Awak en Memo r i e s…

S t r a t e g ic P a r t n e r

CSE reveals prominence in dissipating

knowledge to the homeland. ,upholding

its dazzling values in preserving the uniqueness.

The family of CSE cherishes the memories

of the past year’s efforts

Wander along the lane of memories of the past Year……

Awaken Memor i e s…

Depar tment o f Computer Science & Engineer ing

The Department of Computer

Science & Engineering, though only

24 years old, is an innovative and

stable sub disciplinary unit in the

Faculty of Engineering, University of

Moratuwa. It is well known for its

trendsetting, creative approach of

undergraduate education since its

inauguration in 1985.

The aim of the Department of Computer Science is not merely to

create employable graduates, but to produce globally competitive,

world recognized graduates who can face any challenging

situation. The department maintains outstanding standards in

academic activities while enhancing the soft skills of its

undergraduates. It has a dedicated panel of lecturers specialized in

various areas of advanced computing and the department itself

has created an enduring mark in the IT industry of the country

and around the world as well.

Message From Head o f the Depar tment

Ms. Vishaka Nanayakkara

At Department of Computer Science

& Engineering we believe in making

our graduates good citizens who are

readily employable from the day that

they graduate. With very brilliant

students all what we need to do is

give them enough opportunities to

improve themselves and guide them

along the way. Enhancing soft skills, helping them improve their

transferable skills require us to move away from traditional teaching

mechanisms and include many different activities into the

curriculum. At CSE we are very fortunate to have the assistance

and blessings of the CS&ES to carry out this endure.

Members of CS&ES are always willing to assist the department in

taking up new initiatives. Finding resource persons and mentors for

all activities has never been hard. Funding new initiatives through

CS&ES has given CSE a very easy sail for any new voyage.

The staff and the students at CSE are always ever so willing to

embark in any new journey. My colleagues in the staff are always

full of enthusiasm and vigor to introduce and follow up on new

activities. Students are ready to take up all the challenges and

opportunities given to them.

The list of activities you see in this booklet are the flowers of the

hard work the CSE staff, students and the CS&ES. I am very

fortunate to have the reigns of such a dedicated and devoted

community and this booklet is a tribute to all of them.

“ M i n d I T B a l a n c e I T ” C o n f e r e n c e & C S E G e t - to g e t h e r

S t r a t e g ic P a r t n e r

G o l d S p o n s o r s

P l a t i n u m S p o n s o r

“Mind IT ba lance IT” Conference & CSE Get-together

Among the host of activities carried out by the Department of

Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) to benefit the academia

and the society, the annual conference and CSE Get-together duo

was the main event hosted by the department and the Computer

Science & Engineering Society (CS&ES). The main idea of having

a grand event once a year is to spur up enthusiasm,

regarding issues, that has current significance, while bringing

together the industry, alumni and the students.

Having addressed technical aspects throughout the past ventures

of the event, in 2008 the department took a detour and addressed a

non-technical issue which has a huge impact on the IT

professionals, bearing in mind its social responsibility.

Studies have revealed that although IT has been used to solve

some of the most pressing problems of the world, employees in

modern office environments display psychosomatic symptoms. New

stress types have emerged that can be tied primarily to human

computer interaction. These include technology breakdowns,

technology slowdowns, and electronic performance monitoring.

Several stress-related psychosomatic disorders that affect

employees in such working conditions have been identified.

Furthermore, a majority of computerization projects fail to meet their

deadlines with the originally specified functionality, mainly because

human factors are not sufficiently taken into account during the

planning and implementation phases of the projects.

The solution to this problem by CSE was the „Mind IT Balance IT‟

conference, which aimed at addressing Stress Management issues

which challenge IT professionals, and thereby help them master

stress, manage priorities and understand the values of life.

The conference was not only for the benefit of individuals in the IT

industry but also for employer organizations too.

“ M i n d I T B a l a n c e I T ” C o n f e r e n c e & C S E G e t - to g e t h e r

S i l v e r S p o n s o r s

P r i n t & M e d i a P a r t n e r s

The conference was held on July 4, 2008 from 2.00 p.m. to 6.00

p.m. at the Holiday Inn, and a group of eminent speakers, who are

at the forefront of the industry and academia, addressed the

audience.

The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Dhananjaya

Rajapaksha, CEO, DogiEFA (Pvt) Ltd. In addition, Mr. Channa de

Silva – Enterprise Leader, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Mr. Harshana

Dassanayake, HR Executive, Dialog Telecom and Mr. Nalaka

Hewamadduma, Trainer, Speaker and Consultant guided the

audience along the topics of 'Mastering Stress', 'Managing

Priorities' and 'Values of Life' respectively.

The conference converged to the CSE Get-together from 6.30 p.m.

onwards which was considered to be the major meeting point of IT

professionals, the CSE staff and students. This was held in

conjunction with the Annual General Meeting of the Computer

Science & Engineering Society of the University of Moratuwa,

which consists of the alumni of the department during its two

decades of existence. The new board for the CS&ES was elected

and it turned out to be an evening full of fun, excitement and

companionship.

The event also managed to attract the biggest ever financial

backing for this year‟s venture of the event, proving the fact that the

department has kept its promise to deliver the very best to the

industry and society. Codegen became the Strategic Partner of the

event while WSO2 was the Platinum Partner. Mubasher, Creative

Solutions and WaveNet joined in as Gold Partners whereas the

Silver Partnership packages were taken by Attune and Navantis.

Furthermore, ETV joined hands with CS&ES as the valued

Electronic Media Partner while the Daily News was the Print Media

Partner.

T H E ME N T O R IN G P R O G R A M

S p o n s o r s

The Mento r ing Prog ram

The “CSE Mentoring Program” is one of the foremost programs,

organized by the department in order to give undergraduates the

opportunity to gain industrial exposure , build corporate

awareness and develop soft skills. This effort by the CSE staff in

collaboration with the industry targets to build confidence, improve

personality and professionalism of the students.

Under this program, the students get the privilege of meeting and

communicating with top level drivers of the IT industry in Sri Lanka,

who act as mentors of the students.

This year‟s program covered important sessions related to

leadership, team work and personality development. Some of

these programs were carried out in batch sessions conducted by

external experts. The mentees were given assignments which

helped them identify their strengths and weaknesses. Mentors also

gave feedback and guidance related to the students‟ presentation

and communication skills. While helping the mentees to get an idea

about their desired career in the industry, the program also provides

them the opportunity to learn more on corporate etiquette and

disciplines.

The mentoring program enables undergraduates to share

experiences with the mentors and add more value to their learning.

It is a fine point of networking for CSE students, staff and the

industry. The department appreciates the time and effort spent by

the mentors in this rewarding task to all stakeholders

C SE D R A M A F E S T

S p o n s o r s

Drama Fest

Under every magnificent work done, lies a massive amount of effort

and creativity. The drama festival is a product of a chain of thoughts

among the staff members to see the advancement of its students,

to craft them with confidence and to make them versatile and

mature.

The drama festival was also a valuable opportunity for the

students to learn communication skills. Every student grabbed that

opportunity to convert to a more complete and competitive person

and with this collaborative effort the stage was set for a fabulous

show of creative classical dramas. The stage performances helped

the students to improve confidence in presentation skills.

There were ten sensational dramas and “Sherlock Holmes and the

Emerald of Alcazar” topped the festival, with a minute margin

proving that every drama was high in class and performance. The

drama festival opened up vistas of expansion of student creativity,

versatility, confidence and maturity.

C SE D R A M A F E S T

S p o n s o r s

C O L O R W A S H I N G O F HE L P K I D S F O U D A T I O N O R P H A N A G E

S p o n s o r s

Color Wash ing o f the He lp K ids

Foundations Orphanage

Every journey travelled leaves valuable memories instilled deep

within one‟s mind and heart. Behind any superb effort, there must

be a team which is equally up to those superb standards. This

indeed was the case at the annual CSE community project “Color

Washing of the Help Kids Foundation Orphanage” which helped to

uproot the convention that software engineers are only armed with

technical expertise, which can only guide the world to a climax in

technological aspects.

It was a magnificent opportunity for the students to bring out their

exemplary physical skills, coordination of abilities and the

leadership potentials to the limelight. The proposed orphanage was

a large single story building. The students together with the staff

painted the whole building plus did some other tedious work, which

included tidying up the garden and flattening up a rather large pile

of gravel.

Along with the academic staff, the students reflected the true sense

of CSE spirit. The fatigue which came with the hard work was

drowned by the hearty jokes and the bonds of unity that developed

further and further among the students and also between the

students and the academic staff. As the day came to an end,

witnessing the sunset from the top of a little rock-mountain nearby

on which a small temple stood, all the students were awed by the

beautiful view and the experience of a lifetime gained on that

wonderful day.

.

C SE P R O G R A M M I N G C O M P E T I T I O N

S p o n s o r s

CSE Programming Compet i t ion

The programming competition was

a remarkable opportunity, for the

students, to not only display their

programming knowledge, but also to

get a chance to take part in a

thrilling game and compete with

their batch mates.

The competition was called

„Treasure Hunt‟ and it was all about

hunting treasures as the name implies. The winners were to win

tempting cash prices and all the students were enthusiastic and

were looking forward to develop their own program and to compete

with other challenging groups.

On the day of the competition the

teams gathered in the lab with

great enthusiasm, intending to

be the champions of the

tournament. When the event

commenced, the air started to fill

with excitement. The players had

to play the role of travelers,

hunting for treasures in a weird

island where amazing treasures

pop up at various places at various times. In order to win these

treasures the players had to overcome various obstacles and

pitfalls in the island.

The excitement reached it height when many players targeted the

same treasure. After many challenging rounds, the group „seekers‟

became the winners. While encouraging students to build up their

programming skills, this competition also helped them to enhance

their team spirits and collaborative skills.

C SE P R O G R A M M I N G C O M P E T I T I O N

S p o n s o r s

C SE O U T - B O U N D Z

S p o n s o r s

CSE Out -Boundz

CSE Out-boundz 2008 provided a platform for both the junior and

senior students to interact with the staff and get to know each other

better. It gave an opportunity to freshen up the minds and take a

break from the hectic daily schedules.

At the dawn of Saturday the

16th of August 2008, it was

apparent that this was not

just a “camp” but was going

to be a more monumental

event. The “lagaan”, which

was chosen as the venue

for Out-Boundz 2008 had

b e e n c o m p l e t e l y

transformed into an ancient

village with thatched tents, bridges and even tree houses. With a

giant bamboo gate and a thatch to welcome visitors, and benches

for one to rest on, the place reminded everyone of a Robin Hood

movie. It was indeed a grand welcome.

At the beginning, all participants were divided into groups, each

named after cities and villages from the Lord of the Rings. These

teams proceeded through the events, collecting points and earning

money to be the winners with most earned points. The activities

organized at Out-boundz 2008 were of great variety. Some of the

most popular games were giant slippers, helium stick, „Dress and

style‟ and the treasure hunt. In the Giant Slippers, the members of

the team were tied to two strips of boards by the feet so that the

only way they could move was to move their feet together. In the

„dress and style‟, each team was given a basic pack containing

newspapers, sellotape, etc and one of their teammates was to be

dressed in the most original way. They could also use items won

during other activities.

C SE H I T T H E G R O U N D S

S p o n s o r s

There was a puzzle game running in the background where teams

negotiated for the pieces which were distributed among the teams

to complete the puzzles. It was undoubtedly an enjoyable event for

everyone. The day ended with a talent show; dances, songs and

musical performances by the students making it another golden

memory. At the end of the day, the students and staff left with more

friends, a huge experience, a great day off and a load of

entertaining memories.

CSE Hi t The Grounds

In the local IT arena CSE is iconized for producing the most sought

after graduates. Yet IT professionals always mark CSE in their

calendar as a place to look for some fun during the year.

It has now become the custom

for IT professional to gather on

one day at the University of

Moratuwa to show their talents

in cricket. Many years ago,

CSE started the annual cricket

tournament “Hit the Grounds”

to just provide a day of fun and

camaraderie for the students, staff and the industry.

The tournament is open for

teams formed by students, staff

and software industrial firms in

Sri Lanka. The number of

participating teams kept rising

throughout the past consecutive

years and today Hit the Grounds

has become The Cricket Tournament for local IT companies.

Hit the grounds awards a trophy for the winners and every team is

eager to win it for their team. In the 2008 CSE Hit the Grounds

there was no single champion; rather the championship was shared

by the two teams from MIT and WSO2.

C SE H I T T H E G R O U N D S

S p o n s o r s

C SE A L U MI N I D A Y O U T

S p o n s o r s

CSE Alumni Day Out

CSE has a strong bond with its alumni. CSE Alumni Day Out 2008

organized by the CS&ES for the 2nd time was held on the 12th of

November at Pegasus Reef

Hotel, Wattala. The main purpose

of this event was to provide an

opportunity for the graduates of

CSE to have an outing and

network with their past colleagues,

staff and current undergraduates.

Several fun events took place

throughout the day and the event progressed very successfully.

Games like „Strongest man‟, „Filling

the bottle‟, „Musical chairs‟ were

among the most amusing ones.

Participants took part in sports like

cricket, table tennis, football and also

games like carom and darts. The

water polo tournament was one of

the most enjoyable and successful

events of the day. The most intriguing thing about all these events

was the participation of not only the students, graduates and the

staff members, but also family

members.

Other than these sporting

events, a karaoke event was

also organized. A calypso team

mesmerized the participants

throughout the day with their

charming music. An awards

ceremony was held in the evening to mark the conclusion of a

fascinating day.

CSE ACHIEVEMENTS Google Summer of Code 2008

Summer of Code is an International open source software

development contest organized by the Internet giant Google, on an

annual basis. The main objective of the contest was to promote

open source projects and encourage young students all around the

world to get actively engaged in writing open source code for world

class software products.

Keeping in line with its world class status, University of Moratuwa

became the world‟s top University at this event by earning the

highest number of projects. University of Moratuwa undergraduates

succeeded in making 24 winning project proposals to surpass some

of the finest Universities and tertiary IT education centers in the

world. The department of CSE was indeed the biggest shareholder

of this exceptional accomplishment, since 18 out of the 24 winning

project proposals were created and submitted by CSE

undergraduates in level 4 and level 3. The numbers prove that CSE

alone has produced more GSoC winners than any top world class

University.

Having their project proposals for GSoC 2008 accepted, CSE

undergraduates developed open source code for a multitude of well

known projects using a variety of programming languages and

platforms. Most of the projects were carried out using Java, C, C++

or PHP. Each project pushed the winning undergraduates to their

limits, since all the projects required conducting some research,

performing literature surveys and communicating with IT expert

from all around the globe.

In addition, students got an opportunity to put their software design

skills to good use since all the projects required students to design

all the software modules they were supposed to develop. The four

months long development phase of the projects were carried out

under the close supervision of Google, mentoring organizations and

other open source enthusiasts.

Many of the CSE GSoC winners worked on projects of the Apache

Software Foundation, the biggest open source software foundation

in the world. Apache Xerces, Apache Harmony, Apache Qpid,

Apache Axis2 and Apache Tuscany are a few of them. Sahana, the

world famous open source disaster management system developed

in PHP, initiated by the Lanka Software Foundation, also had some

winners working on their project.

A press conference participated by many leading media

organizations of the country was held at the IESL Auditorium

to reveal the remarkable accomplishment to the country. His

Excellency the President of Sri Lanka conveyed his special

appreciation to the University, on this unprecedented achievement.

With the glamour of GSoC 2008 sparkling by its side, CSE has

again won 17 awards at 2009 GSoC.

A C M - I C P C C O M P E T I T I O N

S p o n s o r s

CSE-UOM Part i c ipa t ion in

ACM-ICPC Competi t ion

The ACM International Collegiate

Programming Contest (ICPC) was

a mu l t i t i e r , t eam - bas ed ,

p r og r ammi ng c ompe t i t i on

operating under the auspices of

ACM. The contest involved a

global network of universities

hosting regional competitions that

advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Participation has

grown to several tens of thousands of the finest students and

faculties in computing disciplines at almost 2,000 universities from

over 80 countries.

The contest fosters creativity,

teamwork, and innovation in

building new software programs,

and enables students to test their

ability to perform under pressure.

Quite simply, it is the oldest,

largest, and most prestigious

programming contest in the world.

The contest was held in two phases, namely the regional

competition, and the world finals. The regional competitions were

held in various parts of the world, where the winners of each

regional (usually the top two teams) make it to the world finals.

Participation in the regional competitions was open to any private

or state owned university.

The Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) has

been participating in the ACM-ICPC competition since 2006. The

team selection is done by a university-wide programming contest

with the participation of students from many departments of the

university.

A C M - I C P C C O M P E T I T I O N

S p o n s o r s

Students from Level 1 through Level 4 strive to make it, into the

team at this competition. This contest takes a similar form of the

real ACM ICPC competitions, where students are made to

individually solve, a number of programming problems, which

includes extensive programming and algorithmic skills, in a time

constrained environment, and upload their results to a server,

after which they will be graded and the team selections finalized.

The selected teams are given further training by the department

with the participation of past team members, and senior staff

members.

The students of the University of Moratuwa had fared well at past

ACM ICPC competitions in 2006 and 2007 obtaining an honorable

mention in the regional competitions held in Kanpur, India, in 2006

and being placed 4th in 2007.

In 2008, the two teams from the university participated in the

regional competitions held at Kanpur and Amritapuri, India, where

they won 4th place, and 5

th place respectively.

Imagine Cup 2008

Imagine Cup Software Design Invitational challenges students

around the world to explore their own creativity by designing

software solutions to solve what they consider to be challenging

problems at hand. The theme for the year 2008 was “Imagine a

world where technology enables a sustainable environment”. Team

“Will Power” from CSE batch 06 emerged 2nd runners up for the

software solution they presented: “Cleaning License Management

System” which is aimed at protecting the air that all people share

from motor vehicle air pollutants; at the local final round of

software design category held on 22nd April 2008, which was

organized by the local Microsoft subsidiary.

NBQSA Mer i t Awards

The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) competition is

an annual event organized by the British Computer Society Sri

Lanka (BCSSL) Section. The competition serves to showcase and

benchmark Sri Lankan ICT products, which fulfill a much needed

requirement of the software industry in this highly competitive

globalist economic structure. A Group from Batch 04 of CSE

received a merit award competed under “Tertiary Education”

category , for the project, Rampart2 - A High Performance

Web Services Security Module for Apache Axis2. This was a

remarkable achievement for CSE at National level .

ICAMES 2009

ICAMES is the "International Cultural and Academic Meeting of

Engineering Students", organized by the Engineering Society of

Bogazici University ,which brings together university students and

academics from various parts of the globe ,on an international base

in Turkey. “Project eID”, a final year student project group of CSE

Batch 05 was selected to participate and present their project at this

prestigious event.

Awak en Memo r i e s…