Supporting the advance of knowledge and encouraging innovation among students, SLIIT’s Faculty of Engineering hosted the ‘Industrial Symposium 2023’ in collaboration with Dialog Axiata Innovation recently.
The main objective of the symposium was to build a bridge between industry and SLIIT providing a platform for students at the Institute to obtain new research ideas and technology concepts that industries are currently engaged in. Moreover, initiatives such as the symposium supports to broaden the mind of SLIIT students in targeting the industrial market.
The symposium was attended by leading industry players, with sessions planned to help students discuss problems currently faced or any products that can boost the performance of the industry and understand how to devise innovative solutions to overcome overheads and enhance industry performance.
Prof. Saman Thilakasiri, Dean Faculty of Engineering, said, “Our goal is to build an ecosystem for our students gain deeper understanding of technologies and the challenges of the future. We are extremely appreciative of Dialog who collaborated with us to ensure the success of the event. The symposium brought together industry leaders to share their perspectives on new directions and opportunities in the technological arena, as well as the obstacles they face, providing a ringside view for our students to enhance their knowledge and prepare for the future.”
Organizations present at the event included Zone24X7, Lalan Rubbers (Pvt) Ltd, Orange Electric, Sri Lanka Army, MAS Holdings, Atlas Axillia Co. (Pvt) Ltd, Orit Apparels Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, DIMO Electrical Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, Aitken Spence PLC, FIMER, Sierra Cables PLC, OREL Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Divor Automations (Pvt) Ltd, Camso Loadstar (Pvt) Ltd and Sri Lanka Tobacco.
Commenting on the event, Chatura Peries Head – Product and Service Innovation, Dialog Axiata, stated, “We began our 5G innovation programme with an objective of hitching academia and industry together and SLIIT’s Industrial Symposium 2023 is one such stepping stone. Events of this nature help us identify potential industry opportunities to drive the programme to the next level. Today, we witnessed commendable participation with multiple industry and enterprise partners, and also very thought-provoking brainstorming sessions to identify their problem statements in terms of driving next generation technology-led digital solutions and product offerings. We believe symposium provides a valuable stage together with SLIIT together to drive next generation technology led opportunities carving out enterprise solutions to the next level.”
Thulith Edirisinghe, Co-Founder/Director, Meu Labs added, “We extend our thanks to SLIIT and Dialog for inviting us to this event. It was remarkable to interact with representatives from SLIIT and Dialog and discuss problems that we are facing in our industry, especially in an objective setting but more importantly to understand and talk about potential solutions. I am looking forward to the relationship that we have built with SLIIT resulting in added value for our organization and ability to solve problems while at the same time provide opportunities for the students who have conducted valuable research focused towards the industry.”
Anjana Vishvanath, Director Operations, Divor Automation, noted, “Joining this event had offered us considerable insight how research is taking place and what other companies are offering in the industry, and what are the bottlenecks that everybody is facing. We were able to develop good links with SLIIT and hope to develop those links and develop our business as well as helping the students to gain more industry exposure, and we look forward to continuing this relationship into the future.”
Organizing the symposium showcases SLIIT’s as a forerunner in innovation and technology looking for ways to improve students’ inventive abilities and research enthusiasm.