Professor Tilak Hettiarachchy Award for Academic Excellence – General Convocation 2024: Mr S U Akarawita, University of Colombo School of Computing
Congratulations to Mr Saneru Udana Akarawita, University of Colombo School of Computing, for your outstanding achievement in receiving the Open Awards – Professor Tilak Hettiarachchy Award for Academic Excellence at the General Convocation 2024.
Mr Saneru Udana Akarawita, a proud alumnus of Royal College Colombo, graduated from the University of Colombo School of Computing with First Class Honours in Computer Science, a GPA of 3.924, and placement on the Director’s List every semester. He is a double faculty award winner for best performance in consecutive years and currently works as a Software Engineer at WealthOS.
He also holds a First Class Distinction Diploma in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Liverpool John Moores University, UK . Saneru became the World Champion at the IEEE IES Generative AI Challenge 2024, representing Sri Lanka among 150+ teams from over 30 countries, winning a scholarship to present at IECON 2024 in Chicago, USA. He ranked 75th globally at IEEEXtreme, the highest ever for UOC and also won over 10 national-level hackathons. His research work includes IEEE conference papers, systematic reviews in high-impact journals, and an internationally published book on Amazon.
He has received PhD grants, serves as a journal reviewer, is a research intern at UCSC’s Cognitive and Time Series Lab, and was an undergraduate teaching assistant in his final year. Beyond academics, he is a violinist, badminton player, Sri Lanka’s first and only NASAIASC Trainer, and holds executive positions in Gavel, ACM, and Rotaract Clubs.S aneru exemplifies all-round excellence, leadership, and innovation.
