Competitions

The Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) provide networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region. The program is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer, and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors. APICTA is hosted by one of the member countries. APICTA recognise the Winner of each category. Merit awards are sometimes awarded. Sri Lanka has participated in APCITA since 2003. First APICTA was held in 2001. Winners of NBQSA are nominated to participate at APICTA. Following are past winners/participants from University of Colombo.

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges. Imagine Cup has several categories, such as Software Design, Embedded Development, Web Development, Project Hoshimi, IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film, Interface Design.  Winner of the local country event participate at the international event. 2013 local event finals will be held at UCSC. Following are past participants from University of Colombo.

IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of IEEE student members – supported by an IEEE Student Branch, advised and proctored by an IEEE member – compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems.

UCSC students first took part at this competition in 2011 (IEEEXtreme 5.0). It was a learning process for them where the top team was placed 39th in the country, 77 in the R10 region and 216 world wide. All together 13 teams competed part from UCSC. Subsequent years we saw increased interest among the students. 2014 (IEEEXtreme 8.0) saw 2,250 teams worldwide from 71 countries.

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary student developers ages 18 and older stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund projects over a three month period. 2011 was the first instance of participation. One student successully completed the 2012 event.

• Milindu Sanoj Kumarage (2nd Year) and P. A. Ayantha Randika (2nd Year) successfully completed the GSoC 2014.
• 5 UCSC undergraduates completed the summer of code 2019 successfully.

The e-Swabhimani is an initiative of the Information Communication technology agency of Sri Lanka aimed at recognizing excellence in digital content creation. It is expected that this national award would stimulate a greater interest in the development of a wide range of content and services that would serve the needs of society. The e-Swabhimani was launched in 2009. The e-Swabhimani Award process is being conducted along the lines of the World Summit Award and has input from the Digital Empowerment Foundation if India as the Knowledge Partner to ensure that the jury process conforms to international standards. The award is a stepping stone to other regional and international awards with all short listed submissions being nominated to the Manthan Award South Asia.

Winner

• 2010 e-Health category: produced by 4th year ICT student Asanga Wickramasinghe together with the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, Sri Lankain under the supervision of Dr. Risintha Premaratne, Consultant Epidemiologist of the Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health & Dr. Shiromi Arunatilake.
• 2010 e-Inclusion category: Project by Staff of the Language Technology Research Laboratory of the UCSC.
• 2012 e-Science and Technology category: Facial Muscle Anatomy based approach for Forensic Facial Reconstruction in Sri Lanka a standardalone system in English produced by 4th year ICT students of the UCSC, namely: Roshan Rajapakse, A.K. Madugalla, P.I.U. Amarasinghe & V.H. Padmathilake together with the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura under the supervision of Dr. A.T. Dharmaratne & Mr. K.D. Sandaruwan.
• 2012 e-Science and Technology category: Field Artillery Simulation System (FASS) a standardalone system in English produced by Staff together with the Centre for Research and Development, Ministry of Defense, School of Artillery.
• 2014 e-Science and Technology category: ‘Siyara’ Harbour Vessel Traffic Management System produced by Staff
• 2014 e-Inclusion and Participation category for Swaraloka produced by 4th year ICT students of the UCSC, namely: Shyama Chandani, Dawpadee Kiriella, Kavindu Ranasinghe under the supervision of Dr. K.L. Jayaratne.
• 2016 – UCSC Won three awards in three categories e Content, Inclusion & Empowerment and e Culture & Tourismat e-Swabhimani Awards 2016 organized by the ICTA on 31^st October 2016.
• 2016 – Prof. K.P. Hewagamage, Dr. Yamaya Ekanayake, Mr. Upul Anuradha, Mrs. Fazeena won an award for the “Mobile Learning Project”.

Special Merit

• 2010 e-learning and Education category: Shikshaka project by the staff of the Language Technology Research Laboratory of the UCSC.
• 2014 e-Government and institutions category for Title Registration System produced by Software Deveopment Unit of the UCSC.

Certificate of Appreciation

• 2010 e-learning and Education category: VLE Open Learning project by the staff of the e-Learning Centre.
• 2012 eLearning and Education category: ICT based Education for students with Special Educational needs an offline system in Sinhala produced by 4th year ICT students of the UCSC, namely: M.D. Nadira Tharanga Perera, T.G. Induni Shamika, Dilrukshi Wijeratne  and D.P. Manori Madhubhashini Wijesooriya under the supervision of Dr. A.T. Dharmaratne & Dr. A.R. Weerasinghe.
• 2012 e-Entertainment and Games category: Saasthara a Facebook apps in Sinhala produced by 2nd year students of the UCSC, namely: K.H. Madusha Kumarasiri & S.M.D.R. Subasinghe.

The Manthan Awards are granted for projects that aim at raising the standard of life of people,especially the rural masses by the use of Information and Communication Technology. The Award is an initiative of the Digital Empowerment Foundation with strategic support from the Department of Information Technology, Government of India and the World Summit Award Austria. With effect from 2008 the Manthan Award was extended to other countries in the region and is now the Manthan Award South Asia.

Winners

• 2009 e-Health category: Vidusuwa – A Patient Centric e-Health Solution for a Developing Country by Staff
• 2014 – E-Inclusion & Accessibilty – Swaraloka: Adaptive Music Score Trainer for Visually Impaired in Sri Lanka by Staff
• 2014 – E-Science & Technology – “SIYARA” Harbour VTMS (New dimension in Port Traffic management) by Staff
  
• 2015 e-Entertainment & Games – Sangeethalya.lk by Staff
• 2015 E-Health – Run Tropica by Staff
  

Finalist

• 2010 e-Culture & Heritage category: Shikshaka: A Framework for Bridging the Language Gap  produced by the staff of the Language Technology Research Laboratory of the UCSC.

The mBillionth Award is a dedicated platform to explore the latent potential of mobile & telecom sector across 8 countries in South Asia.

Winners

• 2014 m-Education & Learning category: Sipsala – Sipsala is an e mobile (Windows Phone 8.1) educational application for primary and secondary school children in Sri Lanka. It contains text books from all the subjects they learn at the school in grade one to eleven. The most remarkable feature of this mobile application is, it supports all three main languages in Sri Lanka, Sinhala, English and Tamil. Sipsala is an offline mobile application so students in the rural areas also can use this without an internet connection. User Interfaces are designed considering colour psychology and best for an educational application by Yasith Lokuge

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global activity to select and promote the world’s best e-Content and most innovative ICT applications. It offers a worldwide platform for all who value the creative use of ICTs and who are committed to making today’s information society more inclusive. The World Summit Award Mobile first took placed in 2010 to honour excellence in m-Content and innovative application creation. The Grand Jury selects 40 winners of the eight WSA-mobile categories. WSA was started as an initiative by the Republic of Austria as a contribution to the United Nations World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and is organised by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) in Salzburg.

Winner

• 2012 e-Media & News category TrafficMate. The WSA-mobile Winners´Events 2012, Feb 3rd-Feb 5th 2013, Abu Dhabi.

This competition is held since in 2010 and is organized by SLASSCOM and Motorola Solutions. It involves training programmes conducted by the staff of the Motorola Solutions and runs over a period of 6-7 months. Competition focus on building human resource capacity in Mobile Technologies; develop entrepreneurial skills; and promote innovation among students by exposing their innovative and creative skills.

• 2013 – 1st Runners-up for Automated Guided Wheelchair by Yasith Lokuge, Prashan Madumal, Tharindu Kumara & N. Ranasinghe

The Hackathon competition is held over 1-2 days where students develop a piece of working software using technologies.

• 2012 – Runner up
• 2013 – winners

This competition was introduced in 2012 for undergraduates studying at all the state universities and Advanced Technological Institutes which are under the purview of Ministry of Higher Education. It promotes creative artistic talents by giving opportunities for the educated generation to develop, present and display their numerous artistic talents.

• 2012/13 – 3rd Place Mr. Harsha Dilshan Perera (2010/ICT/032) – Electronic Media – Creative Television Broadcaster of The Year

Code Fest is a overnight Hackathon Organized by SLIIT.

• 2019 – Thenuka Weerasinghe, Sahan Dissanayake, George Raveen, and Malithya Fernando was winners in SLIIT Codefest Overnight Hackathon 2019.
• 2019 – Asela Kotagama, Tharindu Prabhath, Isuru Sandaruwan, and Chamath Ekanayake were 2nd Runners ups in SLIIT Codefest Capture the flag.
• 2013 – Silver Award won by P. A. Ayantha Randika, Milindu Sanoj Kumarage, L. A. R. H. Perera, Anuradha Edirisuriya and K. K. T. P. Ranathung for LocTip.
• 2014 – Gold Award won by Praneeth Nilanga Peiris, Madura Anushanga Shelton, Harindu Perera and Shanika Udeshini for Falcon.
• 2017 – Bronze Award (Tertiary category) of SLIIT-CODEFEST “Net Com” Padcet Tracer Contest won by UCSC students (especially 4^th year).

• Team WhileLoop on being awarded as the Champions of the Janashakthi Full Option Appathon Challenge 2016

• 2017 – NSF Technology Award of Excellence was won by the project “COPY Sayura : The three dimensional coastal surveillance system” on 31-January-2017. The Members were Prof. N.D.Kodikara (Grant Coordinator), Prof. S.R.D. Rosa, Dr. Chamath Keppetiyagama, Dr. K.D. Sandaruwan and Rear Admiral K.R. Senadeera (Rtd).
• 2018 – “Face ID: Computer Based Forensic Facial Recognition using 3D Graphics” project conducted by UCSC won “Technology Award of Excellence” awarded by National Science Foundation under the “Support for Technology Development” grant Scheme on 25^th of July 2018. The Members were Dr. A.T.Darmaratne, Dr. K.D. Sandaruwan, Dr. D.D. Karunaratne, and Prof. M. Vidanapathirana from the University of Sri Jayawardanapura.

• 2018 – The project “VR for CPR” by Ms. H. S. U. Liyanage, Dr. K L Jayaratne and Dr. M I E Wickramasinghe won the 1^st place in the competition of Common wealth digital award in 2018.
• 2018 – The projetc “Online PCD” by Ms. M A D L Mudannayake and Dr. T. A.Weerasinghe won the 1^st runner up place in the competition of Common wealth digital award in 2018.

RB GLOBAL CHALLENGE is organized by Reckitt Benckiser Group.

• 2019 – Saroj Udyama, Sumayya Ziyad, and Lahiruka Wijesinghe won Runners up in RB Global Challenge 2019.

DigiEduHack is a overnight Hackathon Organized by Open University of Sri Lanka.

• 2019 – Sandun sameera, Deeptha Wickramasingha, Ashan tharindu, Sachie Weerasinghe, and Chamal Pramod won DigiEduHack 2019.

• 2019 – Chamal Pramod, Sandun sameera, Praveen Chanaka, Shan manage, and Ranindu jayasooriya became Runners up in Pre-Hacktoberfest 2019.
• 2019 – Thenuka Weerasinghe was a winner in Pre-Hacktoberfest 2019.

• 2019 – Prabhani Nanayakkara, Sumayya Ziyad, Tharushi Samara, Sashika Nawarathne, and Udesh Kumarasignhe won an award for ‘Best Creative Idea’ in Code with WIE 2019.

• Tikiri Diasena, Ashera Silva, and Hashini Samaraweera were winners in Hackaholics 3.0.

Shecoderess 3.0 is a coding competition organized by WIE of Uva Wellassa University.

• Tikiri Diasena, Ashera Silva, and Dasuni Geeganage were 1st runner-ups in Shecoderess 3.0

• 2019 – UCSC became the Runners Up.

• 2021 – UCSC teams, “Team Proktara” and “Team ICOAE” has become winners of Telnyx category out of more than 1000 registrants in the TADHack Global 2021, Global hackathon focused on programmable communications. (More details)

• 2021 – UCSC student Mr. Wasura Dananjith Wattearachchi was awarded the “CSSL ICT Student Award – Undergraduate Catagory” at “CSSL National ICT Awards Ceremony 2020”.