An Engineering Future

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) will be held at the ‘Nugasevana’ at BMICH, Colombo 7 on Saturday, 28th October 2017 commencing at 9.00 AM. It is requested that all Corporate Members and Associate Members attend this important event. The AGM is the forum to which members can present resolutions for consideration by the general membership and after discussion such resolutions can be adopted by an open vote. There are several resolution that I have submitted to the IESL AGM 2017 and many colleagues have asked for an explanation. This note is intended to answer some of these questions and provide clarifications. HOW MANY RESOLUTIONS? There are 10 resolutions that I have submitted as a proposer and seconded by several colleagues from the IT & Communication Engineering Sectional Committee of the IESL. WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES? Collectively, they have only ONE objective. To STOP the selling of Associate Membership of the IESL and...

The IESL Council Election for the 2017/2018 Session is making history as the first widely deployed and locally organized public election with online electronic voting. While many international professional organizations such as ACM and IEEE have provided their members with e-Voting for many years, 2017 marks a historic event as IESL Council Election is the first election that is fully managed by a local election committee led by a Chief Returning Officer with e-Voting technical services obtained from one of the leading international companies. In Lowry and Vora (2009), a comprehensive definition of required and desirable features of an electronic and/or online election system is given. Main among these features are Ballot Secrecy,  Usability,  Accessibility,  Incoercibility,  Deniability,  Voter-verifiable Ballot-casting,  Universally-verifiable Tally-processing,  Voter-auditable Ballot-casting, and  Publicly-auditable Voting-p...

Undoubtedly, for any organization, accountability and transparency are two of the most important attributes to have in all its activities. For professional organizations of the caliber of IESL, this importance is doubly so. I have submitted two member resolutions for the forthcoming IESL AGM in that spirit. Please participate at the IESL AGM on Saturday, 28th October 2017 and express your views on this resolution and support its adoption.

The IESL has garnered significant responsibilities in recent years in fulfilling its mission to promote, protect and develop the profession of engineering in Sri Lanka. Key among these achievements are the full Washington Accord Accreditor status (in 2014) for 4 year engineering degree programs, provisional Sydney Accord Accreditor status for 3 year engineering degree programs (in 2017), and as sole representative of Chartered Engineers in the Engineering Council setup under the Engineering Council, Sri Lanka Act, No. 4 of 2017. Invariably, such powers of the IESL will require the Institution to have greater transparency in its actions. Towards achieving that objective, the IT & Communications Engineering Sectional Committee of the IESL is sponsoring a resolution at the IESL AGM 2017 on the Right to Information Act. Please participate at the IESL AGM on Saturday, 28th October 2017 and express your views on this resolution and support its adoption.

The Republic of Rwanda with a GDP of $2,090 (in 2016 and PPP adjusted) and ranking 159th in the HDI (Human Development Index) is a small country in East Africa (in comparison, Sri Lanka with a PPP adjusted GDP of $13,012 ranks 73rd in HDI). Historically, the schools in Rwanda were established and run by religious bodies but since 2000, the government has invested heavily in public education. This has resulted in nearly one third of the schools being publicly funded, a compulsory twelve-year basic education, a school feeding program, and major improvements in teaching infrastructure and capacity. The outcome of this progressive government policy in education has been a shift of student enrollments from private schools to public schools and many private schools facing the possibility of closure. The ensuing uncertainty has caused the owners of private schools to request the Rwandan government to support their continued operation. Reference: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/r...

An article in The New York Times draws interesting parallels about top American companies now (like Apple, Google, Facebook) and 30 years ago (Kodak, IBM, AT&T) and provides an important lesson in changes to corporate ethos and their impact on workers. While top companies have always focused on developing innovative technologies, creating highly marketable products, and shaping promotional campaigns towards market dominance, the modern corporations are clinically focused on their core competencies and outsource all other activities. The New York Times article tells the story of Gail Evans who was a janitor in the Kodak Corporation headquarters in Rochester, New York who ultimately ended up as the Chief Technology Officer of the company. Her success story was helped in large measure by the corporate culture of prevalent at the time, which focused on having full-time permanent employees with company support for career development as part of the employment condition. Ms Evans was abl...

In the book " The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts ", the authors Prof Richard Susskind of University of Oxford and Daniel Susskind discuss the replacement of technologists and professionals in a wide range of professions by automation systems and non-technology non-professionals, essentially machine operators and maintainers. One of the dramatic developments of technology over last half-century is near total disappearance of certain jobs. However, for us engineers, it was heartening to know that those jobs that went away were not professional jobs requiring deep expertise and a broad set of capabilities. Among the lost jobs were telephone switchboard operators, lift operators and the typist pool of companies. But as Bob Dylan sang way back in 1963, "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and advances in computer engineering, information technology and ubiquity of Internet is causing professional job categories to move t...

The ENGINEERING COUNCIL, SRI LANKA ACT, No. 4 OF 2017 is an Act to provide for the establishment of the Engineering Council, Sri Lanka which shall be responsible for the maintenance of professional standards and conduct of engineering practitioners; registration of different categories of engineering practitioners; and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. The Constitution of the Council includes, in addition to four ex-officio members, thirteen other members appointed by the Minister. The Minister is empowered to appoint seven Chartered Engineers representing different engineering disciplines in rotation for every two years. These Chartered Engineers shall be nominated by the IESL for appointment by the Minister. The upcoming Council Election provides the members of IESL an opportunity to establish a Council for session 2017/2018 that will put in place a transparent and inclusive process to select members for the Engineering Council.

A report by the Geneva based World Economic Forum titled " New Vision for Education - Unlocking the Potential of Technology " has identified 4 key areas for policymakers to concentrate on. The skills needed in the 21st century The 21st-century skills gap The potential of technology to help close the skills gap System-wide priorities for stakeholders The apex engineering and technology professional organizations such as IESL have a pivotal role to play in influencing and promoting public policy on education to be STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) oriented, which is one of the key skills gap area. The upcoming Council Election provides the members of IESL an opportunity to select representatives who are committed to achieve above goal.

Establishment of a Board of Academic Administration for the IESL College of Engineering Introduction The IESL College of Engineering (IESL CoE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IESL established under the Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Therefore, under the provisions of the said Act and the Articles of Association (AoA) of this private limited liability company, its governance is the sole responsibility of the duly appointed Board of Directors of IESL CoE. According to the AoA the company, the Board consists of the Officers of the Council of the IESL. For the success of the IESL CoE, which has the vision to be the "Premier Higher Educational Institution in Engineering" in Sri Lanka justifying its name brand association with IESL and with the mission to "Achieve Enduring Excellence in Education and Research in Engineering", it is essential to attract the best analytically minded and innovation oriented young people to its undergraduate enr...

Minimum Qualifications Standard as Academic Staff Recruitment Criteria to the IESL College of Engineering Introduction The IESL College of Engineering (IESL CoE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IESL established under the Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Therefore, under the provisions of the said Act and the Articles of Association (AoA) of this private limited liability company, its governance is the sole responsibility of the duly appointed Board of Directors of IESL CoE. According to the AoA the company, the Board consists of the Officers of the Council of the IESL. The IESL CoE established with a mission to "Achieve Enduring Excellence in Education and Research in Engineering" has among its vision to be the "Premier Higher Educational Institution in Engineering" that would be a "benchmark for Engineering Education", the "trend setter in the Engineering Education", and the "setter of Engineering Education Servi...

Minimum Achievement Standard as Entry Qualification Criteria to the IESL College of Engineering Study Programs Introduction The IESL College of Engineering (IESL CoE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IESL established under the Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Therefore, under the provisions of the said Act and the Articles of Association (AoA) of this private limited liability company, its governance is the sole responsibility of the duly appointed Board of Directors of IESL CoE. According to the AoA the company, the Board consists of the Officers of the Council of the IESL. At present the Entry Qualification to the study programs of IESL CoE is a minimum of 3 Simple passes at G.C.E. Advanced Level (A/L) in Mathematics stream or its equivalent. It should be noted that this often cited minimum criteria of 3 Simple passes established by the State is to indicate a Pass in the overall G.C.E. A/L examination and is not an academic achievement established to determ...