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Monday Sep 16, 2024
Friday, 26 September 2014 01:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Vimukthi Weerasiri and Dinal Kurukulasooriya of team HoneyJade wowed a panel of industry titans with their lifesaving app ThirdEar, to bag the grand prize at VirtusaX2014–Virtusa SLASSCOM Startup Hack.
Virtusa and SLASSCOM created VirtusaX 2014 – a unique event that tested teams’ tech skills and entrepreneurial spirit - in a bid to provide a launch pad for innovation in the country’s ICT sector.
“We are delighted to see our app ThirdEar being chosen for the grand prize at VirtusaX 2014,” said an ecstatic Vimukthi Weerasiri and Dinal Kurukulasooriya, both students of the University of Moratuwa.
“Allowing us to interact with industry veterans as well as likeminded young coders, the entire two-week exercise has been a great learning experience. It has broadened our thought process, nudging us to look beyond the tech side of things to create products and solutions that have the potential to take the market by storm.”
Monitoring ambient noises for the sound of vehicle horns, ThirdEar alerts users by pausing the music that they are listening to every time it detects the presence of a vehicle advancing towards them using a unique algorithm. With the whole process taking just a few milliseconds, the app aims to prevent accidents and save lives on the road.
“Seeing the unlimited possibilities ThirdEar brings with it, we’re in the process of securing patents in Sri Lanka and other markets as well,” the two prize-winners added.
“With the growing adoption of smartphones and the emergence of extremely cost-effective cloud, social and big data platforms, our ability to create and deliver services to a wider global audience is becoming increasingly democratised. I believe we are truly at an inflation point of a big new wave of technology-driven wealth creation in the country. I was very excited to see the quality of the ideas and speed with which they got realised at VirtusaX 2014. Our vision is to help accelerate this process of innovation and entrepreneurship by creating the VitusaX open innovation platform,” said Virtusa Head of Digital and Senior Vice President/General Manager Madu Ratnayake.
“Wishing Vimukthi and Dinal the very best for all their future endeavors, I look forward to seeing them continue to innovate and grow.”
SLASSCOM Chairman Jayantha De Silva: “I would like to congratulate Vimukthi and Dinal on bagging the grand prize at VirtusaX 2014 for their life saving app, ThirdEar. I believe that the 20 participating teams offer a glimpse of the untapped potential in Sri Lanka’s youth. Identifying and nurturing such talent from around the island, events like VirtusaX 2014 will go a long way in helping realise our IT/BPM industry’s vision to achieve $ 5 billion in exports by 2022 while generating 200,000 jobs and creating 1,000 start-ups in this process.”
Kicking off with a 24-hour coding marathon where 20 teams created innovative mobile applications, the event saw teams fine-tune their ideas with input from the panellists over the past few days before presenting them again to the panel for re-evaluation.
The panellists included Frontier Research Founder and CEO Amal Sanderatne, Virtusa Director and Head of Strategic Initiatives Chamindra De Silva, H-Connect Ltd. Director Business Development Hariharan Padmanaban, Derana TV Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer Madhawa Madawala, Virtusa Head of Digital and Senior Vice President/General Manager Madu Ratnayake, Google Inc. Sri Lanka and Maldives Country Consultant Rohan Jayaweera and Virtusa Senior Director of Technology and Chief Software Architect Thushera Kaudawatte. Working closely with team Honey Jade, Virtusa and SLASSCOM will help them reach out to investors and mentors, facilitating the evolution of their app into a successful business venture. The event received widespread support from the industry with A&R Holdings, Barista Lavazza, Dialog, Derana, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka (FCCISL), Google, HappySriLankans, LG, Lanka Angel Network, Learn TV, and ReadMe.lk coming onboard as partners.
