Chapa Sirithunge, a final year PhD student at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa attended and presented at the 14th International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS 2019) which was held from December 18-20, 2019 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya. Chapa is a member of the Intelligent Service Robotics Group led by Dr. Buddhika Jayasekara and Dr. Chandima Pathirana. She presented the work titled “A Space-Filler Mechanism to Recognize Hand Pose” and this work was about the development of Cognitive models for assistive robots/machines utilized in social environments to recognize various human hand poses. ICIIS is being held in Sri Lanka and India alternatively annually and has a history of more than 14 years. The presented work was funded by the Senate research council, University of Moratuwa. This work is a collaboration of five members of the Intelligent Service Robotics Group including Chapa Sirithunge, Sahan Priyanayana, Ravindu Bandara, Dr.  Buddhika Jayasekara and   Dr. Chandima Pathirana. 

Tharushi Kalinga, an MSc Research Student at Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa attended the Second Nepal Winter School in AI held from 10^th to 20^th December 2019 at Gandaki College of Engineering and Science (GCES) in Pokhara, Nepal. Second Nepal Winter School in AI was an 11 Days program organised by NAAMII, a profit-not-distributing research organization working to build a strong foundation of research and support the ecosystem of higher education and innovation in the field of informatics, applied mathematics and AI. The Winter School has involved over 20 world class speakers with Prof. Karl Friston of University College London and Prof. Michael Bronstein of Imperial College London as Keynote Speakers. The Winter School has provided in-depth lectures and hands-on lab sessions on AI & Machine Learning. It has further gone into Fundamentals and Advanced Topics including Computer Vision, Neuroscience, Deep Learning, NLP and Mathematics as well. The program has been successfully held with the participation of over 150 participants including Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students, Researchers and Scientists from more than 13 countries around the World.

Sahan Priyanayana, Mphil student at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa attended and presented at the IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference which was held from November 12 - 14, 2019 in The Depok City, Indonesia. Sahan is a member of the Intelligent Service Robotics Group led by Dr. Buddhika Jayasekara and Dr. Chandima Pathirana. He presented a paper titled “Evaluation of Navigation Commands Based on Conceptual Attributes to Enhance Human-Robot Interaction”. This work was about conceptual attributes identified in vocal commands of wheelchair users and their effect on understanding of navigational commands.  The presented work was funded by the Senate research council, University of Moratuwa and National Research Council, Sri Lanka.