Youthful software

Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) and Motorola Solutions organised the Inter-University Enterprise Mobility Software Development Competition Finals last week at Prof. V. K. Samaranayake Auditorium of University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC).

The Chief Guest was Minister of Information Technology and Telecom Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and whilst US Ambassador to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives Patricia A. Butenis was the Guest of Honour.

On behalf of the Chief Guest, Secretary to the Minister of Information Technology and Telecom Nimal Athukorala delivering the message said: “The President in his budget speech this year stated that special focus has been given to the IT/BPO industry to reach the target of US$ 1 billion export earnings by 2015, making it the number one export earner of the country. Motorola, a leader in the industry, has focused on Sri Lanka, with its R&D centre here developing the talent pool in the country. Competitions such as these will enable us to develop the knowledge industry as well as groom IT entrepreneurs from the country.”

Sixteen undergraduate teams from 12 universities and university affiliation colleges of Sri Lanka consisting Universities of Peradeniya, Ruhuna, Kelaniya, Jaffna, Colombo, Uva Wellassa, Rajarata, OUSL, NIBM, APIIT, SLIIT and IIT demonstrated the enterprise level mobile applications developed during the last five months. The 16 shortlisted solutions were selected out of the 49 initial entries by a panel of experts.

All applications address the needs of different industry verticals such as healthcare, plantation, tourism, retail, warehouse management, transportation and public organisations such as railways, postal, energy and utilities.

Butenis said: “The Inter-University Enterprise Mobility Software Development Competition provides an opportunity for undergraduates to bring out their talents. Competitions like these will enable high talented software developers to be highlighted and make Sri Lanka a top software development destination of the world.”

Motorola Solutions Director and Country Manager for Sri Lanka Anuradha Tennakoon said: “It is evident from these applications that with proper guidance and coaching our undergraduates are capable of developing world class solutions. These youngsters are the future of our IT industry and they will drive Sri Lanka to a very strong position of world’s IT and mobile landscape.”

As per industry sources mobility represents an important element for today’s organisations across the world. Mobility is being considered as a vital component for infrastructure and software applications across the enterprise markets.

Ease-of-use applications for mobile computing devices and technological advances in wireless software platforms and applications will stimulate global mobile computing market to reach $ 328.03 billion by 2015.