vibrant ICT industry FITIS will continue with its efforts in supporting the young talents,” he concluded.

“We took every effort to accommodate a large number of entries for the YCS competition and did the screening of submissions very carefully with the support of judges from the University of Colombo School of Computing and the industry. Local winners nominated for APICTA through YCS provides ample testimony to the effectiveness of the YCS program,” said Chadika Yahampath, General Manager FITIS and Sri Lanka Economy Coordinator for APICTA 2016. “We take this opportunity to thank the judges and the commercial firms who supported this initiative,” she concluded.