What I Learnt From PPD?

Personal Progress Development (PPD)

As an undergraduate do we really need a subject like PPD? Is it worth learning these things? These are some questions rised in my mind when I first come to the PPD lecture. We may go to different fields, we may do different jobs but there is one important thing. We all should have good soft skills and qualities where ever we go and where ever we work. From a subject like PPD we gain such things to our lives. They are invaluable.We started PPD sessions at 1 year and it is 2 years time period up to now. We gathered lots of things which we can not learn from any other subject or from any other place.

As Software Engineers we always sit in front of a laptop and code. But there are so many things that we cannot gather from other academic subjects but essential in our lives. PPD showed us the path to learn those.

It was really helpful for us to come out of laptops and other stressful subject matters and relax our minds. We engaged in different activities which brought us fun, soothed our minds as well us added new experiences.

From the first day onward miss. Sarasi encouraged us to speak in English. Most of the students were shy to speak in front of the students. But in the PPD sessions we all had to speak in front of others which helped us to have confidence and improve english.

And also we did different team activities. It helped us to learn how we should behave as a team member, what are the qualities that we have to improve as a leader, how we plan things, how we should deal with the time etc. Managing things is a very special thing. We learnt to think and have quick reactions when we need, manage resources, make our mind to have innovative ideas.

Miss. Sarasi arranged some sessions which we were able to meet the personalities in the industry where we learnt lots of new things. She taught us how to make CVs also. It is the first step in our carrier ladder.

Apart to all these things we got lot of fun during this 2 year. We laugh together, we walked together, we shared things. It made us to one family where we all became brothers and sisters. Unlike other session we had lots of memories to take back with relax minds.

When I looked back at PPD sessions I really have lots of memories which are great as well as very important to my life. We will become Software Engineers one day and we will need almost all these things that we learnt from PPD sessions on that day. I am really happy to be a part of this session which is one of the sessions that I actively participated. 

ThankYou All....

Trust Walk

We are living in a society with many kinds of people. Sometimes we can not do things alone, in order to do work with other people we must keep trust on people. But we can not trust people blindly. So let's see how we can trust people.

In last ppd session we were asked to find a partner. Then we were instructed to cover the eyes of the partner. The other person had to give instructions to the blind person about the obstacles, paths, where to turn etc. So there the one person played the role of a listener and one played the role of an instructor. The instructor should navigate the listener to the final destination. This activity had two rounds where the listener of the first round became the instructor in the second round and vice versa.

When we proceed the path we had to go over  stair cases where we had to instruct the blind person with the no. of steps and where to stop. There were white board markers on the path and if somebody put the leg on it, he or she might definitely fall. That is why we were instructed to listen the instructor well. At the first round we had to go along the path and tap a brick. While in the second round we had to tap on two concrete blocks and the brick. In the first round all most all the students walked and tap the brick with the correct instructions. But at the second round some students forgot what to do. Some forgot to tap on the brick after tapping he concrete blocks. 

When we trust someone we should not trust him or her blindly. Even though we can not see anything we have a brain to think and analyse. We can choose what we should do and what should not. We can instruct the other person when he or she does a wrong thing. In this occasion also some instructors forgot to tap the brick after tapping the concrete brick. If blind one communicated with the instructor well they won't do such a mistake. Miss Sarasi never prohibited the communication between the instructor and the blind person.

When someone keeps his or her trust on us, we have a responsibility of protecting it. Trust is like a glass. When it is broken we can't fully make it in to what it was. Some times some people keeps their life on another persons hand trusting him. In this activity also the blind one keeps trust on the instructor. If one step was taken in a wrong way sometimes the blind one may fall. So we should e a good instructor to the others. Protect the trust that someone lay on us.

Blind person also should give the maximum support. If he does what he wants to do, it is really disturbing for the instructor. We should be a good listener and trust the partner. Help hi or her to do their task. Correct their path when they deviate. 

These things are really important when we live in the society. When we work we have to trust so many people and follow their paths. Be wise. Trust the people. But do not blindly trust... 

Self Reflection

Have you over thought about your self and your capabilities?

"CLOSE YOUR EYES, SIMPLY CLOSE THE DOORS OF YOUR MIND TO THE FUTURE AND TO THE PAST. FORGET EVERY THING AND JUST THINK ABOUT YOUR SELF. WHO ARE YOU?"

In this fast moving material world we all are running behind the money. Just think life is not all about money,take a little break from your stressful life and do this. Think about your self and you will find great deal of things that you never recognized so far. With the competitive world we use to run and run and run so on. We never take a moment to think about our selves.


In last PPD that i missed session we we asked to take a photo of our self. Selfies... Yeh, how many selfies we take in a week. But we never deeply look in to it. We were asked to look at our selves for 5 minutes. Then she questioned, "what you see ?"
Most of the friends said "nothing". But I recognized one thing. I could not believe it. I had a big pimple on my nose. Oh god how ugly i am. Should do something for that. Any how that is my way.

Yeah some replied with some special things that they recognized and some were blank. Miss. Sarasi asked another question whether we think or care about what others think about our selves. Almost all said yes. Yes we should care but to a some extend. We can get the ideas, advises from others. Some point out our faults. Yes we have to care. But do not depend on those thing all the times or do not make those as an obstacle to our dreams. Take the good reviews and throw away the bad. Accept all the things with a smile but we should be intelligent enough to classify good and bad.


It is really important how we live in the society. We are not alone here. We are surrounded by lots of faces. Always we have something to learn from them. May be a bad experience may be a good one. But we should be able to face those. Once we have a deep understanding about our selves we can climb to the top.

Once a week take some minutes and spend time to think. Go in front of a mirror. It is not a big deal. You can do it while you are in the bathroom. No one can see us and no one to disturb. Think about how you should behave and how you faced the new experiences you had throughout that week. Identify the things that you should improve.


Try to be the best person in every thing you do. Keep a smile on your face. Be a person whom the others wish to be. Whom the others wish to see every day, wish to have the companionship.
Be a recognizable character. Improve the qualities. Associate everybody. Do not leave as you did not exit. Make a space for you. BE A LEGACY  which anyone can't beat easily.

Technical Writing Session - WSO2

This is an industrial session organised by WSO2 Technical team about Technical writing. This session was held on 12th of September 2018 at WSO2 premises.It was planned to begin at 9:00 am in the but it was started by 9.30. It began with a few speeches and some introductions to technical writing.Then we were grouped and given an activity in technical writing. We were asked to write about the ATM Bank system and the winners were awarded with prices.

Then we were given refreshments and after that we had an exciting game.We were grouped and asked to discover the phrase which turned into silently advised to a member of a collection and then the member showed some signs relative to the word. Finally the session ended sharply at 12:00 pm. It turned into a well organized session and we learnt a lot from that session.

Trending Technologies in IT Industry

What you do today is not what you did last night.The software world is changing day by day with new technologies. As software engineer it is very important us to know about these things. We should always get updated with new trends.

Last week we had a session conducted by WSO2 which is one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. Madam Sarasi introduced Mr. Srinath Perera who rendered us vast knowledge about new trends and technologies in the industry.

The speaker categorize the technology in to two groups as current technologies and emerging technologies.

Current technologies are

APIs
Analytics and AI
IoT
Bots

API - API stands for Application Programming Interface

A set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.
   API is like a waiter in a restaurant. It acts as a mediator between the server and the client. It takes orders or requests.

Analytics and AI - Artificial Intelligence
   This enables computer driven decisions.

IoT - Internet of Things
   System of interrelated computer devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals and people that are provided with the unique identifiers.

Bots - Conversational Agents
  Automatically generate messages.

Cake Cutting

Let's see how to cut a cake into 8 pieces only with three cuts.

Miss. Sarasi has grouped our friends and has given a small piece of cake. Then she h asked above task. Only 1 minute has been given to do that. All the groups have imaginary  tried it in different ways. But only one group has won the task.

The way that has to do it is vertically cut the cake into 4 pieces using 2 cuts and one horizontal cut.

 We should think before dong somethings. In some cases we can have a trial. But some occasions we have to try at once. We must think creatively.

Facing Interviews

Facing an interview is not just something which we can do like delivering a speech. We cannot just go and come out answering the questions they ask. There are many things that we should consider before attending to an interview.

1. First know about the place you are going
We should knpw about their mission and what they do. On going projects, which countries they deals with, company history etc. It makes the interviewers to think that you have given attention for their company. Make them impressed with such details.

2. Study the Interviewer
It is a benefit if we can know some etails bout the interviewers. It is a kind of difficult task to find who are the interviewers but if we can find their names we can use linked and other proffessional accouts to find about their details like their job poition, common things we have, specialized fields, their favours etc. Do not want to much focuss about the personal things but some details.

3. All the interviewers ask three or four common uestions other than technical questions like our streangth weaknesses etc. We are the once that know ourselves veey well. So be confident about your streangth and tell them little about it. It is good and worth if we can choose streangths that are more related to this job position.

4. It make a good expression about you if you can ask two questions. It shows your interest on the job.  You can ask about the job details, about work etc. But never ask about the salary.

5. We all are humans. It is somewhat difficult for us to do something for the first time. So to face an interview with the confidence you can practice it with a friend. Shaking hand shows confidence and personality of you. Don’t just touch the hand but hold it tight and shake. You can tell your friend to ask some questions also. Imagine that you are in the interview room and behave like that. Practice each and every step until it feel as a usual thing.

6. Before going to an interview take time to think about yourself and about the job you are applying. Think why you are applying. Reasons for you to think that why you fix for this job position. Try to match your skills with the job position and company work. For an example in some job positions you should have the skills to work with a team, high patience, communication ability. 

7. Prepare everything before you go. Make your folder in order.  It should be neat. Keep important things like your CV in the front. Order certificates according to the years. Don’t take much time to find documents when the interviewers asked. It shows your unpreparedness.

8. Be punctual. Don’t be too early or too late. Be there before 10 minutes. If it happened to go there much early, then don’t stay in the vicinity. Just stay somewhere else away from the interview room and come at the correct time. If you sweat a much keep tissues with you.

Some tips to improve interview performance

1. Practice good nonverbal communication. 
2. Dress for the job or company. 
3. Listen. 
4. Don't talk too much. 
5. Don't be too familiar. 
6. Use appropriate language. 
7. Don't be cocky. 
8. Take care to answer the questions.

Story Writing

We were divided into three groups each consists of 6 people and asked to sit down without looking the board.
The task given was, each member of the team has to write a word on the board and should make a decent story.
There have been four rounds and that we weren't allowed to speak with the team members. And had to create it fast. thus every one had to run to the white board and write a word. we have a tendency to ran to the white board, simply scan the story and suddenly wrote what we have a tendency to have to be compelled to our mind.Our team wrote about a ghost dream and we could not end it properly.Same like us other two teams also started well but,the could not finish it with a proper ending.

It was therefore tough to predict what the opposite wished to mention. Even miss Sarasi modified the order of the team members within the last spherical. at long last we have a tendency to got terribly difficult unbalanced stories that they were funny to scan.

                                                                                                                               



Learning Outcomes :

When we interact oursleves within the company world, a lot of typically than not we tend to stumble upon 'left over' work that wants our attention to be finished. however once we tend to take up the challenge it's quite arduous as we would haven't any plan of however the previous person might have planned the work.

Each person concerned in an exceedingly project has his or her own distinctive ideas. Unless there's plan sharing among the members, a stronger output can't be yielded.

When the members invloved in an exceedingly project carries on with their own work stupidly concerning the work of others, a meaty piece of labor doesn't initiate.

PAPER PLANE

Paper plane is the first work we did in this semester.

We were seperated into two groups.There were nine in our group

while the other group has eight members.We were given six yellow

papers and the other group got six blue papers.We we asked to make paper planes by using those papers.We were given three minutes to put an idea and given twenty minutes to do the task.

End of the time we were able to do 29 planes and the other team could do 36.After that we were asked to fly our planes.We could manage only 18 to fly over the boundrywhile the other team managed 24.

       

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Mistakes that we realized :                  



Not everybody took half in creating the plane and that we were divided into sub teams among ourselves.
we could not build build a lot of planes at intervals the given time though we have a tendency to had papers remaining.
we created several fouls once throwing the planes amd our planes we have a tendency tore wasted.
The most vital is we have a tendency to did not take the activity seriously.




 Lessons we learned at the end of the session :



while doing some work,our concentration should be in that work.
being IT folks ,the most necessary issue is we've to arrange well before beginning a project and end the project among the given time.
team work and participation is a must in our field.
learning to get use if the resources available.

University of Kelaniya

University of Kelaniya

University of Kelaniya 

History


The University of Kelaniya has its origin in the historic Vidyalankara Pirivena, founded in 1875 by Ratmalane Sri Dharmaloka Thera as a centre of learning for Buddhist monks. With the establishment of modern universities in Sri Lanka in the 1940s and 1950s, the Vidyalankara Pirivena became the Vidyalankara University in 1959, later the Vidyalankara Campus of the University of Ceylon in 1972, and, ultimately, the University of Kelaniya in 1978.
The University of Kelaniya is committed to provide high quality education and to conduct high impact research which will contribute significantly to the enhancement of existing knowledge in various fields of Humanities, Medicine, Science, Social Sciences, Commerce & Management and to the development of the country.

Vision
To become a centre of excellence in creation and dissemination of knowledge for sustainable development.

Mission
To nurture intellectual citizens through creativity and innovation, who contribute to the national development.

Faculties

• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Social Science
• Faculty of Commerce And Management
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Humanities
• Faculty of Computing And Technology
• Faculty of Graduate Studies

Faculty of Science

The Faculty of Science started functioning in October 1967 with Prof. Charles Dahanayake as the Dean of Science. The intake of the first batch of students was 57. Formal approval for the Faculty was given by the Minister of Education in 1968.

Medical centre

The University Health Service is organized to help the students of the University to lead an active life free from disease. All registered students are entitled to free consultations, free basic medicinal drugs and laboratory service. The Health Service is set up mainly for students, but staff both academic and non-academic can make use of the service.

Sports & Games

The Department of Physical Education provides a wide range of Sports and Recreation programmes for the benefit of internal students of the University. These activities are supported by some of the best sport facilities in the University System in Sri Lanka.

Main Libraty

The present library collection encompasses over 230,000 books pertaining to various academic disciplines ranging from Archaeology to Zoology and subscriptions to about 150 academic journals. Further, the library provides electronic access  to full- text databases through the terminals located in the Library.

Student hostels

 

• Kiriwaththuduwe Sri Pangnasara Hostel (For Clergy)  
• Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara Hostel (Boys’ Hostel)
• Yakkaduwe Pangnasara Hostel (Boys’ Hostel)
• Bandaranayake Hostel (Girls’ Hostel)
• Sangamitta Hostel (Girls’ Hostel)
• Viharamahadevi Hostel(Girls’ Hostel)
• Ediriweera Sarachchandra Hostel (Girls’ Hostel)
• E.W. Adikarama Hostel (Girls’ Hostel)
• Gunapala Mallasekara Hostel (Girls’ Hostel) 
•  Hemachandra Rai Hostel (Girls’ Hostel)
• Soma Guna Mahal Hostel (External)- (Girls’ Hostel)
• Bulugaha Junction Hostel (External) (Girls’ Hostel)
• Faculty of Medicine  (Girls’ Hostel at Ragama)
• Faculty of Medicine (Boys’ Hostel at Ragama)
• Katagewatha (Boys Hostel)
• New (Girls Hostel) 

 

Paper Tower

Paper Tower

Paper tower

Paper tower is a group work that  we  made in on of our  PPD  session . We were divided into three groups by our Madam. There were two groups had eight members and another one group had seven members. Then our Madam gave us 12 A4 papers, tape and scissor for each group.This was an out door activity and we were given separate places to do. Then got  45 minutes to do a paper tower using the given things.All three teams made various kinds of towers and our tower looks taller than others but it's not stable.That was the problem for us.

Through this activity we can improve

• Leadership quality 
• Planning sense 
• Time management

The paper tower is really enjoyable activity it was very useful activity for develop our personal development skills.