User:Namals/Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Moratuwa

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

File:CSE logo.jpg
Type	Public
Established	1985
Head of Department	Dr Chandana Gamage
Academic staff	20
Undergraduates	300
Postgraduates	180
Location	Moratuwa , Sri Lanka
Website	www.cse.mrt.ac.lk

The Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) at the University of Moratuwa is a leading educational department which offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Engineering.

It has consistently placed itself among the top Computer Science and Engineering programs in Sri Lanka over the years and is the first academic department to start teaching computing in the history of Sri Lankan University System.

In the past decade, researchers at CSE have pioneered in establishing

History

The first step in forming CSE dates back to 1973 when the university purchased its first computer, an IBM 1130 a punch card based computer. Later in 1983, the university bought its first set of microcomputers and in 1984 the university acquired 25 Sinclair Spectrum computer and soon after that acquired 20 Commodore 64 computers. During the same period, the government of Sri Lanka carried out a study on setting up Computer Science degree programs in Sri Lanka and the results of this study prompted the government to establish Computer Science courses in Sri Lankan universities. During the same period a new policy formulated in the university made a proposal for forming a Department of Computer Science & Engineering for training a new category of Engineers. This proposal was formally accepted by the University Grants Commission in January 1985 and the department of CSE was born. It was the first Computer department to be established in a Sri Lankan University.

The First batch of 16 students to follow the BSc (Engineering) Honors degree in Computer Science & Engineering were enrolled in October 1986. The selection of the 16 students were based on the results in GCE(A/L) examination. Computer and Network facilities in the department were expanded with ¥200M donation from JICA in 1989. During the same year, the department implemented the first Ethernet network and the first Client server network in Sri Lanka. In 1990 department started the LEARNMail email service using dial up connections to U.S. In the year 1992 the department made the Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa to become the first faculty in Sri Lanka to teach computing to all students with the new subject "Introduction to Computer Systems".

The first batch of the Computer Science & Engineering department graduated in 1993. To cater the high demand for the graduates of the department the intake to the department was increased to 20 in 1993 and 40 in 1994. Along with the 10^th anniversary, the department increased its intake of students to 48 in 1995. In the same year LEARN was inaugurated and the CSE department started to manage its network. University got a dedicated Internet connection during the same period and department took the lead in establishing the first Linux email server in Sri Lanka.

In 1997 the department setup the first campus-wide fiber optic network in Sri Lanka. Year 2000 brought a curriculum revision to the department and in the same year the department joined with Electrical Engineering department and Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering department to create the Information and Communication Engineering (ICE) group in the Engineering faculty to provide a more coordinated academic program with a wide array of choices to the students. In 2005 department continued its expansion and increased the intake by another 50 to make it 100 students per batch.

CSE today

Currently the department has about 300 undergraduates enrolled for academic work in three levels. The department also has about 180 postgraduate students studying for M.Sc in Computer Science and MBA in IT degrees. In addition, the department teaches introductory computing courses to all the 700 first year undergraduates in the Engineering faculty.

The department is currently headed by Dr. Chandana Gamage. The total number of full time faculty lecturers in the department is around 20 and the department also has several adjunct lecturers from other departments such as Electrical Engineering, Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The department also gets services from several visiting lecturers from the industry.

Labs

With the rapid development in the facilities, department now has several computer labs and research labs.

• Computer labs
  • First year lab
  • Second year lab
  • CSE common lab
  • Advanced multimedia lab
  • Advanced computer lab(SMART Lab)

• Other labs
  • Final year research lab
  • Microsoft lab for mobile technology
  • Vision and image processing lab
  • Network and data communication lab
  • Lanka Software Foundation (LSF) lab

Lecture rooms and other facilities

The department has a lecture room that can accommodate 100 students at once. It is equipped with the latest multimedia facilities. It is popularly called CSLR4. Two tutorial rooms which are adjacent to the lecture room are used to conduct discussions for smaller group sizes. The department also uses several common lecture rooms in the university to conduct lectures.

Conference room is mainly used to hold discussions among faculty members and meetings between the faculty and representatives from various companies.

Seminar room is used to hold presentations, seminars, discussion sessions conducted mostly by representatives of companies. Annually several software companies conduct presentations in this room to the final and third year students about the full time job and internship opportunities at their company. This room was upgraded and refurbished by the 1999 group of CSE graduates as a token of appreciation.

CIT studio is one of the latest additions to the department. It is equipped with high-tech audio/video recording and editing equipment. It has enabled the department to create video lectures and other multimedia as enhancements to teaching. It also conducts practical sessions for "Video Production" course in the faculty. The studio comes under the purview of CIT (Centre for Instructional Technology) headed by Dr. Chathura De Silva.

Degrees

In addition to the undergraduate program, the department offers three postgraduate programs.

Traditions

Hit the grounds

This is the annual cricket day organized by the Computer Science & Engineering Society. It is an event that brings faculty, students, alumni of CSE and fellow Engineers working in the industry to a single fun filled playing event. The first "Hit The Grounds" was organized in 2005. This is a soft ball cricket tournament where each team is required to have exactly two female players in the team. A separate staff team also participate in this event every year. Even though they have not been able to win the championship yet, their presence in the event has made it really interesting.

Drama festival

Drama festival was first started in 2006 as part of the Communications Skills module for undergraduates in the department. The 100 students are divided to 10 groups. Each group prepares a drama and performs it in front of the university community. The specialty in this event is that script writing, direction and costume preparation are all done by the students. Over the last several years it has become a showcase of artistic talent of the young computer scientists and engineers groomed by the department. This event also portrays the multi faceted learning environment created by the department to provide a high quality university education to its undergraduates.

Mentoring program

Owing to the idea of providing professional guidance to the undergraduates, the department launched a mentoring program in 2006. The main idea of this program is to introduce each and every undergraduate to a professional in the industry who will act as the student's mentor for the years to come. The 100 students in a batch are divided to 5 people each and are assigned a resource person from the industry as the mentor. Mainly the person who acts as the mentor is a senior/executive level member in a well reputed company. Students meet the mentor regularly and exchange ideas about academic, professional and personal life.