SLTC hosts Research and Innovation Awards Night to felicitate top achievers

Minister of Youth and Sports Namal Rajapaksa and SLTC Founder President and CEO Eng Ranjith Rubasinghe presenting the awards

Sri Lanka’s foremost  corporate powered research University, Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC), recently successfully concluded its Research and Innovation Awards Night – RaIN 2021 – to felicitate achievers who have won international and national recognition for research and innovation. 

The event was held at the SLTC Padukka Campus with Minister of Youth and Sports Namal Rajapaksa as the Chief Guest and Minister of Trade Dr. Bandula Gunawardena and MP Nipuna Ranawaka as Special Guests. 

Sri Lanka Technological Campus took this opportunity to dedicate this event ‘Research & Innovation Awards Night – RAIN 2021’ to recognise best performing researchers, staff and students, especially those who have shown exceptional performance in terms of research in the past years. 

Key achievements as an institute such as publishing more than 80 plus research publications for the year 2020, being ranked as 19th in Sri Lanka in Webometrics rankings, publishing of two books and five book chapters, SLTC being the recipient of two major European Union (EU) research grants as a young university as well as individual performances such as publishing the Highest Impact Factor paper in Engineering and Physics – 2019 were highlighted during this event

Winners of last year’s World Invention & Trade Expo (WINTEX) International Paper Competition held in Indonesia were recognised at the event. Five teams from the School of Engineering at SLTC secured three Gold awards, two Silver awards and a Special award for Best Application of Technology in the ‘Best of the Best’ category. 

In addition, two Performance Research awards and four Emerging Young Researcher awards were handed over to respective winners by Rajapaksa while Ranawaka gave away seven awards: one Certificate of Appreciation for Undergraduate Research Supervision and six Certificates of Recognition for Mentoring and Coaching Undergraduate Research and Innovation. 

Speaking at the event, SLTC Founder President/CEO Eng. Ranjith Rubasinghe said: “SLTC was started in 2014 with an investment of only $ 1 million, with the single-minded intention of uplifting the quality of private sector education in Sri Lanka. I am very proud of how the university has grown and expanded since and the many accolades distributed today, some awarded by global bodies, are a testament to how we have manifested the aforesaid intention through the uncompromised quality of education offered. Today SLTC has over 3,000 students, 200 distinguished members of faculty and many state-of-the-art facilities that serve to produce highly sought after, employable and world-class graduates who will go on to become the leaders of tomorrow.”

He said that SLTC was the first university to spend over 25% of revenue on research and the only Institution to have a dedicated faculty to engage in research only and facility to liaise with affiliated foreign Universities i.e., Centre for Global Education (CGE). 

Meanwhile, Rajapaksa noted: “While free education should be protected at all costs, our system should accommodate more private sector players who can deliver to match the global standards in terms of higher education – a lot of the universities abroad depend heavily on research; to produce competitive and competent graduates who are employable globally, we have to embrace this trend as well. I believe SLTC has so far done a tremendous job in that regard. SLTC is well poised to be not just the No. 1 research university in Sri Lanka but also one of the top facilities regionally.” 

One of the highlights of the evening was an act by the Sri Lankan indigenous (Veddah) community for which the introduction was provided by music composer, award-wining vocalist and faculty member of SLTC Nadeeka Guruge. The Awards Night which was carried out adhering to health and safety guidelines was a resounding success. 

Sri Lanka Technological Campus is the first research-based, residential, university with strong industry links locally and internationally offering an extensive repertoire including more than 25 degree programs of the Ministry of Education and approved degrees.