Reported by J.F.Aarah
The awarding ceremony of the faculty research excellence awards 2018, 2020, and 2022 of the Faculty of Engineering was held on the 11th November 2022 at the EOE Pereira Theater of the Faculty of Engineering with the Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Terrance Madhujith as the chief guest. There was a scheme for university level recognition for research, but this was the first time for faculty level recognition for research excellence which was organized by by the Engineering Faculty Research Committee (Chairperson Prof.Vijitha Herath, Prof. Nadeeshani Nanayakkara, Dr. Subodha Dharmapriya, Prof. Maheshi Danturebandara and Dr. Upul Jayasinghe).
Awards and certificates of commendation were handed over to 17 academic staff members of the Faculty of Engineering who excelled in research in the prescribed time durations. Among them Prof. Roshan G. Ragel, Dr. Janaka Alawatugoda and Mr.D.S. Deegalla from the Department of Computer Engineering were awarded for their research excellence. Prof. Roshan G. Ragel received awards for the year 2018 and 2022, while Dr. Janaka Alawatugoda and Mr.D.S. Deegalla received certificates of commendation at the award ceremony.
The primary objective of this biennial awards scheme is to recognize the academic staff of the faculty for their achievements and excellence in research. Such recognition is expected to further encourage the academic staff to excel in research and publish particularly in reputed journals. All permanent academic staff members who have completed at least three-years of continuous service in the Faculty of Engineering were eligible to apply for this award.There were three awards and 10 certificates of commendation. The top three awardees received a plaque and a certificate at a ceremony; the certificates of commendation were also awarded at the same event. An evaluation panel appointed by the Dean/Faculty Board (FB) provisionally selected the awardees for ratification by the Faculty Board according to the points scheme and the faculty approved guideline for the Faculty Research Excellence Awards.
Points scheme for this particular award was distributed based on the number of publications done, number of presentations that were taken at conferences, number of chapters in a book that was published, number of graduate students supervised and graduated etc.
All the above main factors related to the research performance of the applicants were taken into consideration on finalizing the awardees for this ceremony.
