CIVIL CRIC FIESTA 2018

-ANNUAL CRICKET FIESTA OF DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING-

Success is the epitome of hard work and dedication. While stepping up the ladder of success, a student should reinforce himself with sports. The prime goal of engaging in sports is enhancing physical, mental and social well beings through improving physical fitness, cooperation and self-confidence. With these objectives, Civil Engineering Society organized Civil Cric Fiesta 2K18.

It was held on 17^th November 2018 form 9.00 a.m. onwards at university ground premises. All the students of Civil Engineering Department took part in the event enthusiastically. 2 boys’ teams and 1 girls’ team from each level participated in the competition. Number of matches, each consisting of 6 overs and 11 players in one team were conducted.  The overall winners were   Level 4, while Level 3 were the runners up in boys’ category. Level 4 became the champions in girls’ category and level 1 became the runners up. Best bowler trophy was awarded to a Level 1 player and best batsman’s trophy was awarded to a Level 2 player.

The organizing was subdivided such that each member of the civil family gets a chance to engaged in. Under the guidance of the level 4 students the decorations of the pavilion and poster campaign were carried out by level 1 students while the refreshments for the ecstatic gathering were provided by level 2 students.

More glamourizing the day head of the Department Prof.  Saman Bandara and representing the academic staff Prof. Lalith Rajapaksha,Prof. Mahesh Jayaweera, Prof. Wasantha Mampeaarachchi, Dr. (Ms) Budhdhika Gunawardhana, Dr. H.R.  Pasindu   took part in the event.  Prof. Bandara addressing the gathering praised the value of organizing this event, and advised students on equilibrating both academics and other activities. Lecturers and instructors participated in a cricket match making the crowd more energetic.

Even though the matches flowed with wins and losses, all enjoyed this day lively and cheerfully, being together as a family. It was a day full of happy memories and merriment.

CIVIL NITE 2018

Some days are better than any other day. 2nd of November was one of the best days of the history of department of Civil Engineering. Civil Engineers are known for their workmanship on large scale buildings, on Sky Scrapers. But the 14th of batch of the department proved that civil engineers are even good at the sea. They built a ship sailing in the night on the 2nd of November commencing the Journey of civil night, the most awaited event of the civil engineering calendar.

The night commenced with the lightning of the oil lamp by, the chief guest, Deputy General Manager of the ICC, Prof. S.A.S. Kulathilaka as Acting Head of the Civil Engineering Department, Prof. M.T.R. Jayasinghe, Prof. (Mrs.) C. Jayasinghe, Prof. I.R.A Weerasekara, Prof. W.K. Mampearachchi, Prof. R.U. Halwathura, Prof. M.W. Jayaweera, Dr. (Ms.) W.B. Gunawardana, Dr. G.L.D.I. De Silva, Dr. R.L.H.L. Rajapaksa, Dr. L.I.N. De Silva, Dr. A.S. Ranathunga.

The main aim of the event was to welcome back the 15th batch from their industrial training. The event was coloured with mind blowing dances and songs by the 14th batch and they were joined by a mini drama by the 15th batch on stage. The main narrator of the event was the captain of the ship for the night and the cruise was filled with hilarious dialogue between the captain and the crew. The 14th batch had put out their best effort in making the event a huge success and the instrumental played by the orchestra of the batch gave proof to it. The Goosebumps on the hands of the whole crowed was living proof for their excellence.

A live dinner with Koththu, Hoppers and noodles etc. was served at the end of the 1st session and then the ship of ‘Civil Nite 2018’ sailed in to its 2nd session with an interactive session between the two batches. The event concluded with the energetic DJ show opening the dance floor to the enthusiastic crowd. The dancers could leave the floor until past mid night and of course the sail of Civil Nite 2018 was a memorable night in all their hearts.

SUHASTHA-2018

Suhastha is the O/L seminar session organized by civil engineering society of University of Moratuwa every year in order to support O/L students from schools in rural areas. Purpose of this was to support the students to face examination with more confidence. Knowledge sharing is the superior charity that anyone could perform in their life and this is the reason behind ‘Suhastha’.

This year we were able to make a difference in Suhastha which is renovating the school by painting the school premises and changing window glasses. Even though major objective was the O/L mathematics seminar, we were able to give gifts to all the other grade students this time.  This was made possible with the support of the staff of the department of Civil engineering of UOM.

 










We selected the Handawalpitiya Kanishta Vidyalaya and Vivekananda TMV in Hanguranketha region for the project and have made a pilot visit to those schools in order to get the statistics of students count, wall area of school to be painted etc. There were 228 students in primary and 170 students in secondary level in the Handawalpitiya Kanishta Vidyalaya, where as there were 172 primary students and 203 secondary students in Vivekananda TMV. 

 We were able to collect funds through sales of ticket books, wrist bands and donations from well-wishes and staffs. Suhastha was conducted on 16th, 17th and 18th of November and 45 students from civil batch ’16 participated in the project.  We left from the university in bus at 4.30am on 16th and reached the Sinhala School around 11.30 am. School principal and staff warmly welcomed us and appreciated us for having arranged such a seminar for their school students. 

On the first day we organized a session of games and fun events for students and distributed their gifts. Students were very happy to play games with us and they volunteered to sing without any hesitation and we were amazed to see their eagerness to expose their talents. We gave the gifts at the end of the day and they all were very delighted to receive them. We couldn’t paint the school as planned due to heavy rain. We had all the groceries, which was cooked and served to all of us by the villagers and the school teachers. 

Second day we separated our team in Handawelpitiya School into two groups and one team started the seminar whereas the other team started painting and renovating the school. Villagers said that it was the sunny day after several months which made us feel blessed by the God for our good service. On the second day, tamil team also started the seminar in Vivekananda TMV and students were highly enthusiastic to learn and answer the questions. Majority of them were very weak in mathematics and didn’t like the subject due to dirth of a mathematics teacher. But we tried our level best to teach them several areas of the syllabus. Our team boys worked from early in the morning till late night in painting and renovating the school forgetting pain, sleep and climate struggles.

Third day also we carried forward the seminar and renovation work successfully. The day was made more special by the visit of lecturers in our department. Prof. J.M.A. Manathunga, Prof. M.W.Jayaweera, Dr. W.B.Gunawardhana and Dr. R.L.H.L.Rajapaks visited Handawelpitiya Kanishta Vidyalaya and brought refreshment to the students of both the schools. They came travelling all the way from Colombo and once again proved us how willing they are to  support and guide us in all the events as the back bone of the Civil Engineering Society. 

Principal of Vivekananda TMV  thanked us for taking this big step of helping O/L students in Mathematics. A student made the vote of thanks and said that they have understood the importance of learning Mathematics  and promised to learn it more enthusiastically. Those words gave the full satisfaction of all our struggles to succeed the project. 

Principal of Handawelpitiya Kanishta Vidyalaya conveyed their gratitude through his thanking speech and a souvenir. He was delighted to say that it was the first ever visit from university students to their school to help students. He appreciated us for creating the bond between school and the university. Finally, we sang songs with the school students and left from there around 4pm.

The road and transportation to the Tamil school was very difficult. There was no electricity and it made the traveling even worse in the night on the way back. Tiger threat also was there around the Tamil school area. But we didn’t feel the difficulty, rather felt the tragedies those students and people in those areas facing everyday even without basic facilities. It gave us strong feeling to help those students at least in academics. 

We asked the students to write what they felt about last three days with us and their feedbacks showed us the success of 'Suhastha'.  Even though we couldn’t teach them everything in two days, we were able to make a great change in their mind about learning, future and ambition. 

Suhastha gave us a great experience and learning lesson of project management which gave us the capability and confidence of managing any future projects related to engineering. Suhastha taught us about power of team work, importance of learning, our social responsibilities and duty to serve the country. We learnt to have the courage to face and overcome any struggle that we might experience in life. 

“SUHASTHA MOULDED NOT ONLY THOSE STUDENTS BUT ALSO US”

PIRITH CHANTING CEREMONY 2018

“Sabbadanam dhammadanam jinati

sabbarasam dhammaraso jinati

sabbaratim dhammarati jinati

tanhakkhayo sabbadukkham jinati.”

-Dhammapada Verse 354,Sakkapanha Vatthu-

"The Dhamma is the noblest of all gifts, the best of all tastes and the best of all delights. Eradication of Craving leads to the attainment of arahatship and is, therefore, the greatest of all conquests."

 INTRA UNIVERSITY SPAGHETTI BRIDGE COMPETITION 2018

Spaghetti bridge competition organized by Civil Engineering Society was held on 29th of September 2018 at the Civil Engineering Department. The main objective of the intra-university competition was to select the best trio who will be representing University of Moratuwa for the spaghetti bridge competition organized by IESL at TECHNO 2018.

The main task of the competition was to build a bridge using maximum of 600 g of spaghetti. The bridge has to be weighing less than 600 g with a span of 600mm and the structure is to be built within 5 hours. One team consist of 6 members. The structure which had the highest index was chosen as the winner. Index was calculated using self- weight of the bridge and maximum load carrying capacity of the structure.

About 30 groups participated and extended the competition into a higher level. They were given spaghetti, glue stick, glue gun, paper cutters and scissors. All the teams built various kinds of designs within 5 hours. Prof. Ruwan Weerasekara, the main evaluator of the competition was there throughout the day observing the competition.

Prof. Ruwan Weerasekara carried out the final evaluation with the help of two research assistants Mr. Sasika Ranawaka and Mr. Nalin Jayaratne. We are very grateful for them for their immense support for us to make this event a success. 

Two teams of level 2 became the 1^st and 3^rd whereas 2^nd place was a team from level 4. However, all the teams participated were able to widen their knowledge on bridge design. 

WELCOME ‘17

'Civil welcome' for the 17’ batch students was organized by the 16’ batch students on 13^th of September, 2018 in the Civil auditorium of University of Moratuwa. This was organized in order to welcome the students from next batch to the Department of Civil Engineering and to make them feel part of our civil family.

The event was commenced at 7 pm after the presence of all students and staff. Prof. J.M.S.J Bandara, Prof. W.K. Mampearachchi, Prof. R.U. Halwatura, Prof. J.M.A. Manatunge, Dr. (Ms.) W.B. Gunawardana, Dr. R.L.H.L. Rajapakse and Dr. C.S.A. Siriwardana were present on the event and made the day special.

Civil welcome commenced with the lighting of oil lamp and the welcome speech was presented by Chathuranga Siriwardena, department representative of 16’ batch and a silence prayer was given for late Prof. Hettiarachchi and late senior Akila Anuruddha from 13’ batch who passed away recently.

Next, our head of the department, Prof J.M.S.J.Bandara addressed the gathering. The next item on the agenda was a song sung by Sanjana from 16’ batch and everybody enjoyed it. Following this item, there was a Tamil song sung by Sharon and Keerththana from 16’ batch.

All were served with refreshment and a video of events organized in the department of civil engineering every year was played to encourage new batch students to get involved in those events more eagerly.

Then two other songs were sung by Tharindu and Dilum from 16’ batch which was followed by another wonderful guitar instrumental medley by Ruwini and Panduka. Then a student from 17’ batch volunteered to sing a song and mesmerized everyone with his voice.  

Then speeches were presented by Thisura Nanjitha, department representative of level 14 and Sasith Karunarathna, the president of Civil Engineering Society. They talked about our department culture, civil family and civil events. They shared about the civil family bond and invited the new batch to join with our civil family.

Then all the students from 17’ batch introduced themselves to others and two games were held for the 17’ batch students to participate and interact with each other which they all enjoyed very well. The interactive session continued in to the night strengthening the bond between the two batches. Vote of thanks was presented by one of the department representatives of 16’ batch, Lakshitha Senavirathne and the civil welcome was successfully concluded around 10 pm.

INSEE-IESL CONCRETE MIX DESIGN COMPETITION 2018 (Final Phase)

The sun dawned on 7^th of September over the horizons of University of Moratuwa while 15 eager finalists of INSEE- IESL concrete mix design competition departed for their final mixing round. The competition was held in the INSEE concrete plant, Galle over 3 days among 6 universities. The first day of the competition was between University of Moratuwa and South Eastern University.

Three competing groups from each university was present at the inauguration ceremony who were warmly welcomed by an engineer of INSEE Cement plant. A safety induction was given for all the participants and personal protective equipment was provided guarantying the safety of the contestants. Soon the mixing arena of Galle INSEE Cement Plant glowed with the white shirts each carrying the proud Eagle of INSEE in the hearts of every contestant.

Three teams, namely two from UOM and one from SEUSL who drew their lots to compete in the morning session rushed to get their mix ready while the colleague members waited at the reception. The session started around 10.30 in the morning and continued until 1 pm for the morning session. Each team was tested for V- funnel, U box and flow every other hour for 3 hours consequently every hour and every minute of the day was full of excitement and inquisitiveness.

The second round for the day, or the evening session commenced around 1.30 pm with the remaining three groups joining the competition. The event was exhausting yet enthusiastic to its extreme. Refreshment was provided all day long for all the participants and at the end of a very long day the evening round concluded around 6.30 pm.

The milky white eagles who departed early morning for the arena returned dusty and muddy but triumphant at the end of the day. The INSEE-IESL Concrete mix design competition will be continued for 2 more days at this arena until the winners mark their triumph over others.