Grand finale of Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2017

Wednesday, 20 December 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The grand finale of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2017 organised by IET Young Professionals (YP) network Sri Lanka was held on 4 December.

The event took place at the Galadari Hotel with the presence of Dr. Idah Riddihough (Country Director of World Bank) as the Chief Guest and Eng. R.L. Haturusinha (first female President of IESL) and Prof. Indra Dayawansa (first female Chairman of IET Sri Lanka network) as the guests of honour of the event.

IET is one of the premier professional engineering organisations in Sri Lanka with its headquarters in the UK. As a professional organisation, IET plays a major role in the career development of engineering professionals throughout the world. IET global network has a membership over 167,000 qualified engineers representing 150 countries over the world gaining support and recognition from the IET.

The key objectives of this event were: Encourage women to engage more in the fields of engineering and technology; obtain global recognition for Sri Lankan women engineers through IET; and reward and motivate young women engineers to contribute more towards society.

From the received applications seven candidates including five finalists and 2 reserves were shortlisted from the semi-final, with Eng. N.A.G. Senanayake, Eng. Yamuna Samarasinghe, Eng. Neranjali Rathnayaka, Eng. Badra Jayaweera and Dr. Lalith Liyanage comprising the judging panel.

The judging panel for the grand finals comprised Eng. Badra Jayaweera, Eng. N.A.G. Senanayake, Eng. Aravinda Perera, Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda, Otara Gunawardene, Yashinka Jayasinghe Alles and Jayomi Lokuliyana, who are distinguished engineers and well-known personalities in the country.

Candidates selected for the final round were N.A. Amarasinghe, M.K.D.S. Kumarasiri, W.U.C. De Alwis, S.W. Nelundeniya and C.S.A. Fernando as five finalists with S.J. Sooriyaarachchi and K.H. Dayani Nayantha as two reserve finalists.

At the grand finale, the five finalists spoke on the difficulties they had to face in the field as women, how they overcame those problems, the importance and their contribution to the engineering field as well as the society as women engineers. Experiences and thoughts they shared and points they presented were able to establish the necessity of having women engineers in the field for a better future.

Among the five finalists, C.S.A. Fernando became the first IET Young Woman Engineer 2017 Sri Lanka with S.W. Nelundeniya winning the 1st Runner-Up award and W.U.C. De Alwis winning the 2nd Runner-Up award.

Winners spoke on how they have overcome the challenges faced to achieve their career goals and promised that they would become ambassadors for IET in promoting engineering and technology among Sri Lankan women in the coming year.