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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday, 25 June 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left: Hemas Director, Strategy and New Business Development Dr. Himesh Fernando exchanging the MOU with SLIIT President and CEO Prof. Lalith Gamage along with SLIIT Dean Computing Dr. Malitha Wijesundara and Director Administration Chithrangani Mubarak
SLIIT the premier degree awarding institute in Sri Lanka, which provides a broad scope of academic and career opportunities for students recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hemas Holdings, a diversified conglomerate. This MOU highlights the program ‘Slingshot’, which gives students studying at SLIIT, the opportunity to take their final year projects to the next level and become successful business entities through funding provided by Hemas Holdings.
Commenting at the MOU signing, SLIIT President and CEO Professor Lalith Gamage said, “We are committed to inculcating a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship among our students and this partnership will further this objective and facilitate the commercialisation of innovative student projects. I must commend Hemas for investing their resources to encourage and sustain innovation in the country and contribute to the economic and technological development of the country.”
Each year, more than 100 projects are completed by the final year students, either individually or in groups. SLIIT will accordingly select promising projects led by students with ability, skills and propensity to innovate and introduce them to the Hemas team.
“In keeping in line with our vision of enriching lives, we wish to promote an innovative culture and support entrepreneurial capabilities of young inventors. Hence joining hands with an esteemed institute such as SLIIT enables us to strengthen and facilitate innovation among students, establishing a mutually beneficial collaboration,” commented Hemas Director, Strategy and New Business Development Dr. Himesh Fernando.
As a pilot project, Hemas has already funded the company Pulz Solutions Ltd, formed by a group of students at SLIIT. Pulz Solutions is a company which has introduced successive prototypes to remotely monitor critical health readings of patients experiencing non-communicable diseases like heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. One such product is ‘Panacea’s Jacket’; a wearable electronic jacket which tracks and monitors critical health readings like the heart rate and pulse rate, through a mobile application.
Since the Hemas group owns a number of companies related to health and wellness, at the beginning, Hemas is keen to support projects related to this field. In order to inform students on their requirements, Hemas will conduct student awareness sessions at SLIIT. Awareness sessions of this sort will help students align their projects accordingly, giving them the opportunity to create projects for commercialisation
