Category: News

Dr. Ponnampalam Balakumar (Research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center) delivered a popular talk about “stability-transition-turbulence” on 10th of January, 2018 at Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. This talk was jointly organized by Mechanical Engineering Society (MES), Faculty of Engineering and Vadakkin Chapter of Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL). This talk was mainly focus on his work done in NASA Langley Research Center. He discussed elaborately about the stability and transition of hypersonic boundary layers and laminar-transition region in supersonic and hypersonic flows.

Dr. Ponnampalam Balakumar graduated from University of Peradeniya in 1977 from Department of Civil Engineering. He obtained his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Missouri, Rolla, USA in 1981 and obtained his PhD in Aeronautics from MIT in 1986 specializing in Fluid Dynamics. He did his post-doctorate research in stability and transition of hypersonic boundary layers at Arizona State University, USA. Then, he worked as an Associate Professor at Old Dominion University until 2000. Since then he is working as a Research Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. His area of research is stability, transition, and turbulence of supersonic and hypersonic boundary layers.

Abstract: Drag reduction is an important part in design of aerodynamic vehicles. Skin friction drag contributes more than 50% of the total drag on an aircraft. Skin friction drag reduction could be achieved by extending the laminar region on an airfoil and/or by reducing the turbulent skin friction. In this talk, a summary of predicting the laminar-transition region in supersonic and hypersonic flows will be discussed.

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The Civil and Environmental Engineering Society of the University of Ruhuna, hosted Undergraduate Research Symposium on the 3rd of January 2018. Total of 10 Civil and Environmental Engineering Society of University of Jaffna together with two staff members, Dr. N. Sathiparan and Dr. D.N. Subramaniam (who were in the evaluation panel, and one of them Chaired a technical presentation session), attended the sessions. The research symposium highlighted the undergraduate student research projects, which were part of their curriculum, with oral and poster presentations. Several members from different Universities, industrial engineers, policy makers and professionals attended the sessions.

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A focused discussion was carried out with the graduates and Dean on 27th December 2017 to form the Jaffna Engineering Faculty Alumni Association (JEFAA). It was excellent discussion participated by many graduates. The graduates also very happy to form the JEFAA for all win-win-win operations of the Students, Graduates and the Faculty. The dean very happily appreciated initiation of the graduates and concern on the students as well as the Faculty development. He further thanked the “first batch of graduates”, which is going to be remain forever in the history of the Faculty of Engineering. The AR/Engineering her team was attended the meeting taking the minutes for record purpose. That was a wonderful meeting with number of way forward thoughts from the graduates of the Faculty of Engineering University of Jaffna.

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A memorial endowment was established with the name of Eng. Perampalam Vivegananthan in December 2017. This is to give a cash award at the Faculty Board of Engineering for the student/s performing the best results in Power System Subject. The student should get above A- grade and best in the batch to get this award. For this award, the winner will be awarded Sri Lankan Rupees of 30,000 cash award at the Faculty Board (equivalent to the interest of the capital, which was deposited by the donor). It was an excellent motivation to the students, who are very well motivated to achieve the best in their academic performance of this subject.

Brief Biography of Eng. Vivegananthan Perampalam

Perampalam Vivegananthan (Vive) (1939-1982) was a dedicated family man and a passionate electrical engineer. Vive grew up in Urelu, Jaffna with his ten siblings. As a boy Vive loved to explore how things are constructed and occasionally got into hijinks. Once he and his brother created a radio antenna on a mango tree that was promptly torn down by his father. Vive was a stellar student in elementary and high school and showed a talent for math and science. Engineering drew him from childhood and thus, was a natural choice for his university studies. Vive obtained a B.Sc. Engineering with Honors from the University of Ceylon in 1959. After graduation, Vive obtained a scholarship to study at the Master’s level at the University of Manchester, Institue of Science and Technology. As a Chartered Electrical Engineer Vive worked at Associate Electrical Industries and British Nuclear Design and Construction in the UK. He married Kohilambal Sithamparampillai (also a graduate from the University of Ceylon) in 1966. Vive and Kohila emigrated from the UK to Canada in 1974 with their two young children, Jeevan and Usha. As a Professional Engineer in Canada Vive worked for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The most exciting and fulfilling period of Vive’s career was as an electrical engineer at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Power Station in New Brunswick, Canada. Vive was intellectually driven and a skilled problem-solver. His favorite place was on the nuclear plant floor bringing technical solutions to complex problems together with his colleagues and employees. Point Lepreau operates to this day and is the only operating nuclear power reactor in Atlantic Canada. Vive passed his love of science and problem-solving onto both of his children.

Jeevan (B.A.Sc. Engineering Science, University of Toronto) and Usha (B.Sc., Ph.D. Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Toronto) are proud to carry on his legacy of dedication to career and intellectual curiosity. Along with their mother, they are very happy to provide this endowment to the highest performing Power Systems student at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna and hope it will inspire students to follow Vive’s example as an outstanding engineer.

Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the Faculty of Engineering is responsible for providing confidence that the requirements for quality are met. Interested groups, such as the government, industry and society in general, want confidence that the students will have the required knowledge when they graduate, that cutting-edge courses and programs are offered. To provide such confidence to the employers of graduates and the general public, University Grants Commission in Sri Lanka have introduced national accreditation of university programs. The standards were developed by quality professionals originating mainly from the academic and industry sectors, and provide a framework for developing quality systems, as well as making quality efforts visible to customers. The IQAC team visited to all the Departments during a week starting on 21st December 2017, to check through their operations and documentations to preserve the best quality of teaching and learning process. More information can be viewed from https://sites.google.com/view/iqac-faculty-of-engineering/home

Functions and Responsibilities:

IQAC shall design action plans and implementation mechanisms to ensure that the Quality principles (Best Practices) are actually practiced by the Faculty. The “best practices” are dynamic and continuous. They are the result of identification, experimentation, reflection, feedback and innovation based on experience. Best practices are amenable to documentation and have the potential for replication; they are transparent, accountable, affordable and accessible to both staff and students, and add value to an institution. They are contextual and influenced by many factors. Best Practices show the path to success through continuous improvement leading to the benchmark of excellence.

Criteria and Corresponding Best Practices at the Faculty level:

IQACs in liaison with respective committees in the faculties will ensure that the ten criteria proposed by Program Review Manual namely:

• Governance and Management
• Curriculum Design and Development
• Teaching and Learning
• Learning Resources Student Support and Progression
• Student Assessment and Awards
• Strength and Quality of Staff
• Postgraduate studies, research, Innovation and Commercialization
• Community Engagement, Consultancy and Outreach
• Distance Education
• Quality Assurance, and the corresponding best practices are being adopted within the Faculty

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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.