I welcome you to the first Newsletter under the new Chapter management committee. The newly elected Committee held its first committee meeting on 3rd Nov 2017 and discussed the activities planned for the year. I have noted below some of the key activities and the progress to date on them
A new committee was elected for the 2017/2018 term during the AGM of the IESL NSW chapter held on 22nd of October 2017
IESL NSW Chapter is moving ahead with developing an economical and sustainable solution for controlling Street Lights in rural Sri Lanka. The Chapter is collaborating with the National Engineering Research and Development Centre ( NERDC) in Sri Lanka and the proposed solution will consider a few different options including remote activation of street light controllers using radio signals. NERD Centre has conducted discussions with Ceylon Electricity Board, LECO and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation regarding the concepts and all parties involved are in favour of developing a solution.
The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia New South Wales (IPWEA NSW) is a professional organisation providing services and advocacy for those involved in and delivering public works and engineering services to the community. The organisation has now expanded its traditional local government engineering focus to public works and thereby covering all levels of government and private practice.
A lecture and panel discussion was organised on 2 November by the IESL jointly with the Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics on the theme ‘Railway Development as a viable alternative to the Central Expressway Connection to Kandy’. The opinion of the many transport professionals and engineers who attended the discussion was that the government was wasting taxpayer funding by building an expressway to the hill capital of Kandy at enormous cost when upgrade of the existing rail links would prove to be a more economically viable option. It was pointed out by the panellists that even at present, rail travel from Colombo to Kandy is quicker than by vehicle on the clogged main road to Kandy, resulting from the extreme traffic jams in both cities which would only get worse with time.
Universities in NSW have many engineering academics of Sri Lankan origin, as indicated below in the case of University of Wollongong. It is the intention here to enlighten the readers on Sri Lankan engineering academic staff in other universities in future editions of the Newsletter.
This is planned for the new year. The intention is to brief readers of the possibility of holding such a workshop if sufficient interest can be generated. A similar Workshop had been held in WA by that Chapter
The NSW Chapter is communicating with the following Overseas and other State Chapters:
Provided below is the information received from the Qatar Chapter. In future Newsletters, further news from other Chapters will be provided.