A total of ten (10) parallel technical sessions were held on January 29, 2015 and seven (07) were on January 30, 2015. 165 research presentations were delivered by the undergraduates and the researchers from other universities and institutions during these technical sessions. Three (03) keynote speeches in the afternoon session on January 29, on the topics of “Innovation driven economic growth”, “A new dawn towards Sustainable tourism development in Sri Lanka” and “Side Channel Attacks on Embedded System” were eloquently delivered by Dr. O.G. Dayarathne, Mr. Srilal Mittapala and Dr. Roshan G. Ragel respectively. All keynote speeches were based on contemporary societal challenges. Current status and the scale of the problems and the possible remedies to overcome such problems were discussed by all the presenters.

A successful and well organized poster session was held on January 29 from 4.00 pm onward at E1 hall which was attended by a large number of people. As it was organized during the tea break after the afternoon technical session, all attendees had a plenty of time to interact and discuss science while going through the posters. The environment was further electrified by the presence of all sponsors of the symposium displaying their banners and stalls, which again provided an opportunity to the participants to be familiarize with new scientific products and developments. All posters presented were in good quality and panel members may have had a hard time to choose the best poster. Total of 31 posters were displayed during this session.

On 29th night, a magnificent symposium dinner was organized at hotel Heritage to welcome all participants to the symposium. The event was made colorful by inviting a group of professional classical musicians and singers who played and sang songs of leading classical singers of our time and entertained all the participants. Symposium dinner gathered many senior colleagues in academia and industry together which was a great occasion to exchange views on various matters.

On moving to the next day, January 30, 2015, as was mentioned earlier, total of seven (07) technical sessions were held only in the morning. Each technical session started with a keynote speech delivered by leading research/teaching/administrative personalities on the topics of “Sustaining sustainable development with livestock” by prof. Pradeepa Silva, “Marine Biodiversity and Conservation of Marine Resources” by Dr. P.B. Terney Pradeepa Kumara, “How to Cater Agricultural Research in Needs of Agricultural Industry” by Dr. Nimal Dissanayake, “Mineral industry of Sri Lanka” by Dr. A.M.K.B. Abeysinghe and finally “Academic contribution for national development” by Prof. H.M.D. Namal Priyantha. These were excellent topics and relevant to the current context of global interest. Participants to the symposium were fortunate to listen to a total of nine (09) keynote speeches during the two days.

In the afternoon on January 30, 2015, a closing ceremony together with the award presentation was held at MLT with Vice Chancellor of UWU as the Chairperson of the event. Many academic staff members and the students of UWU took part it. The event was started after listing to illustrious presentations made by three young carrier senior academic staff members from three facilities (Animal Science and Export Agriculture, Management and Science and Technology) who presented their PhD research work to the participants. An hour long session was organized primarily to give an opportunity to the staff members to display their own research work to a wider community as it could help promote possible future research collaborations within the university as well as with other research organizations which may help gauge the future research directions of the university. Developing key research priority areas in line with the vision of value addition is necessary for the university at this stage pooling the available skill matrix set of the staff members. In order to do pursue this, the first step should be the opening a common platform for them, which was that an hour long discussion. In future, these research symposia should be the focal point of the university to interact and be developed to an international level where staff members, postgraduate students, undergraduate students present their work to the world. During the closing ceremony, Vice Chancellor and Deans of the faculties awarded medals and certificates to the winners of the poster and oral competitions.

Finally, nothing would have been possible to achieve in today’s economically intractable world, had we not receive the financial support from our philanthropists, sponsors and the university who truly grasped the importance of the event, social responsibilities and commitments to the UWU. Towards this, the Chancellor Nayaka Thero contributed a generous endowment from his personal funds towards the expenses of the symposium, which is truly remarkable as it was the first such endowment made by a Chancellor of UWU towards the development of research at the university. Equally well was contributed by the Bank of Ceylon, Badulla branch and became the major sponsor of the event. Besides, Hemsons International, Analytical Instrument, Organic Trading (Pvt) Ltd, Techno Instrument (Pvt) Ltd, Rajarata Tiles, Peoples Bank Badulla, and Mobitel –Badulla all sponsored the event at their best possible capacities.

The symposium is a great success. To make this even a success, the symposium organizing committee, especially the secretary and the group leaders, worked overtime with dedication to which all honors should be poured into. The challenge is now to make the next symposium in 2016, a greater success with more sponsors and more quality research presentations.

Dr. A.R. Kumarasinghe

Chairman/ 5th Research Symposium

Uva Wellassa University

A two day training program for small scale food vendors in the Badulla district was successfully held at the Uva Wellassa University on December 13 and 14, 2014. The main aim of this event was to strengthen the small scale street food venders in Uva Region. The programme was organized by the Industrial Coordination Cell (UICC) of the Uva Wellassa University.
Food and beverage is a fundamental need for each and every citizen and it has become primarily important due to the changing socioeconomic conditions of the country. As a result, street side food vendors are mushrooming in many locations serving day to day food and refreshment requirements of the community. It also has become a good enterprise option for people to earn their living. Uva region being sub-urban, a considerable number of people depends on street-side food which a lot of food safety and hygienic issues are present. Absence of proper understanding, poor awareness of the gravity of running a food service business, lack of professionalism and negligence of food safety and hygiene principles are most common issues in street-side food business. The consumers suffer in purchasing such food, while some other segments escape from consuming from such stalls. On the other hand, the vendors find it difficult to run the business continuously over the time due to their lack of knowledge in business management.

Uva Wellassa University, Center of Excellence for Value Additionhas been always enthusiastic in providing necessary technological and educational assistance for strengthening local community in the region. The Industrial Coordination Cell of Uva Wellassa University initiated the first step towards uplifting small and micro entrepreneurs with this training workshop for the small scale street-side food vendors in Uva region after researching the existing commercial establishments.

As a concept of the former council member Mr. Mahinda Katugaha the program was initiated with the guidance and instructions given by Dr. Gamini Chandrasena, Vice Chancellor of Uva Wellassa University.

The key objective of this training programme was to introduce strategies to improve their business performance with a more customer focused service operation. The importance of financial and banking, healthy and nutritional food service operation, food production and presentation and introducing the legal background for food related operations were key events of theprogram.

35 Participants were selected for more effective programme after screening all the applications from small scale street side food operators in Uva region. The opening ceremony was held on December 13, 2014 at the University auditorium with the participation of Deans of the Faculties, Heads of Departments, Lecturers, Administration Officers and Resource Personnel from the industry.

A practical approach to the food safety, hygiene and nutritional importance was conducted by Dr. Sandun Abeyrathna, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture of Uva Wellassa University. The entire programme consisted with two practical sessions; a main meal preparation and pastry item preparation by Chef T.M.C. Tennakoon, Senior Lecturer, Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, Bandarawela. The food preparation sessions were really attractive and participants actively engaged with the session. The resources of the University main kitchen and restaurant used for the practical sessions of Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management degree programme were utilized for the practical sessions.
Officers of the super grade branch of Bank of Ceylon (BOC), Badulla, educated the participants to the importance of banking and financing for a small scale business operations. The participants got an opportunity to discuss about practical issues on loan and financial matters with the officers. The health issues and nutritional side of the food related operations were discussed by the Dr. Manjula Jinasena, University Medical Officer of the Uva Wellassa University. Practical aspects of food service operations and the legal framework for them were discussed by Mr. Ravindra Jayawardhana, Public Health Inspector of Badulla.

The entire training programme was very attractive and all participants were actively spoken for the sessions. The programme was highly appreciated at the discussion session. According to the coordinator of UICC, Dr. P.I.N. Fernando, Dean, Faculty of Management, there will be more practical training programmes for the small and medium entrepreneurs of the Uva Region. The programme was organized by the Lecturers of the Faculty of Management and sponsored by Bank of Ceylon, and Mr. Mahinda Katugaha , former Council Member of Uva Wellassa University.