University of Colombo School of Computing


The University of Colombo School of Computing is a higher educational institute affiliated to the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka providing Computer Science, Information Systems and Information and Communication Technology education. The UCSC was formed on 1 September 2002 by bringing together the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo and the Institute of Computer Technology and considered as the leading computing higher educational institution in Sri Lanka.

History

Teaching of computing at the University of Colombo first started in 1967 with the setting up of the Statistical Unit as a separate unit of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science. Later with the initial guidance of Professor V. K. Samaranayake, the Statistical Unit was enhanced as the Statistical Consultancy and Data Processing Service Center. Starting with this center, in 1985 Samaranayake convinced the university to set up the Department of Statistics and Computer Science. This is considered as the starting point of the UCSC. A batch of 50 students were taken to study computer science, through the University Grants Commission in 1997. In 2001, the DSCS separated into the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics. Finally, UCSC was formed in 2002 by the merger of the existing Department of Computer Science of Faculty of Science and the Institute of Computer Technology both of the University of Colombo.
Samaranayake became the founding director of the UCSC. After his retirement, he worked in UCSC as an acting director for a short period. In 2004 Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe became the director of the UCSC and served for next six years. Then Prof. Gihan Wikramanayake became the director of the UCSC in 2010.

Campus

The UCSC is situated in the Science Faculty block of University of Colombo. It is surrounded by nationally important landmarks such as of the Prime Minister's Office, Independence Hall, Colombo Town Hall and National Museum, as well as interesting tourists attractions such as Vihara Maha Devi Park, Public Library, Independent Square, Arcade Independence Square, Gallface Green, Gangaramaya Temple and many other churches and mosques, Floating market, BMICH, Nelum pokuna, Planetarium etc.

Academics

The UCSC academic staff is allocated to the three academic departments based on their specialization and teaching expertise. Following are the three academic departments based on the research interest.
Computing for undergraduates of University of Colombo was first introduced way back in 1967 as part of Applied Mathematics of the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science. With the establishment of the Department of Statistics and Computer Science at the Faculty of Science in 1985, special degree programs in Computer Science was introduced. Direct intake for Computer Science was introduced in 1998 along with industry placement and accreditation of the degree program. To address the demand for IT graduates and external degree in IT was introduced in 2000. With the establishment of the UCSC in 2002 the direct intake was moved to the UCSC. In 2004 a degree program initially named ICT, but now called IS was introduced.
At now UCSC offers Computer Science and Software Engineering education under the Bachelor of Computer Science and Information Systems under Bachelor of Information Systems intakes through the University Grants Commission as internal students.

Three years

UCSC offers several joint special degree programs with Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. Students registered in the faculty become eligible to follow each joint special degree by satisfying the GPA requirement for core computer science courses offered by the UCSC in their first and second year.
Taking into consideration the job opportunities that exist for ICT graduates in Sri Lanka & overseas, the UCSC took the initiative to launch the three year External Degree program leading to the award of Degree of Bachelor of Information Technology in 2000. External candidates can learn for online with optional assistance from private training institutions.

Postgraduate Programs

University of Colombo School of Computing offers postgraduate and research degrees across disciplines in Computer Science, Information Technology and Information Security enabling candidates to uncover new knowledge either by the discovery of new facts, the formulation of theories or the innovative reinterpretation of known data and established ideas.

Masters Degrees

Research Groups

The UCSC operates on a devolved research basis, based upon a Research Group structure. Each Research Group has its own culture and strategy matched to the cutting edge of contemporary science in that area. Collaborative projects between groups are strongly encouraged. Following list contains the current research groups that operates in UCSC.
The UCSC conducts an annual Research Symposium to promote the research and development culture among undergraduates as well as to provide the publicity and recognition of research work carried out by final year students. The Symposium also provides a forum for students, faculty, and the community to discuss cutting edge research topics and to examine the connection between research and education.

Collaborations

The university pioneered research and training collaborations between academia, industry, local government and internationally including Stockholm University, Sweden and University of Western Sydney, Australia.

Publications

The University of Colombo School of Computing annually conducts the International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions which is the successor to the seminal International Information Technology Conference held in Sri Lanka since 1998. It provides a platform to the researchers and practitioners alike to showcase research and development activities carried out in Computer Science and Information Communication Technology domains. Proceedings of ICTer will be published in both book form and on IEEE Xplore. Selected papers will be invited for publication in the ICTer Journal.
The International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions is a project initiated by University of Colombo School of Computing in collaboration with SPIDER, IEEE Computer Society and the Computer Society of Sri Lanka and is an International journal that would give researchers in ICT related fields, particularly from emerging regions, the opportunity to disseminate knowledge through an international network to an international audience by way of an internationally acclaimed journal.

Centres

The UCSC's centers bring institute's expertise to pursue research, service and outreach on scholarly and social topics by providing training courses, software development and consultancy services in the areas of advanced digital media technologies, digital forensics, e-Learning and etc.

Advanced Digital Media Technology Centre

The Advanced Digital Media Technology Centre is one of the centres under University of Colombo School of Computing set up to carry out training for trainers of web-based training and content development at its state-of-art digital studio, teaching and development laboratories. It was created as a Project for Human Resource Development through Capacity Building of the UCSC which went on for 3 years.

Computer Services Centre

The Computing Services Centre is the Consultancy arm of the UCSC. It was established in 1990 to provide Consultancy Services to the IT and related industries. The activities undertaken by the Computing Services Centre are threefold. Those are short term training courses, software development and consultancy services.

Digital Forensic Centre

Digital Forensics Centre of the UCSC was established in 2011. One UCSC and two international academics are advisors of the centre. Centre facilities is been strengthen using a generous donation of US$25,000.00 by a UOC Alumni. Centre has taken over the role of assisting the Sri Lanka Police and the Criminal investigation department which the UCSC undertook since 2003. Requests to support in finding evidence for digital crime cases have been consistently increased during last few years with over 50 court cases in the form of Forgery, Frauds, Illegal, Pornography and Terrorist handled annually at cost.

e-Learning Centre

The e-Learning Centre was established in 2002 at the University of Colombo School of Computing to provide e-learning Service to both internal and external students of UCSC. UCSC external degree program, BIT, was supported by e-learning service from 2003 using learning management facilities. This work was started as a collaborative project with Sweden partner organization, Stockholm University, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences. The project is financed by the Sida and it was conducted as a pilot project to identify the applicability of e-learning. As a result of this pilot project, it was decided to longer term project to strength e-learning initiatives at UCSC and to extend e-learning consultancy and services other universities and whole nation.

External Degrees Centre

The main purpose of establishing the External Degrees Centre and the three –year external degree programme, Bachelor of Information Technology is to widen the higher educational opportunities of the students who have been unsuccessful in meeting the competitive eligibility criteria for admission to the state university system.

Professional Development Centre

The Professional Development Centre is one of the centres of the UCSC established to enhance the quality of internal degree programmes and others by addressing the issues of professional skills, industrial relevance and social and inter-cultural harmony. PDC is involving in organizing invited talks, guest lectures, industrial placement programme, industrial visits, industrial Presentations and professional skill development programs in the UCSC.

Student life

The UCSC Students' Union aims to represent students at the university. Constitutionally it is governed by the student body via referendums, who annually elect a student council which is responsible for the organisation of the Union. The organization of annual Pirith Ceremony, Freshers' Welcome, Padura and Shramadanaya and other charitable activities is done by internal students as traditions.
The Buddhist Students' Association of University of Colombo work closely with UCSC to conduct dhamma deshanas, bhakthi geetha sessions and annual blood donation campaign and other religious societies also work with UCSC students to organize various religious activities such as Vani Viza, Christmas Carols etc.