The 1st physical meetup of the Research for Undergraduates Club, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Moratuwa, was held on December 8th, 2022, at the department premises. It was a long-awaited event, and a new initiative of the newly appointed Executive Board of 2022/23, in the visionary direction of providing comprehensive research guidance to club members.
The session began with the revealing of upcoming events of the club for the first time, through a dynamic video prepared by the editorial team. Then, the host Mr. Thisara Sanjana welcomed the guest speaker and the 30+ audience members. The session was then handed over to the guest speaker, Dr. S. Witharana.
Dr. S. Witharana is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa. He is a well reputed researcher in the field of nanomaterial usage for power and energy. He boasts over 130 research publications, with more than 3000 citations. Dr. S. Witharana conducted an enlightening, yet entertaining session on how to conduct a successful literature review, which is a crucial part of any research. It was extremely interactive, with active discussions between the audience and the speaker, as well as amongst the audience members themselves.
This segment was followed by a team based Kahoot competition, based on the learnings from the speaker’s session. The winning team was delighted to receive delicious treats as their prize, which they generously shared with all participants.
The novel event was a huge success, with the organizers receiving much positive feedback from the audience members. The club aims to conduct similar physical meetups on a monthly basis, to provide well-structured and comprehensive guidance to club members regarding conducting successful undergraduate research.
