The Technical Sessions of the Faculty of Science, organized as part of the Annual Research Symposium 2021 of the University of Colombo, was successfully held on 25 th and 26 th November 2021. These sessions were a part of the International Conference on Multidisciplinary Approaches in Science 2021 (ICMAS), held under the theme ‘Basic sciences: Breaking down silos to foster cross- disciplinary research’.

At this session, 37 abstracts were presented by postgraduate students/academic staff of the Faculty of Science. The presentations were held on a virtual platform and drew wide interest from both academic members and postgraduate students.

In keeping with the vision of the Faculty of Science to produce postgraduates that are distinguished by their professionalism, committed to ongoing learning and personal development, confident and adaptable and able to aptly communicate and blend into the wider contexts in which they work, we strive to equip them to be competitive, effective and productive.

As a faculty that focuses heavily on research and innovation, we encourage research dissemination and take initiatives to show case and reward research efforts. The technical sessions of the faculty of science in 2021 focusing on “Research applications of national importance’ was held on the 24th of November 2021 from 1 p.m. onwards. This was conducted as part of the ICMAS sessions.

The presented talks were different from those presented before, in that it targeted a wider audience from educational entities, from industries and also the general public as the presented findings were important in terms of national development.

An interactive discussion was facilitated by an eminent panel of experts including Dr. Ruchira Wijesena a Senior Scientist at the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC); Dr GAS Premakumara who is the Head of the Dept. of Basic Sciences & Social Science, Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo; Dr. Chithraka Wickramarachchi a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Statistics, University of Sri Jayewardenepura; Prof. I.G.N. Hewajulige, Additional Director and Research Professor, Research and Development Division at the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) of Sri Lanka.

A total of 16 interesting talks were presented at these sessions.

• Development of advanced filter materials for water purification
• Development of Kajjali loaded electro spun fibre mats for wound care
• Smart nanofibrous textiles for skin care applications: A solution for cancer and aging
• Conserving our neritic tuna resources for future generations
• Ensuring human health and food security through novel cereal and fruit-based probiotics
• Molecular discovery: Bioactive cyclotides and secondary metabolites from Sri Lankan medicinal plants
• In-silico study on effectiveness of antidiabetic properties of active compounds of bitter gourd and enhancing these properties through processing methods
• Bioactive properties of finger millet varieties cultivated in Sri Lanka
• Novel herbal formulations for rejuvenation and weight loss
• Development of recombinant bacterial strains for effluent metal bioremediation
• Microbe-assisted value addition to Eppawala Rock Phosphate: A possible replacement to TSP
• Achieving the country’s rice production with 50% less urea – through a microbial biofertilizer
• A dynamic model for Load Forecasting: Two level Neuro-Functional Load Forecaster
• A study of employment among Arts Graduates in Sri Lanka
• Risk Assessment Model for deliberate introduction of Invasive Alien Plant species in Sri Lanka
• Mathematical modeling of Dengue Virus dynamics

The synopsis of these talks were published in the ICMAS proceedings.

The abstracts were published in the University of Colombo Annual Research Symposium Proceedings 2021. Click here