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News wire Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya

2014/2015

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Postgraduate Programmes in Civil Engineering

I n 2014, the Department of Civil Engineering inaugurated 4 Post-

graduate Programmes. The M.Sc. Eng./PG. Dip in Geo technical En-

gineering, M.Sc. Eng./PG. Dip in Structural Engineering, M.Sc./

PG. Dip in Sustainable Built Environment and M.Sc. Eng./

PG. Dip in Water and Environment Engineering. Around 100

students have enrolled for the programme.

An integrated approach to Postgraduate courses in 2015

Department of Civil Engineering has planned to initiate few more Post-

graduate Programmes. Those include, M.Sc. Eng./PG. Dip in Geo technical

Engineering, M.Sc. Eng./PG. Dip in Highway and Traffic Engineering,

M.Sc. Eng./PG. Dip in Structural Engineering, M.Sc./PG. Dip in Sustaina-

ble Built Environment, M.Sc./PG. Dip in Water and Waste Engineering,

M.Sc./PG. Dip in Environment Engineering. These programmes will be

conducted annually. A Director, Office of Graduate Studies/Coordinator of

Graduate Studies will be appointed separately.

2015 Postgraduate

Programmes

Memorandums of

Understandings

T he Faculty of

Engineering,

has signed im-

portant MOUs

for the benefit of the

University and for the fu-

ture wellbeing of the Engi-

neering students of the

faculty. One of them is the

MOU with the Nihon Sui-

do Consultants, Japan on

Water Research.

Another Memorandum

will be signed with the JFE

steel Cooperation, Japan

soon, early this year.

Postgraduate Programmes in Civil Engineering

Department

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Workshops and

Symposiums

A Workshop on Development and Con-

ducting a Short Course on Implemen-

tation of Water Safety Plans (WSP's) in

Sri Lanka was held at the Faculty of

Engineering in December 2014.

Another workshop on In-

ternational River Interface

Cooperative – River sys-

tems modeling (iRIC) was

held in the Seminar room

1 of the Engineering Fac-

ulty on the 10th and 11th

of December 2014 in col-

laboration with the Uni-

versity of Peradeniya, U.S.

Geological survey, Univer-

sity of Moratuwa, University of Ruhuna and ICH-

ARM-UNESCO, Japan.

iRIC (International River Interface Cooperative)

is a river flow and riverbed variation analysis soft-

ware package which combines the functionality of

MD_SWMS, developed by the USGS (U.S. Geolog-

ical Survey) and RIC-Nays, developed by the

Foundation of Hokkaido River Disaster Preven-

tion Research Center. The main target Group for

this even was Engineers, post graduate students,

researchers and university academics.

The resource persons for this even were Dr. Jona-

than Nelson from U.S. Geological Survey, Prof.

Yasuyuki Shimizu from Hokkaido University, Ja-

pan, Prof. Hiroshi Takebayashi from Disaster Pre-

vention Research Institute,Kyoto University, Ja-

pan, Prof. Ichiro Kimura from Hokkaido Universi-

ty, Japan and Dr. Tomoko Kyuka from Hokkaido

University, Japan.

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Workshops and Symposiums

S ymposium on “Environmental Pollution and the prevention of

CKD in North Central Province of Sri Lanka” was held on the

14th of December 2014 at the Earl’s Regency Hotel, Kandy. The

main themes of the symposium were, understand the im-

portance of this environmentally contracted deadly disease, exploring

the plausible causes and potential interactions, leading to kidney failure,

explore the cost effective op-

tions of providing potable

water to affected villages, and

understand and develop

measures to alleviate socio-

economic impacts due to

CKD, with multi factorial

origin. The Chair of this

event was Prof. Sunil Wima-

lawansa from New Jercy,

USA. Guest speakers were Prof. Sunil Wimalawansa, Prof. Priyani Para-

nagama, Prof. D.M. Dissanayake, Dr. Parakrama Waidyanatha and Dr.

Tanuja Ariyananda. This event was conducted with the aid of the Wima-

lawansa foundation, Engineers without borders Sri Lanka, the Water

Board and the Rain Harvesting Forum of Sri Lanka. This had open up a

common platform to all the resource persons to share their knowledge

and explore the possibilities to find a common solution.

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5th International Conference on Sustainable

Built Environment

T he 5th International Conference on Sus-

tainable Built Environment was success-

fully held from 12th to 14th December

2014 at the Earl’s Regency Hotel, Kandy

celebrating innovative research and novel experienc-

es associated to a number of topics under 10 parallel

sessions related to Sustainability and Greener con-

structions. The conference commenced with an inau-

gural ceremony held on the 12th December in the

Congress Hall with over 400 distinguished guests in

Earl’s Regency and was graced by the Chief Guest

Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, Vice Chair of the UN In-

tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that

shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. The Opening

Ceremony was also enlightened by the Guest of Hon-

or, IESL President, Eng.(Dr.) S. B. Wijekoon.

Glimpse of the conference….

The conference was Co-Chaired by Professor Ranjith

Dissanayake, University of Perdeniya, Sri Lanka,

Professor Priyan Mendis, University of Melbourne,

Australia, Professor Thishan Jayasinghe, University

of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, Professor Janaka Ruwanpu-

ra, University of Calgary, Canada, and Eng. Shiromal

Fernando, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Hab-

itat, Sri Lanka. The Principal Sponsor for the event

was Melwire Rolling (Pvt) Ltd.

ICSBE 2014 was brought forth as a joint venture of

University of Peradeniya, University of Moratuwa

and University of Ruhuna. It shaped a common

platform upon which various individuals from vari-

ous areas of research interests could exchange their

knowledge and gain more in order to enrich their

own research work.

The parallel sessions were conducted under the top-

ics of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, Sustaina-

ble Buildings and Infrastructures, Urban water Envi-

ronment: Monitoring and Management, Resilience

Engineering Applications on Disaster Mitigation,

Science Technology and Innovation, Sustainable

Buildings and Infrastructures, Solid Waste Manage-

ment, Sustainable Construction and Design, Annual

Green Building Conference, Green Technology, Com-

munity, Environment and the Ecosystems, Climatic

Change, Green Energy, Environmental Pollution and

Chronic Kidney Diseases in NCP of Sri Lanka.

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5th International Conference on Sustainable

Built Environment

T hus the conference created an excellent

hub where engineering knowledge could

be exchanged.

All the full papers that were accepted given

high recognition and were published in Special Vol-

umes of the 15 Special Proceedings with Internation-

al Standards.

It is highly notable that, over 150 undergraduates

and post graduate students participated in this im-

pressive event and thus the conference was attended

by over 500 participants over three days.

As a special event during the conference was the in-

auguration of the Annual Green Building Conference

held during the conference. Pleasingly a total partici-

pation of about 200 participants were present for the

conference with the participation of the Board of Di-

rectors of GBCSL (Green Building Council

of Sri Lanka).

The Opening Ceremony and the Technical Sessions

ended with a cultural show and 2 grand dinners with

the participants enjoying Sri Lankan cuisine and ex-

ploring our exotic culture. The closing ceremony

was held on the 14th of December.

As this is meant to be a continuous process, the next

International Conference Proceedings will be under

the theme of “Structural Engineering and Construc-

tion Management”. Work is already on track and the

new website (www.icsecm.org) has been launched

for further information so that interested parties can

be kept informed and will be able to keep in touch

with us. We expect it to be a widely enthusiastic step

ahead in the field of Structural Engineering and Con-

struction management.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

Special Grants

NORAD Grant was received

by Prof. S.B. Weerakoon of

Engineering faculty.

University of Peradeniya,

CVCD Excellence Awards

Dr. J. J. Wijetunge

Most outstanding Senior Research-

er in the field of Technology and

related Sciences including Engi-

neering, Architecture, Quantity

Surveying and Information Tech-

nology.

1st and 2nd Places

This successful event was held from

26th to 27th of September in Ban-

galore, India. 1st Place - Mr. Ishan-

ka Wimalaweera and Miss. Wagee-

sha Premarathne for their presen-

tation on “Leachate Treatment us-

ing Sequencing Batch Reactor” su-

pervised by Dr. K.B.S.N. Jinadasa.

2nd Place - Mr. Imran Ahamedad-

ducedhis for his undergraduate re-

s e a r c h o n “ O p t i m u m S h e a r

Strengthening of RC Beams” super-

vised by Dr. H.D. Yapa.

SLJCR

Sri Lanka Japan Collaborative

research Conference was held

on the 15th of December 2014

with the collaboration of the

Japanese embassy. This Con-

ference was held at the Earl’s

Regency Hotel, Kandy.

It has provided the researches

to collect all the eminent work

and bring them to a common

platform to share all the

knowledge and the experience

gathered during their research

work.

CES PROGRAMMMES FOR 2015

New competitions

Quiz competitions

Election of Subcommittees for IESL/SSE/SLGTS/GBCSL

Lab Clearing day

Allocating themes for CES seminar

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Presidential Research Bonus

Dr. Shameen Jinadasa

Dr. Nadeeshani Nanayakkara

Dr. J.J. Wijetunge

NRC Merit Award for Scientific Publication

Prof. Ranjith Dissanayake

Dr. (Mrs.) H.K. Nandalal

Dr. J.J. Wijetunge

IESL Best Technical Paper

SD & CC Award to Prof. K. P. P. Pathirana

IESL competitions

1st and 2nd place - Spaghetti Bridge

3rd place - High performance concrete

Manamperi Award 2014

Manamperi Award selected project, 2014

The undergraduate engineering project on "Finite Element Simulation of Po-

tential AAR in Victoria Dam" carried out by Mr. C.T. Nung, Mr. D.S.P.M.T.

Pathirana and Mr. G.S. Edirisinghe under the supervision of Dr. A.P.N.

Somaratne.

Achievements

N ew Surveying

Equipment was do-

nated to the faculty of Engineer-

ing, by the Queensland Universi-

ty of Technology, Australia and a

comprehensive training pro-

gramme was conducted by Mr.

Ben Brownlee who is the Senior

Technician of the Spatial Scienc-

es, Engineering Precinct Science

and Engineering Faculty of

Queensland University of Tech-

nology, Australia. He was also

appointed as the Equipment

Trainer at-

tached to the

Surveying Lab

for a period of

17th November

2014 to 4th

January 2015.

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Opening of the Environmental Engineering

Laboratory

Sunday 14th of December 2014, the Japanese Am-

bassador to Sri Lanka, His Excellency Nobuhito Ho-

bo declared opening of the new Environmental Engi-

neering Laboratory in Department of Civil Engineer-

ing, Faculty of Engineering . With the introduction of

the laboratory, Faculty of Engineering introduces

cutting edge laboratory technology and analysis in

the field of Environmental Engineering.

As a stepping stone to strengthen the long standing

association of friendship, Science and Technology

Research Partnership for Sustainable Development

(SATREPS) project was introduced to Sri Lanka

which was structured as collaboration between the

Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

aimed at promoting international joint research cul-

ture, resolving global issues and contributing to the

science and technology community and capacity de-

velopment to address issues emerging as local needs

in developing countries like Sri Lanka.

Under the patronage of SATREPS project, University

of Peradeniya established this modern Environmen-

tal Engineering laboratory furnished with advanced

equipment which aims at building research capacity

of the laboratory staff and the undergraduate/

postgraduate students. This is the first national la-

boratory complex act as a nucleus in germinating

research and development culture in Sri Lanka and

getting an international exposure to the Research

Culture in Sri Lanka.

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R ajib B. Mallick, PhD, PE Ralph White

Family Distinguished Professor, Associ-

ate Head and Graduate Program Coordinator, Civil

and Environmental Engineering Department ,

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Fulbright Scholar,

USA.

He was attached to the Surveying lab as the Ful-

bright Scholar for the period of 17th Nov. 2014 to

4th January 2015 and will be from June to August

2015. He was one of the key members in preparing

the post-graduate curriculum on Highway and Traf-

fic Engineering.

He conducted a special session on Highway Con-

struction, Materials, and Methods during 6th, 7th,

20th and 21st of December, 2014. He also started

working on collaborate research on highway engi-

neering specially targeting final year undergraduate

research of the Department.

He delivered a lecture on sustainable pavement en-

gineering in a seminar organized by the Institution

of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL). He had reviewed 12

papers for International Conference on Sustainable

Built Environment (ICSBE) 2014 and delivered a

keynote lecture in the ICSBE, 2014.

D r. Gemunu Nanayakkara, who is from

the Department of Accounting Finance

& Economics from Griffith University, Brisbane,

Australia conducted Visiting Lectures starting from

August 2014 for a month.

P rofessor Barry Jones, from the College of

Architecture and Environmental Design,

Construction Management Department of

USA, will be working as a Fulbright Scholar starting

from mid this year.

Visiting Scholars at the Department of

Civil Engineering

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1. Dr. (Ms.) Chandima Gunawardana

2. Dr. Dhammika Abeykoon

3. Dr. Kushan Wijesundara

4. Dr. M. C. M. Nazvi

5. Mr. C. S. Bandara

6. Mr. R. M. Lashitha Dinesh

Dr. Dhammika Abeykoon

Doctor of Philosophy in

Structural Engineering from

Saitama University, Japan.

(2014), Master of Engineer-

ing in Structural Engineering

from Asian Institute of Tech-

nology, Thailand (2009),

B.Sc. Engineering from University of Peradeniya,

( 2003)

Dr. M. C. M. Nazvi

BSc. Eng (Civil), PhD Eng

(Civil), HOD, Civil Engineer-

ing, CINEC Campus, Malabe.

Dr. (Ms.) Chandima

Gunawardana

Bachelors degree in Civil En-

gineering, Postgraduate Di-

ploma in University of Perad-

eniya. PhD scholar of the

Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Dr. Kushan Wijesundara

Bachelor Degree in Science,

specialized in Civil Engineer-

ing from the University of

Peradeniya, in 2003. Award-

ed a scholarship by the insti-

tute of advanced study in Pa-

via, Italy to pursue M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the ROSE

School attached to the University of Pavia, Italy.

Mr. C. S. Bandara

Bachelors degree in Civil Engi-

neering in 2001 and Masters

degree in Structural Engineer-

ing in 2011 from the Faculty of

Engineering, University of

Peradeniya. PhD scholar of the National Research

Council of Sri Lanka from 2011 to 2014.

Mr. R. M. Lashitha Dinesh

Bachelors degree in Civil Engi-

neering from the Faculty of

Engineering, University of

Peradeniya. Master of Engi-

neering at the Hokkaido Uni-

versity, Japan.

New Staff Members of the Faculty

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Department Development Plan

The vision of the De-

partment Development

Plan is to remain as the

best Civil Engineering

Department in the

Country. The mission

is to produce the best

graduates in Civil Engi-

neering, highly recog-

nized by the industry

and the leading universities in the world. This strate-

gic plan will strengthen the Department of Civil En-

gineering to face future challenges. The main focus

relies on the undergraduate developments. This in-

cludes the improvement of attitudes of the students,

Creating student interest on studies, Targeting publi-

cations on Research, Soft skills development of un-

dergraduates and Retaining best students as instruc-

tors.

Department improvements includes Course revision,

Introduction of new remuneration scheme for In-

structors, Development of facilities and training for

the Academic staff, Development of Attitude towards

university and work for Non Academic staff, Im-

provement of laboratories, Improvement of the de-

partment office for better efficiency, collaborating

the institutes for better MOU’s, Improvement of In-

ternational links, Promoting students for Postgradu-

ate programs, Developing better Industrial relation-

ships, Introducing department facilities to industry

through Marketing strategies, Management and so-

cial interactions and Getting the alumni support.

Faculty areas are to be improved with Club activities

and Social activities for students/staff.

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ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE VACANCIES

SENIOR LECTURER GRADE I/II

P reference will be given to candidates

who have Ph.D. in Materials Science and

Metallurgy and Fluid Mechanics

(preferably with competence in Compu-

tational Fluid Dynamics and Climate change)

Highway and Pavement Engineering, Infrastruc-

ture Planning and Engineering, Building Services

Engineering, in Environmental Chemistry and In-

strumentation with first degree in Civil Engineer-

ing, Geotechnical Engineering, Construction Engi-

neering / Construction Management and GIS/RS

and Surveying with Engineering back ground.

Contact Us

Postal Address

Department of Civil Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

University of Peradeniya

Peradeniya 20400

Sri Lanka

Telephone +94-81-2393500

E-Mail head@civil.pdn.ac.lk