University of Colombo School of Computing

University of Colombo School of Computing
Established 2002
Type Undergraduate, Postgraduate Education
Director Prof Gihan Wikramanayake
Location Colombo, Sri Lanka
Publication International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions,
International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions
Website www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk

The University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) is a higher educational institute affiliated to the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka providing computer science and information and communication technology education. The UCSC was formed on 1 September 2002 by bringing together the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo and the Institute of Computer Technology and considered as the leading computing higher educational institution in Sri Lanka.[1]

History

Teaching of computing at the University of Colombo first started in 1967 with the setting up of the Statistical Unit as a separate unit of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science.[2] Later with the initial guidance of Professor V. K. Samaranayake, the Statistical Unit was enhanced as the Statistical Consultancy and Data Processing Service Center.[2] Starting with this center, in 1985 Samaranayake convinced the university to set up the Department of Statistics and Computer Science (DSCS).[3] This is considered as the starting point of the UCSC.[4] A batch of 50 students were taken to study computer science, through the University Grants Commission in 1997.[2] In 2001, the DSCS separated into the Department of Computer Science (DCS) and the Department of Statistics (DS).[2] Finally, UCSC was formed in 2002 by the merger of the existing Department of Computer Science of Faculty of Science and the Institute of Computer Technology (ICT) both of the University of Colombo.

Samaranayake became the founding director of the UCSC.[1] After his retirement, he worked in UCSC as an acting director for a short period. In 2004 Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe became the director of the UCSC and served for next six years. Then Prof. Gihan Wikramanayake became the director of the UCSC in 2010.[5]

Academic departments

The academic staff is allocated to the three academic departments based on their specialization and teaching expertise. Following are the three academic departments based on the research interest.

Centres

Advanced Digital Media Technology Centre (ADMTC)

The Advanced Digital Media Technology Centre (ADMTC) is one of the centres under University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) set up to carry out training for trainers of web-based training and content development at its state-of-art digital studio, teaching and development laboratories. It was created as a Project for Human Resource Development through Capacity Building of the UCSC which went on for 3 years (1 June 2002 to 31 May 2005).

Computer Services Centre

The Computing Services Centre is the Consultancy arm of the UCSC. It was established in 1990 to provide Consultancy Services to the IT and related industries. The activities undertaken by the Computing Services Centre are threefold. Those are short term training courses, software development and consultancy services.

Digital Forensic Centre (DFC)

Digital Forensics Centre of the UCSC was established in 2011. One UCSC and two international academics are advisors of the centre. Centre facilities is been strengthen using a generous donation of US$25,000.00 by a UOC Alumni. Centre has taken over the role of assisting the Sri Lanka Police and the Criminal investigation department which the UCSC undertook since 2003. Requests to support in finding evidence for digital crime cases have been consistently increased during last few years with over 50 court cases in the form of Forgery, Frauds, Illegal, Pornography and Terrorist handled annually at cost.

[6]

E-Learning Centre

E-Learning Centre was established in 2002 at the University of Colombo School of Computing to provide e-learning Service to both internal and external students of UCSC. UCSC external degree program, BIT, was supported by e-learning service from 2003 using learning management facilities. This work was started as a collaborative project with Sweden partner organization, Stockholm University, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV). The project is financed by the Sida (Swedish International Development Agency) and it was conducted as a pilot project to identify the applicability of e-learning. As a result of this pilot project, it was decided to longer term project to strength e-learning initiatives at UCSC and to extend e-learning consultancy and services other universities and whole nation.

Asia eBIT was a project that was started on the last quarter of 2005 to improve the quality of BIT program through e-learning services and it was funded by the European Union. It is a three-year project which has two foreign partners Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), KTH, Stockholm University, DSV in Sweden and Delf Technology University in Netherlands.

External Degrees Centre (EDC)

The main purpose of establishing the External Degrees Centre and the three –year external degree programme, Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) is to widen the higher educational opportunities of the students who have been unsuccessful in meeting the competitive eligibility criteria for admission to the state university system.[7]

Professional Development Centre (PDC)

The Professional Development Centre(PDC) is one of the centres of the UCSC established to enhance the quality of internal degree programmes and others by addressing the issues of professional skills, industrial relevance and social and inter-cultural harmony. PDC is involving in organizing invited talks, guest lectures, industrial placement programme, industrial visits, industrial Presentations and professional skill development programs in the UCSC.[8]

Degrees

Undergraduate

Three years

Four years

Joint special degrees

UCSC offers special degrees joining with the Faculty of Science only for Science Faculty students.

External degrees

Postgraduate

Student life

The UCSC Students' Union aims to represent students at the university. Constitutionally it is governed by the student body via referendums, who annually elect a student council which is responsible for the organisation of the Union. The organization of annual Pirith Ceremony, Freshers' Welcome, Padura and Shramadanaya and other charitable activities is done by internal students as traditions. The Buddhist Students' Association of University of Colombo work closely with UCSC to conduct dhamma deshanas, bhakthi geetha sessions and annual blood donation campaign and other religious societies also work with UCSC students to organize various religious activities such as Vani Viza, Christmas Carols etc.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Undergraduate Handbook University of Colombo School of Computing" (PDF). 2010. p. 02. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Undergraduate Handbook University of Colombo School of Computing" (PDF). 2010. p. 01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Prof. V. K. Samaranayake - Contributions & Services". Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2012. Starting with the Statistical Unit and the Statistical Computing and Data Processing Centre within the Mathematics Department, Prof. Samaranayake...
  4. ↑ "Prof. Gihan Wikramanayake takes over as Director of the UCSC". 24 May 2010. Archived from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2012. UCSC whose roots come from the Department of Statistics and Computer Science celebrates 25 years of...
  5. ↑ "Prof. Gihan Wikramanayake Takes Over As Director Of The UCSC (23rd May 2010)". 28 June 2010. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2012. Prof. Gihan Wikramanayake takes over as Director of the UCSC...
  6. ↑ "Digital Forensic Centre (DFC)". University of Colombo School of Computing. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "External Degrees Centre (EDC)". University of Colombo School of Computing. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Professional Development Centre (PDC)". University of Colombo School of Computing. Retrieved 10 July 2014.

Notes

External links