Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2017

Grand Finale of  IET Young Woman Engineer of the year 2017 organized by IET  YP section of Sri Lanka network was held on 4^th of December 2017. The event took place at Hotel Galadari, Bougainville Ballroom from 6.30 pm onwards with the presence of Dr. (Ms.) Idah Riddihough (Country Director of World Bank) as the Chief Guest and Eng. (Ms.) R.L. Haturusinha (1^st Lady President of IESL) and Prof. (Ms.) Indra Dayawansa (1^st Lady Chairman of IET Sri Lanka network) as the guests of honors of the event.

Applications were called for the event from the Sri Lankan women in Engineering community after the event and website launch. Out of the received applications 20 candidates were short listed for the second round through an initial review. In the second round (semi-final round), the they were interviewed to select 5 finalists and 2 reserve finalists by a judge panels consisting of prominent engineers and professionals in Sri Lanka. The semi-final event was held at the IET Young professionals’ office at the IESL.  They were evaluated mainly on their communication and presentation skills, technical competency and experience, personal values and engineering ethics and also on leadership, and other soft skills. 

Further, the applicants attitude towards women’s contribution for the field of engineering and society was also recognised in order to identify the ability to inspire girls/young women to take up engineering related career path.

Candidates who had got selected for the final round were N.A. Amarasinghe (Civil Engineer at Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau), M.K.D.S. Kumarasiri (Senior Software Engineer at Millenium IT Software (Pvt.) Ltd), W.U.C. De Alwis (Research Engineer at SYNERGEN Technology Labs (Pvt.) Ltd), S.W. Nelundeniya (Civil Engineer at Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau) and C.S.A. Fernando (Head of Financial Solutions at WSO2)  as 5 finalists with S.J. Sooriyaarachchi (Senior Lecturer at University of Moratuwa) and K.H. Dayani Nayantha (Senior Lecturer at Northshore College of Business and Technology) as 2 reserve finalists.

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Eng. (Mrs.) Badra Jayaweera, Eng. N.A.G. Senanayake, Eng. Aravinda Perera, Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda, Ms. Otara Gunawardene, Ms.Yashinka Jayasinghe Alles and Ms. Jayomi Lokuliyana were the members of the judge panel for the final round of Young Woman Engineer event, who are distinguished engineers and well-known leading roles in the country.At the Grand Finale, 5 finalists spoke on the difficulties they had to face in the field as women, how they overcome those problems, importance and their contribution to the engineering field as well as the society as women engineers. Experiences and thoughts they shared and points they presented were able to establish the necessity of having women engineers in the field for a better future.

Among 5 competitors, Ms. C.S.A. Fernando was able to win the contest becoming the Young Woman Engineer 2017 with Ms. S.W. Nelundeniya as 1st runners up and Ms. W.U.C. De Alwis as 2nd runners up. All three winners were awarded with awards and cash prizes, Rs. 100, 000 for the winner, Rs. 50, 000 for 1st runners up and Rs. 30, 000 for 2nd runners up.

Authors: Mr. Charith Dharmabandu, Ms. Sachini Ekanayake, Mr. Reshan Perera, Ms. Dulmini Gunawardana, Mr. Prasanka Samaraweera

Editor: Mr. Promod Munaweera