Professor Nimal Rajapaksha evaluated the Civil Engineering program as external evaluator

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna is in the process of obtaining IESL recognition for degree program offered by Department of Civil Engineering. External overall program evaluation is one of the mandatory requirements to obtain the recognition of the program offered by Department of Civil Engineering. Program evaluation is a process for evaluating a course with respect to the academic and business aspects of the course, including planning, resourcing, course design, learning and teaching, student outcomes, course demand, management and external engagement. Prof. Nimal Rajapakse did the external overall program evaluation offered by department of Civil Engineering. He visited to the Department for a week period starting from 20th December 2017.

Summary of Experiences – Dr.Nimal Rajapakse

Dr. nimal Rajapakse is currently a Professor in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He received B.Sc.(Hons) from the University of Sri Lanka in 1977, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok in 1981 and 1983, respectively. He was the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at University of Manitoba from 1997 to 2000. He joined the University of British Columbia (UBC) as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and served in that capacity until 2007.He became the Director of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems at UBC in 2007. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at SFU from 2009 to 2015. He served as Vice-President (Research and International) of Carleton University from September 2015 to October 2016. He assisted University of Moratuwa, University of Ruhunu and SLITE in evaluating Engineering programme under Washington Accord.

Teaching:

Dr.Rajapakse has taught a wide range of courses in Applied Mechanics. He has guided fourteen PhD students and sixteen M.Sc students, as well as several post-doctoral fellows and research associated. He is currently guiding five PhD students and one post-doctoral fellow. He has co-authored a textbook in Engineering Mechanics.

Research:

Dr.Rajapakse’s research interests are in Applied Mechanics, with particular emphasis on the computational mechanics and coupled-field problems. He is the author of over 140 journal papers. His Goolge Scholar h-index is 37, and he has nearly 4000 citations. He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences/symposia. He has received research grants worth over $15M. dr.Rajapakse has collaborated with IBM Research, Manitoba Hydro, Manitoba highways, AECL, Ballard and Westport Innovation. He has current and previous research collaborations with universities in Brazil, Germany, Japan, China, India, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka. He has served as a foreign academic adviser for PhD students in Thailand, Brazil and Sri Lanka.

Honors:

Dr.Rajapakse is internationally renowned for Solid Mechanics research. He is the recipient of Horst Leipholz Medal of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, in recognition of outstanding research in Engineering Mechanics; the Meritorious Achievement Award of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC; the Special Visiting Professor Award of the science Without Borders Program of Brazil; the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation of Germany; the Rh Award for Outstanding Research in Applied Sciences awarded to a University of Manitoba faculty member within 10 years of receiving their doctoral degree; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Visiting Fellowship; the King’s Scholarship of Thailand; and a full scholarship from the Asian Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Engineering Institute of Canada. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

Professional Service:

Dr.Rajapakse currently serves on the editorial boards of four international journals. He was Associate Editor for Engineering Mechanics of the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering for six years, and Associate Editor for Elasticity of the journal of Engineering Mechanics of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has edited six special issues of international journals. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering, and as Chair of its Engineering Mechanics Division. He has also been Chair of the Elasticity Committee of the ASCE. He was a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Electricity Human Resources Council of Canada. He has served on the organizing and advisory committees of many international conferences and as a member of professional committees.

Wind Force Pvt. Ltd. donated 5kW wind turbine to the Faculty of Engineering

Eng.Manjula Perera, CEO of the wind force Pvt. Ltd. donated a wind turbine to the Faculty of Engineering.This is one of the latest model of the wind turbine with AC-DC-AC converter arrangement.This was also installed by the Wind Force Pvt. Ltd. at the renewable energy park of the Faculty of Engineering. These are donated to demonstrate the renewable energy technology to the undergraduates as well as community. This is now operating as the grid connected wind turbine with the permissions from the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority and Ceylon Electricity Board. This is excellent help to the Faculty of Engineering to grow up the knowledge of the students with the green and sustainable energy technologies. The faculty thank Eng. Manjula Perera for donating this valuable donation to the Faculty of Engineering for the purpose of undergraduates teaching and demonstrating to the community and other renewable energy technology developers.

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Workshop on Lab View

This workshop was jointly organized by the OREL Corporation (Pvt) Ltd and the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Jaffna. This was held on 18th and 19th December 2017 at the simulation Lab of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Resource persons from OREL Corporation (Pvt) Ltd and National Instruments conducted two day workshop on the use of Lab View, a graphical programming tool in academic teaching and development.

Mr.Manimaran Asaithambi, senior application engineer at VI Solutions, India was the main presenter at the workshop accompanied by Mr.Priyashantha Premarathne, assistant general manager for sales and operations, OREL Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. The main objectives was to apply the use of virtual instruments and industrial programming tools in teaching purposes. The workshop was conducted for department faculties over two days training them with Lab View tool through presentation and practical application of the software. new approaches to teaching and the importance of use of virtual instruments in class rooms were elaborated through presentations and practicals training. There was also an introductory session conducted on NI Elvis II, educational laboratory virtual instrumentation suite and its interface with Lab View software. In addition, a presentation was done on the use of Quansen products at academic level. The event concluded with a small test and distribution of participation certificates for attendees.

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Dr.(Eng).B.Ketheesan has appointed as the coordinator of the WaSo Project and Water H Project

Dr.B.Ketheesan is appointed as the Coordinator of the WaSo Project and Water H Project, carried out by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Jaffna in collaboration with number of foreign Universities. This is really a needed project especially in Northern part of Sri Lanka. He has been selected for this appointment from 18th December 2017. The faculty congratulates Dr.B.Ketheesan for his services on developing the system and capacity building for the water related issues.

Dr.Ketheesan is a senior lecturer attached to the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna. He obtained his B.Sc (Eng) degree from the University of Peradeniya in Year 2007. Then, he received his Master’s degree (Environmental Engineering) and PhD (Civil Engineering) from New Mexico state university, United States in Year 2009 and 2012, respectively. He worked as a Research fellow at Nanyang Environment and Water research institute (NEWRI), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from Jan 2013 to Sept 2016 prior to his appointment at University of Jaffna. He has over eight years of research experience in the field of environment/water engineering with particular emphasis on waste/biomass to bioenergy technologies, integrated anaerobic digestion and menbrane technology, micro-algae to bio-diesel production and mathematical modeling of environmental bio-processes.

Workshop on Strategic Management Plan

The Dean Professor Atputharajah and the Coordinator of the Strategic Management Planning (SMP) team of the Faculty of Engineering Dr.R.Nishanthan participated to the workshop. This workshop was held at the University of Jaffna on 16th December 2017. All the deans and Planning Development Unit coordinators and other staff members participated. The workshop resource person was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ruhuna Professor Gamini Senanayaka. It was excellent workshop and gained the knowledge on several aspects of the SMP.

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Faculty staff attended International Conference special session

The International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems special session on SMART GRIDS was organized by the Lanka Electric Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO) in collaborations with University of Peradeniya. This was held in OZO Colombo on 14th December 2017. Dr. T. Thiruvaran, Miss. S. Vinothine, Miss. S. Selvologini and Mr. S. Sathees from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Jaffna, attended a special session of ICIIS, international conference on industrial and information systems on Smart Grid Technology. The session mainly focused on the following areas.

  1. Flexibility in the future smart grid.
  2. Power electronics revolution in the electric supply industry.
  3. The role of micro grid for system operation support.
  4. Micro-grid stochastic optimal control.
  5. Bad data detection using nonlinear measurement residual.

The session included several key note address from prominent academics from various parts of the world. This includes the talks by Prof Janaka Ekanayake, Prof Sarath Tennakoon, Prof Kin Cheong Sou, Prof Chan Nan Lu and many other professionals. There were two special talks delivered on the topics entitles “Smart Grid Initiative in Taiwan and Distributed Control Scheme for Enhancing Distribution Network Self-healing Capacity” and “Japanese Future Grid and the Role of Renewable Forecasting on its Planning and Operation”. Secretary to the Minister of Power and Renewable Energy addressed the gathering about the smart grid application in Sri Lanka and stressed on the point that special focus must be given to implement smart grid system in Sri Lanka before the other countries achieve this milestone. Academics from other universities, engineers from LECO and CEB were also present during the session.

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Equipment donation from Government of India through a Grant

The grant of 300 million SLR, from the Government of India, was used to development the (i) Mechanical, Manufacturing and Process Engineering Building for the Faculty of Engineering, (ii) Vehicle for the Faculty of Engineering, (iii) Equipment for the Mechanical and Process Engineering program and finally (iv) soft skill component to empower the human resources of the Faculty of Engineering.

The Third component of equipment component was delivered on 14th December 2017 to the Mechanical and Process Section of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of the Faculty of Engineering. The below items were delivered:

  1. 9 of medium duty center lathe
  2. 3 of heavy duty lathe machine
  3. 3 of drilling machine
  4. CNC turning center machine
  5. planar machine
  6. power press machine
  7. 3 of wood working lathe
  8. 2 of vertical ram turret milling machine

The total cost of these all equipment (without custom duty) was 17,761,600 Sri Lankan Rupees. The Faculty of Engineering is sincerely thanking the Government of India fro this donation.

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Eng. Sujith Wimalasooriya delivered a talk at the Faculty of Engineering

Eng. Sujith Wimalasooriya, from WIA Systems Sri Lanka, delivered a talk at the Department of Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering. This was organized by the Computer Engineering Society of the Department. It was held on 12th December 2017. This was very interesting talk and attended by all the lecturers and students of the Department of Computer Engineering. Follow up of this event, a collaboration discussion was carried out between Sujith and Kaneshwaran, who is the Head and staff members of the Department of Computer Engineering. This was very successful and fruitful discussion. As a result Mr. Muditha Kumarasiri, who was the field top in the first batch of Computer Engineering, was recruited by Eng. Sujith on the spot for WIA Systems, Sri Lanka. Further Eng. Sujith also help the department in follow up events.

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Tamil Engineering Foundation donated 50 drawing boxes to the students

The Tamil Engineering Foundation (TEF), which is also called as Engineering Charity Fund Australia, donated 50 drawing boxes to the students of the Faculty of Engineering. This was donated on 12th December 2017. The TEF was donating the drawing boxes to the students in the past also. This was given as facility to the students to process their education without any difficulties. Always when the faculty take additional students, it was supported by the TEF and Engineering graduates with building up the positive capacity of the Engineering Student Union (ESU). As a result the ESU manage the drawing box distribution with the help of the Senior Treasurer Dr. B. Ketheesan. It is also another level of managerial capacity building to the students as they have been provided the capital. They have to look after the recurrent expenditure on repairing and replacement of these components, when they got damaged. This has been continued from the birth of the Faculty of Engineering and working excellently as services to the students. The faculty and the students are sincerely thanking the TEF for their support on donation of these 50 drawing boxes with the cost of 280,800 SLR. With this donation the ESU has the capital total of 125 drawing boxes. This donation and event was coordinated by Dr. B. Ketheesan and Ms. Hamshie Krishnarajah from the Faculty of Engineering.

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Bachelor of Education in Engineering Technology program is initiated in collaboration with the National Institute of Education

Engineering Technology stream is newly introduced to GCE Advanced level and most teachers are unaware of subjects and its contents. Therefore, main objective of this B.Ed. in Engineering Technology program is to empower the teaching skills and knowledge of teachers who teach Engineering Technology at GCE Advance level. This program has been prepared and approved by National Institute of Education. The Director of NIE has requested the Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna only to deliver lectures for teachers.
This program includes 19 modules from different engineering disciplines such as: (1) Engineering Mathematics 1, (2) Electrical Technology, (3) Engineering Drawing, (4) Workshop technology, (5) Principal of Electronics, (6) Surveying, (7) Engineering Mathematics 2, (8) Applied Thermodynamics, (9) Strength of Materials, (10) Fluid Mechanics, (11) Engineering Mechanics, (12) Digital Electronics, (13) Construction technology 1, (14) Automobile Technology, (15) Electrical Machines and Drives, (16) QS Practice, (!7) Manufacturing Technology, (18) Construction technology 2 and (19) Energy and Waste Management. This program has been decided to be conducted in weekends from 8.30 AM to 4.30 PM and the duration of this program is 18 months. This program started on 10th December 2017. The personals who are conducting / assisting this program comprises of Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and instructors.

Mr. N.T.K. Lokuliyana, Director, Department of Technology, National Institute of Education (NIE) has initiated this excellent program through the Faculty of Engineering to upgrade the qualification and to provide necessary knowledge and skills for the teachers who teach Engineering Technology at GCE Advanced level. Further all the expenses of this program is funded by National Institute of Education at Maharagama, Sri Lanka. The whole program initiation and conduction is coordinated by Dr. B. Janarthanan from the Faculty of Engineering. This is one of the excellent services from the Faculty of Engineering to this region.

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