FITIS and Ministry of Education recognise 126 Young Computer Scientists

FITIS (Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka) and Ministry of Education organised the Young Computer Scientists Award for the 18th consecutive time supported by ICTA and Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT). The award ceremony was held recently at the Auditorium of the Ministry of Education under the patronage of Ministry of Education Secretary N.H.M. Chithrananda, Ministry of Education Additional Secretary H.U. Premathilake, Ministry of Education Additional Secretary P.M. Salahudeen, FITIS Vice Chairman Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe, FITIS Vice President of Software Chapter Fairooz Habeeb, FITIS CEO Aruna Alwis, Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) President Prabath Wickremaratne and Officials, UCSC Director Prof. K.P. Hewagamage, and UCSC Lecturer Dr. Samantha Mathara Arachchi, Officials of ICTA and Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT).  

Spokesperson from FITIS said that this time there was an overwhelming response for the competition and 126 Young Computer Scientists (YCS) were recognised from both national and international schools for their talents and innovations in computing.  The YCS competition is open for three groups of students; aged 10 to 12 the sub junior category, 13 to 16 junior category and 17 to 20 years, the senior category. The selection process is based on an initial assessment from a panel of judges, followed by a presentation/demonstration by the students and a final judgment by the same panel selected amongst industry and academia. This year the panel of judges were headed by University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) Director Prof. K.P. Hewagamage.

Overall winners of the competition were nominated for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2019 held in Vietnam in November. This year overall winners who participated in APICTA were, 18-year-old B.G.N.A. Gamaarachchi from Ranabima Royal College, Kandy, 19-year-old H.M.M.K.K.B. Herath of Poramadulla Central from Kandy, 20-year-old W.N.D. Fernando of Ch/Medagama Abhaya from Chilaw, 15-year-old S.B. Karunasena of OKI International, Biyagama as well as 13-year-old L.M.Y. Jayasinghe of Thurstan College, Colombo and 10-year-old Kisali R. Dhanapala of Sri Rahula College, Anuradhapura. 

More details of the next year’s competition can be obtained by calling FITIS Secretariat on 0112577103.