Lakshitha Fernando, a postgraduate student from the Department of Building Economics, achieved first place at the PhD Research Showcase Competition organised by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), in collaboration with the British Council. The competition was held on 11 December 2025 at the Rubert Pieries Auditorium.
The event challenged participants to present their PhD research ideas within a three-minute timeframe, followed by a question-and-answer session. This format demanded clarity, originality, and strong communication skills, and was considered more advanced than conventional Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competitions. The collaboration between SLAAS and the British Council enhanced the credibility of the event and provided a platform to promote impactful doctoral research.
Lakshitha secured the first place by presenting his PhD research titled “Application of Agile Approach to Improve Community Disaster Resilience – Flood Disasters.” His research proposes a novel application of agile principles within the context of community disaster resilience. A key novelty of the study is the use of a system dynamics model to integrate agile approaches into disaster recovery processes, with the aim of reducing the time required for communities to return to normalcy following flood events.
The research is supervised by Prof. Udayangani Kulatunga and Dr. Tharusha Ranadewa from the Department of Building Economics, and Prof. Kaushal Keraminiyage from the University of Salford, United Kingdom. The review panel comprised former Commonwealth Scholarship awardees, offering a high level of academic and professional scrutiny. This achievement highlights both the quality of the research and its potential contribution to enhancing community awareness and resilience to disasters.
