Young IT experts recognized at YCS 2008

For an 18 year old, Ganidu Nanayakkara has a lot to be proud of. He has just won the gold medal (senior category) in the Young Computer Scientist’s (YCS) Awards for the 3rd consecutive year.

He faced the local competition with an entry that allows a computer to be controlled by wireless device. The application has great potential and can be used by someone with a disability who has limited dexterity.

The awards organized by the Sri Lanka Association for the Software Industry’s (SLASI) in collaboration with the University of Colombo School of Computing, gives students a platform and space to display their skills.

For Ganidu, an A’Level student at Ananda College, Colombo, the awards motivate and encourage young people like himself to strive to achieve. The medal winner says in Sri Lanka IT is still not fully recognized as a lucrative career path, with traditional thinking dictating that one must become a doctor or an engineer to be successful. He says as a result parents do not allow their children to pursue this as a career path. In his case however, he said he had been fortunate that his parents have supported his interest in IT - despite not being involved in the field themselves.

Sharing his experience the youngster said, “I learnt most things through the internet by myself. The internet contains lots of sample softwares, so anyone who is keen can apply themselves and improve step by step.” Bringing together some of the brightest young minds in ICT, the YCS awards aim to expose the computing talents of schoolchildren at early stages and encourage them to develop their talents and earn recognition for their innovations. Chairman of YCS project, Jiffry Zulfer, says he is delighted with the standard of entries received this year. The awards which were held for the 7th consecutive year attracted 248 entries a significant increase from the inaugural awards. Another cause for celebration at SLASI is the large proportion of entries from schools out of Colombo.

This year’s competition had entries from as far afield as Batticaloa, Valaichchenai, Sammanthurai, Ukwela and Badureliya.

The Bronze medal winner in the Senior Category, Hameed Haleem is from Sammanthurai. His entry consisted of a database on countries.

Chanuka Yasawardena, a 15 year old from Gateway Kids Nugegoda shared the gold medal in the junior category for his word processor software with Deshan Perera and Subashana Kossinna of Lyceum International School, Nugegoda, who came up with a business information organizing system.The President of SLASI Nayane Gunawardena says most competitors have understood that it is not just about building systems, but the real challenge is building ICT systems that meet the expectations of the stakeholder. The current global financial crisis is likely to result in greater demand for Information Communication Technology (ICT) and related services which Sri Lanka can exploit, according to Nayane Gunawardena.

SLASI is an important advocate and campaigner for its members, lobbying through appropriate government channels on behalf of its members in their bid for growth and development of the Software Industry in Sri Lanka.

The awards are endorsed by the Ministry of Education and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka. SLASI’s President points out that the wide acceptance and involvement of State and industry bodies in the awards is due to the recognition that the future of the industry lies in the hands of the youngsters taking part.

Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe, the Director of the University of Colombo School of Computing who was the chief guest at the award ceremony pointed out that Sri Lanka has achieved recognition not just as users but as creators of technology. He praised the standard of the competition and said some of the entries were of international standard.

The importance of the awards has been accepted by the corporate sector with Sri Lanka Telecom buying in as the main sponsor while Microsoft Sri Lanka and Mobitel came on board as co-sponsors. Other corporate names who helped make the competition a reality include HNB, Zillion Systems Solutions (Pvt) Ltd., Gateway Kids School of Computing, Neat Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., and Softlogic Trading (Pvt) Ltd.