Prof. P.W. Epasinghe was Acting Chairman and the Chairman of the ICT Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka and was the Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya until February 2017.
Prof. Epasinghe joined University of Ceylon as a student and passed the final exam with a First Class at the Special Science Degree in Mathematics. He was awarded a Special Science scholarship on the results of the exam and was placed first in order of merit in the entire Faculty of Science at this Special Science Degree Exam. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London in 1965, and his thesis was titled “On the Formulation of Anti-Linear Quantized Fields”. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1965 and was promoted as a lecturer in Mathematics. In 1967 he was appointed as Professor and the Head of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, then known as the Vidyodaya Campus of the University of Ceylon, where he was the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1977/78.
In 1978 he returned to the University of Colombo and was appointed as the Head of the Department of Mathematics. At this time, he was also a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka where he designed and delivered a course on “Quantitative Techniques in Decision Making” for a Postgraduate Diploma. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo in 1983 and in 1994 and 1995, and was also the acting Vice-Chancellor on several occasions.
Prof. Epasinghe was appointed Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission in 1994 and in 1997 the Professor was appointed as the Chairman of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency. Professor Epasinghe joined the Board of ICTA when Prof. VK Samaranayake was the Chairman. When Prof. Samaranayake passed away in 2007, Professor Epasinghe was appointed as the Acting Chairman, and after three years was appointed as the Chairman of ICTA.
Professor Epasinghe has a distinguished track record in developing the country in all aspects of his career in both the University sector and in Government organizations. It was therefore appropriate and highly suitable for him to be appointed as the Chairman of ICTA in which post he gave guidance in steering the implementation of the integrated development program, the e-Sri Lanka Development Program, which was ICTA’s main mandate. He resigned from the post of ICTA Chairman in late 2014.
Video in Brief
Full Video
Prof. P.W. Epasinghe was the Acting Chairman and the Chairman of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) until 2014 and was the Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya until February 2017.
Prof. Epasinghe joined University of Ceylon as a student and passed the final exam with a First Class at the Special Science Degree in Mathematics. He was awarded a Special Science scholarship on the results of the exam and was placed first in order of merit in the entire Faculty of Science at this Special Science Degree Exam. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London in 1965, and his thesis was titled “On the Formulation of Anti-Linear Quantized Fields”. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1965 and was promoted as a lecturer in Mathematics. In 1967 he was appointed as Professor and the Head of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, then known as the Vidyodaya Campus of the University of Ceylon, where he was the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1977/78.
In 1978 he returned to the University of Colombo and was appointed as the Head of the Department of Mathematics. At this time, he was also a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka where he designed and delivered a course on “Quantitative Techniques in Decision Making” for a Postgraduate Diploma. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo in 1983 and in 1994 and 1995, and was also the acting Vice-Chancellor on several occasions.
Prof. Epasinghe was appointed Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission in 1994 and in 1997 the Professor was appointed as the Chairman of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency.
Professor Epasinghe joined the Board of ICTA om 15th March 2006 when Prof. VK Samaranayake was the Chairman. At the inception of the tenure of the new Board, a Leadership Team was appointed comprising Mr. Reshan Dewapura, Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya and Mr. Jayantha Fernando who represented three key areas – Information Infrastructure, Re-engineering Government and e-Laws. When the Board appointed Mr. Dewapura first as the Chief Operating Officer and then as the Chief Executive Officer, he continued to be a member of the Leadership Team and decision making therefore, was not centralized and the Leadership Team was responsible for implementing the decisions of the Board. When Prof. Samaranayake passed away in 2007, Professor Epasinghe was appointed as the Acting Chairman. Prof. Epasinghe states that he remained Acting Chairman for a very long time. After three years the Professor had agreed with hesitation to the Board decision on being appointed as Chairman of ICTA.
During Prof. Epasinghe’s tenure as Acting Chairman and Chairman of ICTA many milestones were reached and some of which are listed below;
– The 1000th Nenasala center was set up in 2014. Nenasala centers were established throughout the country to ensure non-discriminatory access to information and communication infrastructure and technologies, and to bridge digital divides. These multi service centers provided affordable access to information and communication services through different means, and extended the benefits of ICT to communities which used to find it difficult to access such services.
– The Lanka Government Network (LGN) implemented by ICTA, connected Government organizations and provides facilities for enabling a more efficient and effective Government and avoiding duplication of resources. Internet facilities, VoIP facilities and email facilities were also provided to Government organizations.
– With regard to Sri Lanka’s performance in the UN e-Gov index, Sri Lanka climbed 41 places from the 115th position in 2012, to the 74th position in 2014, out of 192 countries. This was a percentile ranking of 38.5% and Sri Lanka was in the top 40% of countries in the world engaged in implementing an eGovernment agenda.
– ICTA with stakeholders, such as the University of Colombo School of Computing, the University of Moratuwa and the Sri Lanka Standards Institution enabled the use of ICT in Unicode Sinhala and Tamil; Unicode compliant local language fonts and keyboard drivers were available etc. IDN Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) for Sri Lanka, equivalent to .LK in Sinhala and Tamil scripts were agreed on through a consultative process. These have been approved by ICANN, and are now implemented in the Internet Root Zone. Thus localization has been satisfactorily carried out and Sri Lanka’s computing environment has been adapted to suit local linguistic needs.
– Much effort was directed at building local language content and services of relevance to rural communities and thereby contributing to the sustainability of Nenasala centers. A portfolio of services in local languages were developed and made available.
– National Best Content Awards – the e-Swabhimani event– was held for several years. The e-Swabhimani is an ICTA initiative aimed at recognizing excellence in digital content creation. ICTA was involved in judging nominations for the World Summit Award Mobile, as a member of the WSA Mobile Grand Jury.
Thus, Professor Epasinghe’s working life has been spent working for the University system and serving in Government organizations. He resigned from ICTA in 2014.