SLIIT students win again at APICTA Awards

Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Four dynamic students from SLIIT made Sri Lanka proud when they clinched a Merit award at the recently concluded Asia Pacific Information and Communication Technology Alliance (APICTA) Awards in Jakarta, Indonesia. The students from SLIIT, shone among the rest with their innovative and state of the art project titled ‘Yalu: A Learning Disability Evaluation Kit’. The Merit award was won by Chathurika Prabodhani Kularathna, Leshan Chathuranga Kurruppuarachchi, Shashika Sandakelum Wijekoon and Mayodma Kulamini Weerasinghe. The team was supervised by Dr. Rohan Samarasinghe, Senior Lecturer at SLIIT and co-supervised by Dakshi Tharanga.

Elated by the win, Dr. Samarasinghe commented, “Along with the Merit award at APICTA, this team clinched the gold award under the Tertiary student – Technology category at the National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA) last year. They were also presented with a special award for the best product developed using open source software.” ‘Yalu’ is an application to evaluate learning disabilities for children between the ages of four and six. This evaluation kit consists of a game based module to identify four types of learning disabilities; Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia. These disabilities are involved with reading, writing, mathematical skills and fine motor skills. With no medical cure for these four disabilities; physical and mental solutions is the way forward. Commenting on the project, Chathurika Prabodhini Kularathna said, “Our application can be used to screen these disabilities, however not to diagnose. This novel gaming application is in three parts – web application, android game series and Kinect game series. The reason we developed this game series is mainly due to the interest children show in playing games. Through these games we can identify the four disabilities.” Elaborating further she said, “The games are based on tasks, which are symptoms of these disabilities. While the child performs the tasks via the game, we evaluate the child’s performance and the possibility of having such a disability. We use image processing to compare the drawings, skeleton tracking to observe a child’s body movement and we have our own algorithm to create automatic games while the child engages in the game. According to the child’s interactions we analyse the condition. We repeat this process to confirm the symptoms.” Project ‘Yalu’ was done in collaboration with Prof. Hemamali Perera from the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital. She is also a Professor in Psychiatry in the Colombo medical faculty. “The main advantage of this application is that parents can identify the learning disabilities of their children at an early stage. Secondly, doctors can diagnose those diseases accurately while comparing their manual diagnosis with the system diagnosis. Doctors can then create a treatment plan for the child. Since Yalu is a child friendly and easy to use gaming application, the process of initial screening of these disabilities is now easier for both parents and doctors,” noted Dr. Samarasinghe. APICTA is a well-recognised flagship event in the calendar of the ICT industry in the region, providing a platform for all member economies to showcase their capabilities and achievements in ICT innovations. Abiding by the stringent set of criteria, gave the students of SLIIT an edge over the rest, enabling them to contribute towards the regional ICT advancement and social economy development.