Young Protégé 2026 – Kick-Off Session
The Young Protégé 2026 Kick-Off Session, organized by StudPro 9.0 under IEEE Young Professionals Sri Lanka, marks the official launch of Sri Lanka’s premier IEEE mentoring initiative for the year 2026. The event brings together 38 industry mentors and 76 mentees across 21 domains, creating a diverse and impactful mentorship ecosystem.
The session introduces the vision, structure, and key milestones of the program, while formally onboarding mentors and mentees into the Young Protégé journey. It provides clear guidance on roles, responsibilities, and expectations, ensuring participants are well-prepared for an effective mentoring experience.
In addition, the session inspires participants through the program’s vision and IEEE ELEVATE framework, while fostering early networking and engagement within the IEEE community. This Kick-Off Session sets the foundation for structured guidance, collaboration, and meaningful professional growth throughout the Young Protégé 2026 journey.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
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- Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) – School of Computing
- 57, Ramakrishna Road
- Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka
- Building: Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) – School of Computing
- Click here for Map
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- Co-sponsored by IEEE ELEVATE
- Starts 11 June 2026 06:30 PM UTC
- Ends 25 June 2026 06:30 PM UTC
- No Admission Charge
- Menu: Veg, Non Veg
Speakers
Prof. Tharaka Samarasinghe of IEEE Sri Lanka Section
Guest Address – IEEE Young Protégé 2026 Kick-Off
Prof. Tharaka Samarasinghe attended the Kick-Off Event of IEEE Young Protégé 2026 as Chief Guest and delivered a 10-minute Guest Address to mentors and mentees. He spoke on the value of structured mentorship in bridging academia and industry as participants began the 12-week program.
Biography:
Prof. Tharaka Samarasinghe (Senior Member, IEEE) is a Professor in the Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, a post he was promoted to in January 2024. He also heads the Department of Medical Technology in the university's Faculty of Medicine. He earned his B.Sc. Eng. from the University of Moratuwa in 2008, graduating as the university's most outstanding undergraduate, and his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2012. He started his career as a radio network planning and optimization engineer at Mobitel. Before joining Moratuwa in 2015, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University. He later also held research roles at RMIT University and an honorary fellowship at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on wireless communications and intelligent transportation systems. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of IESL.
Email:
Address:Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka, 10400
Amirah Rasmin of IEEE ELEVATE
Mentee Guidelines – IEEE Young Protégé 2026 Kick-Off
Ms. Amirah Rasmin joined the Kick-Off Event of IEEE Young Protégé 2026 as an IEEE ELEVATE Global Invitee and conducted a 10-minute session on Mentee Guidelines. She walked mentees through the program structure and timeline, their roles and responsibilities, project execution guidelines, and expectations for reporting, reviews, and the final showcase.
Biography:
Amirah Rasmin is an active IEEE volunteer in Sri Lanka involved with the IEEE ELEVATE initiative. She took part in IEEE Young Protégé 2026 as an IEEE ELEVATE Global Invitee, guiding incoming mentees on how the mentorship program works and how to get the most out of it.
Email:
Address:Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
Heshan Mallawaarachchi of IEEE ELEVATE
Young Protégé & IEEE ELEVATE Introduction
Mr. Heshan Mallawaarachchi joined the Kick-Off Event of IEEE Young Protégé 2026 as an IEEE ELEVATE Global Invitee and conducted a 10-minute session introducing the program. He gave an overview of Young Protégé 2026, explained why project-based mentorship matters, and described how the program builds industry readiness among participants.
Biography:
Heshan Mallawaarachchi is a Software Engineer at IFS R&D International (Pvt) Ltd and a long-standing IEEE volunteer in Sri Lanka. He has served as Chair of IEEE Young Professionals Sri Lanka and as the Young Professionals Representative on the IEEE Sri Lanka Section Executive Committee in 2025. He has also contributed at the IEEE Region 10 Student Activities level. In 2023, the IEEE Sri Lanka Section gave him its Volunteer Award (Industry Practitioner). He regularly speaks at IEEE student branch events on professional development and industry readiness.
Email:
Address:Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
Kavinga Upul Ekanayaka of IEEE Sri Lanka Section
Mentor Guidelines – IEEE Young Protégé 2026 Kick-Off
Mr. Kavinga Upul Ekanayaka conducted a 10–15 minute session on Mentor Guidelines at the Kick-Off Event of IEEE Young Protégé 2026. He walked mentors through how mentorship engagement is structured, how mentors and mentees should work together, the framework for choosing and guiding projects, and how to monitor mentee progress throughout the program.
Biography:
Kavinga Upul Ekanayaka is Head of Hardware Engineering at ACCELR in Colombo, where he has worked since 2019. His focus is hardware acceleration and AI for hardware engineering. Before ACCELR, he was an application engineer consultant and technical lead at Wave Computing and a consultant at Bigstream. Earlier, he was an electronic engineer at Paraqum Technologies and a research assistant at the University of Moratuwa, where he earned his B.Sc. in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering. He has been an IEEE volunteer since 2009, including roles as Chair of IEEE Young Professionals Sri Lanka, Chair of the IEEE Region 10 Student/YP/WIE Congress 2015, Treasurer and Industry Relations Committee Chair of the IEEE Sri Lanka Section, and Chair of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Sri Lanka Chapter. He also serves as Sri Lanka Liaison Chair for DVCon India.
Email:
Address:Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
