2021 - (Vol. 01, Issue 01)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/16680

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Now showing 1 - 18 of 18

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Bolgoda chat, crossing the borders in his own way: An interview with Emeritus Professor P A De Silva
(2021-10) Karunathilake, Hirushie; Witharana, Sanjeeva
IPT gained university status in 1972. However, in 1966 we had received a status equivalent to a university, under the name “Ceylon College of Technology”. I remember one interesting incident from that time. The first vice chancellor was Dr. Upali Kuruppu. I was responsible for selecting Junior Technical Officers (JTO), and these were highly capable students who had missed engineering by a narrow margin. There were around 80 deserving candidates, and we were only admitting 40. Late Prof. Patuwathawithana and I (we were both young and junior staff members at that time), approached the administration to request an increase in the intake. Indeed, we had space to accommodate. There was a fear that, if we produced more, there will be no demand. The University of Ceylon was thus unwilling to increase the intake beyond 25 students. Finally, we managed to increase the JTO intake from 40 to 60. The JTO students were very capable. Prof. Patuwathawithana and I started to teach IMechE part II subjects to them. While I taught Heat Engines and Materials, he used to teach Thermo-machines etc. Some of them went on to become chartered engineers, and that too paved the way for the Ceylon College of Technology.
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Impacts of the first COVID-19 lockdown on mobility and consumption of households in Sri Lanka : results of a survey
(2021) De Silva, MM; Perera, HN; Kumarage, AS
Sri Lanka was introduced to an unnamed virus on 27th January 2020 when a Chinese tourist was diagnosed with it [1]. Within 8 weeks, the virus named COVID-19 had begun infecting the local population, and the government was taking measures to prevent its spread in Sri Lanka.
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Cognitively intelligent models for Human-Robot interaction with MIRob
(2021) Sirithunga, C; Jayasekara, B
Moratuwa Intelligent Robot, shortened as MIRob, is the first successful outcome of the research conducted by the Intelligent Service Robotics Group (ISRG) of the Department of Electrical Engineering-UoM. The tremendous effort of a team of Masters, MPhil and PhD students made MIRob project a success. Chapa Sirithunge is the most recent graduate from the team, who recently defended her PhD with the Intelligent Service Robotics Group. Her research: Framework for Adaptive Human-Robot Interaction Initiation for Domestic Environments, was supervised by Prof. Buddhika Jayasekara, lead of the group.
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Use of videography for traffic surveys in Sri Lanka
(2021) Herath, OK; Perera, P; Sivakumar, T; Ayesha, B; Kumarage, AS; Perera, AS
Traffic Surveys are crucial for different transport studies like Origin-Destination studies, Traffic Volume estimations, Vehicle Flow characteristics Determinations, Speed and Delay Studies, Turning Movement analysis, Parking Analysis etc. Currently, Sri Lankan researchers are using mostly human-based manual surveys and semi-automated methods for Traffic Surveys. However, there is an issue in cost, effort, the value of time, and the accuracy of data gathering in the above methods. Therefore, under Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) grant, we are researching the possibility of doing surveys using videography and Artificial Intelligence technologies for continuous and accurate data collection to reduce the burden that is currently facing.
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Urban food security of the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR) in Covid times
(2021) Ovitipana, AORBEWD; Dasanayaka, SWSB
Colombo Municipality Region (CMR) consists of a highly complex food system that relies on the supply from distant outstations which literally collapsed during the pandemic situation. A requirement exists for empirical research to derive guidelines and recommendations to increase the sustainability and security in the food supply in CMR during a disaster situation.
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Microalgae : a promising bioresource for a sustainable future
(2021) Ariyadasa, TU
Microalgae are highly diverse unicellular photosynthetic organisms found in aquatic environments. Microalgae produce oxygen during their proliferation, contributing to nearly 50% of the total oxygen production in the world. Concurrently, microalgae consume carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thereby serving as carbon sinks to alleviate the effects of global warming. In comparison to terrestrial plants, microalgae exhibit rapid growth rates, higher photosynthetic efficiency, shorter harvesting time and higher biomass productivities. Moreover, they do not require arable land or potable water to facilitate their growth, hence becoming a more sustainable feedstock as compared to conventional crops. Altogether, microalgae have been identified as a bioresource with great industrial potential due to their ability to accumulate commercially valuable metabolites that can be extracted and subsequently processed into diverse bioproducts such as biofuels, pharmaceuticals/nutraceuticals, biofertilizer and animal feed.
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Materialising gender-fluidity through fashion
(2021) Gunawardena, H; Wickramasinghe, U
As the final year comprehensive design project for the Honours Degree of Bachelor of Design, Department of Integrated Design, Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, I have selected a project which is based upon my own clothing brand. It is an emerging ready-to-wear clothing brand based in Sri Lanka, which was launched in August 2020 through the Colombo Fashion Week named “HARID”. Currently, HARID retails at the Design Collective store in Colombo for a consumer group based upon it. The brand philosophy of HARID is to challenge gender-related stereotypical concepts. As the brand identity, HARID uses heritage craft practices.
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Life cycle thinking for packaging
(2021) Jagoda, S; Karunathilake, H; Gamage, JR
Unsustainable packaging practices are one of the leading problems in today’s world, leading to unnecessary resource consumption, increased waste generation, environmental pollution, and an overall negative impact on ecosystems. Global statistics show that 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year. It has been estimated that approximately 79% of plastic produced since 1950 has been sent to landfills or otherwise released to the environment. With the current trends, the United Nations predicts that the plastic content will overweigh the fish in the ocean by 2050 [1].
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Is cues of contagious diseases in advertising a friend or foe?
(2021) Ranaweera, A; Wijekoon, A
We are all well aware of how the Covid-19 pandemic has caused devastating economic and social disruptions globally. The pandemic caused serious health, economic, social, business, travel, education, and workplace challenges to almost all the consumers across the world. From a marketing perspective, these challenges have led to dramatic changes in how consumers behave [1], [2]. In fact, Covid-19 pandemic represents one of the most significant environmental changes in modern marketing history [3]. Thus, understanding the changes in consumer behavior is critically important to marketers going forward. Given this background, this proposed research seeks to examine the impact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior, in particular consumers’ impulsive buying behavior, hoarding behavior, and consumers’ intention to recycle. We further predict that consumer’s negative emotions evoked by both visual and written cues of contagious disease in advertisements will act as a mediator on this relationship. We further predict that individual differences in perceived vulnerability to infectious disease will moderate the contagious disease cue effect on the predicted relationships.
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Increasing the political involvement and political literacy of Sri Lankan youth – A communication design aspect
(2021) Rodrigo, T
Majority of the younger generation of Sri Lanka in particular have a very low regard for the whole subject of politics. The reason for this has been the political dysfunction that they witness in their day-to-day lives. The most common dialogue they hear concerning politics is one where the older generations acknowledge that the political landscape is an utter mess.
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iGrasp Robotic prosthetic hand
(2021) Widanage, KND; Perera, ULS; Dasanayake, NP; Viduranga, RKP; Siyambalagoda, SAPK; Cooray, TMGCSP; Fernando, KRT; Ranaweera, RKPS; Gopura, RARC
e are living in an era in which technology is shaping the world at an incredible speed. In this wake, the Bionics laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Moratuwa is doing inspiring research to improve the quality of life of differently-abled people.
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First-principles calculation on electronic properties of Bismuth-halide inorganic perovskites for solar cell
(2021) Sewvandi, GA; Jayawardane, JTST
Solar energy is a commonly used alternate source of energy and it can be utilized based on the principle of the photovoltaic effect. The photovoltaic effect converts sun energy into electrical energy using photovoltaic devices (solar cells).
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Enterprise Robotic process automation
(2021) Vitharanage, IM; Gamage, AIT
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging technology widely used across multiple sectors such as human resources, healthcare, finance, accounting, manufacturing, higher education and supply chain management, etc.
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Ensuring the safety of Sri Lankan hospitals: adaptation of the WHO “Safe Hospital” initiative to Sri Lanka
(2021) Siriwardana, C
As a critical infrastructure, hospitals have to play a pivotal role in the health and well-being of a community. Specially during a disaster, hospitals are supposed to treat victims while continuing their day-to-day functions.
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Enhancing the power of understanding
(2021) Karunananda, AS
Power of understanding is a rewarding cognitive capacity required for all of us from early childhood to the highest level of intellectual settings. Among other things, the concept of understanding plays a vital role in education.
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Curating Kandyan traditional clothing in the UNESCO world cultural heritage in digital paradigm
(2021) Karunaratne, PVM; Ranathunga, GM; De Silva, SSV
Historical notions of cultural values in the heritage sector have been identified by holders of curatorial expertise based at institutions with large collections of artifacts. However, the rise of new digital technologies has facilitated not only active two-way engagement with heritage, but also a broadening of what we mean by heritage and how it can be accessed, through the co-production of exhibitions, oral histories, and other forms of display and archive based on personal remembrance, recollection and interactivity.
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Consumption of chilled water stored in a PET bottle multiple times: are we quenching thirst or gulping phthalates?
(2021) Jayaweera, M; Perera, H; Dhanushika, G; Gunawardane, B
The statistics forecast that the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles worldwide in 2016 was about 485 billion, and the same in 2021, has been approximately 583 billion. Although such productions in many countries have the ear of prominent political and social leaders, high production rates still reign the global market. In parallel, revered scientists globally conflate plausible and incontrovertible medical canons against the use of PET bottles for the protection of public health.
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An Innovative approachto produce soil-based building products
(2021) Malkanthi, SN; Perera, AADAJ
Soil has been used as a building material in different forms, such as mud, adobe, rammed earth, and bricks. Compressed Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB), a form of soil blocks with different additives including cement, fly ash, and lime, is a sustainable building material with many advantages compared to other conventional building materials

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