Tokyo Cement and Peradeniya university in research project

Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) Ltd (TCCL) and the Department of Civil Engineering, of the University of Peradeniya launched a collaborative effort to enhance and strengthen the research and development activities in civil engineering.“As an industry leader Tokyo Cement is keenly interested in the development of University-Industry collaborations. The Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya is committed to excellence in Engineering Education. Therefore it is fitting that our two organisations intend to ‘Cement a better future’ as a result of this collaboration,” said Joint Managing Director TCCL S.R. Gnanam.

A ceremony to launch this initiative was held at the E.O.E. Pereira Theatre of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya. The Chairman of TCCL Edgar Gunatunga and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof. S.B.S. Abayakoon signed the MoU on this occasion to formalize the collaboration.

According to the MoU initially, the TCCL will support the research and development activities of the civil engineering undergraduate programme by funding final year research projects. In addition, TCCL will provide all the cement requirements related to these research activities.

In turn, the Department of Civil Engineering will discuss with TCCL their views on research and development requirements related to the Sri Lankan construction industry and these requirements will be incorporated into the fepartment’s research programme. ‘We both firmly believe that the coming years will witness a rapid development of this initiative to broaden the scope of our collaborative effort and in turn the local construction industry,” said Prof. Abayakoon.

This collaboration will come into effective immediately with the current final year students of the Department of Civil Engineering, being the first group of beneficiaries.“Usually the Department admits about 150 students into the civil engineering stream each year. In the final year of the 4-year degree programme each of these students is required to conduct a research project, spanning the entire academic year.