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Dr. Kandasamy Pirapaharan

Dean, Faculty of Engineering
Senior Lecturer Grade I
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

B.Sc.Eng. (Peradeniya), M.Eng. (Kindai), PhD (Kindai), C.Eng (UK)
MIEEE, MIET, MIE(SL)

Research interests : Adaptive/Smart Antennas, Analytical Methods on Complex Modes of Propagation (Non uniform Mediums), Scattering from Layered Mediums (Layered medium Green’s function), Microstrip Antennas, Low frequency analysis in Microstrip structures, Computational Electromagnetics

  dean@eng.jfn.ac.lk
 +94-21-206-0160


Dr. K. Pirapaharan has joined department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Jaffna as Senior Lecturer moving from College of Engineering, IESL. He is appointed as the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna from 23rd June 2021. Prior to that he was a Professor of Electrical and Communications Engineering at the University of Technology, Papua New Guinea. He was also a Senior Lecturer at Taylor’s University in Malaysia (2012-2013). His doctoral research was in microwave and millimetre waves from Kindai University, Japan. From 2001 to 2003, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Centre for Computational Electromagnetics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA. From 2004 to 2011, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Electrical and Information Engineering Department at University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka where he was the head of the department from 2005 to 2008. Dr. Pirapaharan’s research interests include wave propagation in inhomogeneous media, adaptive antenna techniques and computational electromagnetics.

He is a Member of the IEEE and IET.



Research area: Adaptive/Smart Antennas, Analytical Methods on Complex Modes of Propagation (Non uniform Mediums), Scattering from Layered Mediums (Layered medium Green’s function), Microstrip Antennas, Low frequency analysis in Microstrip structures, Computational Electromagnetics

Research Projects:

  • Principal investigator of TRCSL research grant (LKR 250,000) for Micro-scale RF energy harvesting studies (October 2011-December 2012)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 20,000) for Micro-scale RF energy harvesting unit (Year 2010/2011)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 25,000) for Application of DTMF signals through 3G Networks to control a Robot (Year 2009/2010)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 25,000) for Brainwave Recognition System (Year 2009/2010)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 25,000) for Detection and Synchronization in CDMA Receiver (Year 2008/2009)
  • Principal investigator of TRCSL research grant (LKR 100,000) for Design and Implementation of a smart antenna for 4 G applications (November 2007-December 2008)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 15,000) for Multi Channel access Zigbee Gateway with Plug and Play Smart Office/Home Device Interface (Year 2007/2008)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 15,000) for Blind Audio Source Separation (Year 2007/2008)
  • Principal investigator of Faculty of Engineering research grant (LKR 15,000) for Implementation and Testing of a Protocol Model of Multi-Access Unique Number Dialing System (Year 2007/2008)
  • Coordinator of CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) RESTORE Project grant (CAN$ 119,850) for the activity of Risk and Disaster Management (October 2006-March 2009)
  • Principal investigator of TRCSL research grant (LKR 45,000) for Analytical Studies of Co-Channel Interference on Telecommunication Networks (January 2006-March 2007)


Complementary /Honorary Appointments:

  • Head, Dept. of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Ruhuna (April 2005 to April 2008)
  • Student counselor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ruhuna (August 2005-July2006)
  • Committee Member, International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS-2006)
  • Committee Member, International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA-2006)
  • Advisory Committee Member of Information Communication Technology in Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka (April 2006 –March 2007)
  • Member of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa (October 2006)
  • CIDA RESTORE project coordinator for the activity of Risk and Disaster Management (October 2006-March 2009
  • International programme committee member of IASTED international conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation (ARP-2007)
  • Faculty coordinator of the Quality Assurance Unit of University of Ruhuna (February 2007 to date)
  • Member of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Open University of Sri Lanka (July-August 2007)
  • International scientific committee member, International Conference on Building Education and Research (BEAR-2008)
  • Member of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Management of Technology, University of Moratuwa (December 2007)
  • Member of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Open University of Sri Lanka (July 2008)
  • Chairman of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Computer Engineering, University of Peradeniya (February 2009)
  • Member of the Quality Assurance Team of evaluating Department of Engineering Mathematics and Philosophy, The Open University of Sri Lanka (February 2010)
  • IEEE Sri Lanka, Executive committee member (2011-2012)
  • International programme committee member of IASTED international conference on Engineering and Applied Science (EAS-2012)
  • Undergraduate Project Coordinator, School of Engineering, Taylor’s University, Malaysia (2012-2013)
  • Member in the following committees at UNITECH, PNG:
      Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee (2014-2016)
      Research Committee (2014-2017)
      Quality Assurance Team (2014-2017)
      Academic Appeal Committee (2017)


Awards and Scholarships:

  • Mahapola (merit) higher education scholarship (1987)
  • Ceylon Electricity Board scholarship for the best performance in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the final part II examination (1992)
  • OFIX international friendship scholarship for Japanese language and Masters studies (1995)
  • OFIX international friendship scholarship for doctoral studies (1998)
  • Best presenter award in Engineering, 7th academic session, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka (2010)
  • Best paper award in the UNIMAS silver jubilee conference, University of Malaya, Sarawak, Malaysia (2017)


Work Experiences:

  • College of Engineering, IESL, Sri Lanka, Since August 2017
  • Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Communication Engineering, Papua New Guinea University of Technology (January 2017 to July 2017)
  • Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Communication Engineering, Papua New Guinea University of Technology (February 2014 to December 2016)
  • Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Taylors University, Malaysia (February 2012 to January 2014)
  • Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka (April 2004 to January 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA (July 2001-Sept. 2003)
  • Probationary Lecturer, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (June 1994-March 1995)
  • Temporary Instructor, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (May 1993-May 1994)