First going down party of Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna held at 18th September 2017 on 6.00 PM at KK wedding hall, Kilinochchi. E 13 batch is spending their last few weeks in the faculty.
This was organized by E14 batch of Faculty of Engineering. Dean, Heads of the departments and lecturers attended the event together with the students.
Second year civil engineering students of university of Jaffna visited irrigation systems in Northern Province under “CE 4030 – Engineering Hydrology” subject on 16th September 2017. They have visited Wishwamadu, Kalmadu and Iranamadu irrigation schemes and their canal network. Sampath organized the field visit and guided them during filed visit.
They have studied about reservoirs and related structures, Dam types, spillway types, canal structures, cross drainage structures and irrigation structures during the field visit.
Students have seen regulators, drop structures, canal spills, canal transitions (canal contraction and canal expansions), uniform cross section canal, variable cross section canals, LB and RB main canals, D- canals, F- Canals, B canals, trapezoidal and rectangular channel, diversion canal, concrete lining canal and earth canals, spill canals, bathing steps, retaining wall for canal bank protection (Cantilever, gabion and gravity walls), spill ways (Radial gates, natural and Ogee type spill), stilling basins, hydraulic jumps, sluice towers, cross drainage structures, course ways and many more.
They have seen command areas of each reservoirs (paddy fields) and catchment areas of the reservoirs. They have seen dam widening and raising activities at Iranamadu reservoir.
Other than this they have visited DryAru kulam and Kanagambikai kulam too.
A group of professional visitors, who are alumni of Peradeniya (E 63-67 batch), visited to the faculty on 15th September 2017. This group includes Dr. A.S. Rajendran, Eng. R.A.J. Amirthanayakam, Eng. John Fernando and Eng. Vamadevan. It was a good discussion with the Dean, Heads of the Departments and staff members for about an hour and also they delivered about an hour and half talk to the students. The students were very well motivated by their talk and it was interesting with follow up interactions with the students after the talk too.
The Undergraduate Inventor of the Year Competition is organized by the IESL on 9th September 2017. A group of students covering all the departments presented their findings at this competition. These students are from the first batch of the Faculty of Engineering. This competition is open to all the Universities students. This was an excellent experience for the students to participate and presented their research project work.
University of Jaffna and Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat (IITGN) are recently established engineering institutions striving to foster high quality engineering education. They have many things in common, eager to work together in many aspects and they have already started engaging in many activities. University Grants Commission (UGC), in a letter sent in October 2016, encouraged to collaborate with IITGN.
As a part of the collaboration, three Mechanical and Process Engineering final year undergraduate students from the faculty of engineering, University of Jaffna got a golden opportunity to spend their 12 week special industrial training period as summer research interns at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. The students engaged in this research internship program from 27th March to 16th June 2017. The stipend was fully covered by IITGN while the travel is by University of Jaffna. Short course on infrastructure development with geosynthetics, scheduled on 8th September 2017, is another activity, targets both civil engineering industry and undergraduate students to enhance their knowledge.
To make the collaboration stronger and effective both University of Jaffna and Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat (IITGN) signed an MOU on 8th September 2017 at the faculty of Engineering. The event was graced by the presence of Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ratnam Vigneswaran, and Consul General of India, Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Shri A. Natarajan. Deans of the faculties, Professors from IIT Gandhinagar, Prof. Amit Prashant and Prof. Venkataraman, Prof. K. Chelvakumar, Provincial Directors, Engineers, heads of the departments, and staff members of the faculty of engineering also attended the event.
Prof. K. Chelvakumar has been instrumental in making this collaboration a success. We thank him wholeheartedly for the support throughout.
Followed by the ceremony, the short course on infrastructure development with geosynthetics was conducted by Prof. Amit Prashant and Prof. Venkataraman from IITGN. It was attended by many industry engineers and students. It was held from 10:30 to 17:30 on the same day. The participants were sharing good comments about the short course and requested to continue such in the future as well.
This talk was delivered by Professor A.P.S. Selvaduraj, who is a William Scott Professor and James McGill Professor attached to the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. This talk was conducted on 30th August 2017 at the Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, Kilinochchi premises, University of Jaffna. It was very interesting talk attended by number of Industry Engineers together with the academic staff and students of the Faculty.
Biography of the resource person:
Dr. A.P.S. Selvadurai is currently William Scott Professor and James McGill Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Mechanics from the University of Nottingham, under the tutelage of the eminent continuum mechanicist the late Professor A.J.M. Spencer FRS, for research in the area of “Non-linear Elasticity” and in 1986 the D.Sc. in Theoretical Mechanics for research into “Mathematical Modelling of Problems in Geomechanics and Elastomechanics”. He joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada in 1975 as Assistant Professor, became Professor in 1981 and Head of the Department from 1982 to 1991. In 1993, he was invited by McGill University to become Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, a position he held till 1997. He has held Visiting Professorships at the The University of Nottingham – U.K, Universität Stuttgart, Germany, The Laboratoire 3S-R, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France; The Department of Civil Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; The Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; The School of Civil Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, Departement de Genie Civil, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, The Department of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of the Technical University Delft, The Netherlands and The Department of Civil Engineering, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In 1998, Dr. Selvadurai received the Humboldt Forschungspreis (Humboldt Foundation of Germany), given to internationally acclaimed scientists and engineers. In 2000, he became the first civil engineer to be awarded the Killam Research Fellowship Canada Council for the Arts, one of Canada’s most distinguished research awards. In 2001 he was awarded the Inaugural John Booker Medal International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics-IACMAG. In 2003 he received the prestigious Max Planck Forschungspreis in the Engineering Sciences. In 2007, he was awarded the Killam Prize in Engineering from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Gold Medal of the Canadian Congresses of Applied Mechanics. In 2008 he received the IACMAG Medal for Outstanding Accomplishments in Geomechanics. In 2010, he was awarded the ALERT Research Medal, by the Alliance of Laboratories in Europe for Research and Technology. In 2013, he was awarded the Eric Reissner Medal of the ICCES and the Maurice A. Biot Medal of the ASCE.
He has published over 255 research papers in archival journals devoted to applied mechanics, geomechanics and applied mathematics, transport in porous media and computational mechanics and more than 275 in refereed international and national conferences. He is the author or co-author of texts devoted to Elastic Analysis of Soil-Foundation Interaction (Elsevier, 1979), Elasticity and Geomechanics (with R.O. Davis) (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Partial Differential Equations in Mechanics, Vols. 1&2 (Springer-Verlag, 2000), Plasticity and Geomechanics (with R.O. Davis) (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Transport in Porous Media. Aspects of Micro/Macro Behaviour (with Yasuaki Ichikawa) (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2012). He has also edited or co-edited 9 books and 7 Special Issues of International Journals with peer review, devoted to nuclear waste disposal, environmental geomechanics, mathematics and mechanics of granular media, theoretical solid mechanics and contact mechanics. He serves on the Editorial Boards of nine leading International Journals devoted to Geomechanics, Applied Mechanics, Computational Mechanics and Engineering Mathematics. Dr. Selvadurai is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, American Academy of Mechanics, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, The Institute for Mathematics and its Applications and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. In 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Dr. S. S. Sivakumar, Coordinator of WaterH project of UoJ and Mr. Saliya Sampath, Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, UoJ and Dr. B. Ketheesan, Senior lecturer, Faculty of Engineering participated the 2nd International Symposium on Conservation and Management of Tropical Lakes, from 24th – 26th August 2017 at Siem Riep, Cambodia.
They had two main objectives on this visit. They all presented their research articles in the international conference. Also, they have supervised master students of Institute of Technology of Cambodia.
Published articles in the conference are shown below:
1. M. H. M. Hamseen, T. Sætersdal and Dr. S. S. Sivakumar, (2017), ‘Conflict Resolution in Multiple User Scenarios in Irrigation Scheme in North Central Sri Lanka’, The 2nd International Symposium on Conservation and Management of Tropical Lakes, Siem Riep, Cambodia, August 24th – 26th 2017, P. 193
2. B. Ketheesan, P. M. Thanh and D. C. Stuckey, (2017), ‘Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (SAMBR) for Wastewater Reuse: Use of PAC for Controlling SMPs’, The 2nd International Symposium on Conservation and Management of Tropical Lakes, Siem Riep, Cambodia, August 24th – 26th 2017, P. 184
3. Buddhimal M. D.T., Sampath D. S., Sivakumar S. S., Mikunthan T., Pirabhaharan M., (2017), ‘Precipitation data analysis – based on daily rainfall data at Magalla reservoir catchment at Nikaweratiya, Sri Lanka’, The 2nd International Symposium on Conservation and Management of Tropical Lakes, Siem Riep, Cambodia, August 24th – 26th 2017, P. 192
After conference, they attended Special Forum: Mainstreaming Promotion of Gender Balance for Science Technology in Asian Countries (WaSo Project) under WaSo project. There were 4 presentations from lady resource persons and we discussed about: Mainstreaming Promotion of Gender Balance for Science Technology in Asian Countries. 26th August, they attended Technical Tour to Core Management Center (Ministry of Environment), Floating Villages and Bamboo Island. It was really useful field visit and they have observed pollution of great Lake of the Cambodia. They met people live in the floating villages and observed their day today life and traditional events. Director of Core management center explained them about lake pollution and the things he was doing to save environment and especially natural rare birds in the lake.
This was funded by WaSo project of University of Jaffna.
The Techno Solutions conducted a workshop on Test and Measuring Instruments from the Tektronix and Keithley brands. This included the knowledge and skill transfers on few instruments especially on how to effectively use with all available facilities for the capturing the best information through measurement. This technical educational session was held at the Faculty of Engineering in Ariviyal Nagar, Killinochchi on 22nd August 2017.
The Faculty of Engineering is extending its services to prepare the Integrated Multi-Model Transport Study to the Jaffna City Development plan. This project is healed by Dr. Anburuvel, Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and collaboration with MR. Raveenthiran from Planning Department of the Faculty of Arts. This study was carried out from 22nd August 2017 and will be continuing for couple of months.
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Ravi Wijesiriwardana – Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Jaffna.
Multidisciplinary Team Members:
Mr. M. Vignarajah – Department of Civil Engineering, University of Jaffna.
Dr. P. Kathirgamanathan – Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Jaffna.
Prof. K.S. Walgama – Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Peradenya.
Dates:
Project started in Jan/2017 and currently in August 2017 it is on going.
We have launched a preliminary field research to understand the acoustic resonance of Hindu temples. We have measured the resonance in some selected Hindu temples in Sri Lanka. Two types of acoustic resonance chambers can be found in Hind Temples in Sri Lanka. The first one is the “Moolastana” chamber and the other is the inner core (path). First part of the work is focused on measuring the acoustic resonance of Hindu Temple`s geometrical cavities. Sound impulse methods and the reverberation methods are used to measure the acoustic resonance modes. Sound frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz is scanned to identify the resonance modes. The second part of the project is focused on measuring the 4 dimensional sound fields of acoustic instruments used in Hindu temples. Drums, gongs, bells, flutes and other instruments sound fields are recorded and 3D maps of the pressure and displacements fields are been developed. The open air measurements are done with microphones placed in 3 dimensional space. The measurements were taken at selected ancient Hindu Temples in Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka and numerical simulations (FEM) are been carried out to understand the resonance of Hindu Temples and ritual acoustic instruments.
For researchers and academics working on projects like acoustic resonance measurements, having reliable software tools is crucial. Activation tools for Windows and Office can enhance productivity by ensuring access to essential software features.
For researchers and academics working on projects like acoustic resonance measurements, having reliable software tools is crucial. Activation tools for Windows and Office can enhance productivity by ensuring access to essential software features. You can find more information about these tools here.
The project is endorsed by Dean of Faculty of Engineering Prof. A. Athputharah and the Director General of Archeology, Sri Lanka Prof. P.B. Mandawala.
Publications:
[1] R. Wijesirwardana, M.Vignarajah, K.S. Walgama and P. Kathiragamanathan “Structural Acoustic Coupling Resonance of Hindu Temples” ICCAE IASTM May 2017 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
