IIT graduate’s journey in the world of software engineering
With over 3,000 graduates that are currently empowering over 250 multinational and local blue-chip companies, the Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) is renowned for producing innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Obhasha Priyanka is a multi-talented IIT graduate who is currently employed as a Software Engineer at 99X technology. Following are excerpts of the interview with Obhasha who shared his thoughts on his journey towards becoming a software engineer;
Can you give a brief introduction to yourself?
I’m Obhasha and studied at Kingswood College, Kandy. I graduated with a first class honors from University of Westminster last year. Currently I’m working as a Software Engineer at 99x technology. So I started working at 99X technology right after the final year, even before my graduation as we had to do a one year internship at a company as part of our programme curriculum. Moreover I started my master’s degree at IIT straight away to gain more value.
What made you decide to follow your higher education at IIT?
Mainly because it’s one of the most reputable and oldest institutes in Sri Lanka and University of Westminster has great recognition. Even at Every young age I was very keen to learn about technology and computers. So straight after my Advanced level examinations I enrolled to IIT and made one of the best decisions in my life.
We heard you held leadership roles during your student life at IIT. Tell us a bit about it?
Yes, I held many leadership positions at IIT like the batch representative, Education director of IEEE students’ branch of IIT and organizing several events and sessions.
How was the student life at IIT?
At IIT, the student life is very balanced. Students are given responsibility and ownership to initiate new thoughts, both academic and extra curricular. I had an awesome time with the IIT choir, where it helped me a lot to gain valuable exposure. I also should mention the support that lecturers give at IIT is really commendable. I believe our IEEE committee made a huge impact and conducted the first ever inter university hackathon in Sri Lanka, which led our IEEE student branch to gain a much exposure in Sri Lanka. IIT life is simply one of the best you can expect if you have the right attitude.
What are your notable achievements at IIT?
One of the main achievements, I would say its being national finalists at the Microsoft Imagine cup. Where we developed a very unique concept of a help oriented smart mug to prevent coronary diseases.
Organizing the first ever inter university hackathon in Sri Lanka was another experience I had. It gave us a huge exposure in the industry and also among all universities in Sri Lanka.
How has IIT shaped you for corporate success?
Without a doubt yes! Mainly because of the academic standards and quality, along with the most important part of the programme, which is the one year long internship. That internship truly made my career a success since the most important factor for success in the industry is the positive attitude towards what ever you do. So I would say that the one year internship programme is the key to that success!
Can you describe the support you received from the staff and the faculty of IIT?
At IIT you can easily approach anyone and seek for knowledge support and etc. without any barriers. So the support they given was really helpful when we were doing group projects even over night. The staff helped us a lot in many different ways. The academic staff at IIT will make sure that you are guided in the right direction while doing many extra curricular activities. The support from IIT was the best.
IIT conducts internal postgraduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Westminster (UOW), UK and Robert Gordon University. The University of Westminster degrees offered at IIT are Software Engineering, Business Information System, Business Management and Computer Science with specialization pathways in gaming and computer graphics development, mobile and web computing and multimedia computing.
IIT is an award winning campus, which has bagged many accolades for innovation in local and international competitions such as Microsoft Imagine Cup, National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA), APICTA, British Council-HSBC Youth Enterprise Award and e-Swabhimani.
With its strong international affiliations, outstanding resources and focus on quality higher education, IIT is without a doubt an ideal place for students to follow world renowned IT and Business degrees.
For further information, e-mail “admissions@iit.ac.lk” or call the hotline 0722 72 72 72 or visit IIT Main Campus at No. 57, Ramakrishna Rd, Colombo.