With so much proudness and happiness I got a chance to have a chat with Thilina and Newumal who performed very well in SLRC organized by University of Moratuwa.

1. So Thilina what is this SLRC?

It’s a competition; Sri Lanka Robotics Challenge which was open for all universities and we represented university of Colombo.

2. If you say little bit about the competition?

We had to invent mainly 2 robots following their rules and regulations. One was an automatic robot and one was a manual robot. These two robots had to be interconnected in their performance.Automatic robot had to detect a solid object by itself and walk through lines for it and put it in to a hole on the floor. Manual robot had to cross the pool of balls and deposit the box so the path is clear for the other robot.Then again cross a bridge using the automatic robot again deposit a box.

3. How successful was your invention?

Actually 13 university teams had participated specially from engineering faculties who are rally in the field. Among all of them we won the 7th place.

4. Why did you think to participate this competition?

Mostly the desire we both had about this field. And the curiosity. We needed to do a practical application from what we have learnt.Also we needed to bring some dignity to university by our performance.And the first prize of this competition was to give a chance to participate for an international robotic competition so we were curious about that too. Had a strong desire to get that chance so we tried.

5. What were the inspirations for this field?

Since like grade 7 I was interested in electronic circuits and to repair electronic items. Even home appliances when that were broken I used to repair them by myself.

6. How did you do this big work? Was there any one to help?

Mostly Hasith sir and Hiran sir helped very much. And I shouldn’t forget senior students who gave us a big support giving us the knowledge we need for the invention which we haven’t learnt yet. I shouldn’t forget my batch mates who helped with soft wears and other knowledge also the moral spirit to keep the work going on.We also got lot of knowledge from the internet. It was really nice learning new things by ourselves alone

7. What do you expect by involving in these activities? Are you having any special ambition?

We’d like to have a career in robotic field.Speacially there is a dream to work together with NASA to send robots for planets.

8. If you talk about the experience you gained from this

Actually it was a result of so many days of hard work and some sleepless nights at my place (Thilina) and we had so much of fun too with unforgettable experiences. Those will help us to success our next step.We got lot of knowledge from the internet as we were less experienced students in this field. It was really nice learning new things by ourselves alone

9. Do you have anything special to say for the students?

Yes. Together with seniors we have agreed to start an electronic club.so all the students who are interested in the field could join us to do much more work like this and gain knowledge which will help them in their future career.And we would like to thank Hasith sir.Hiran sir, seniors and out batch mates who helped us to succeed this invention.

With so much of effort, dedication and spending their own money Thilina Payagala and Newmal Weerasinghe had been able to make their effort a success. Heartiest congratulations for both of you from FOS media