ScholarX 2020 | SX20 Launched
What is ScholarX
ScholarX, one of four flagship programs coordinated and executed by the Sustainable Education Foundation, provides a mentorship platform for undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. ScholarX allows students to connect with industry experts and academics from top universities in the world as well as globally impactful companies and start-ups. ScholarX aims to create a community of shared ideas within student communities in Sri Lanka by liaising the exchange of information between mentors and students without the restriction of geographical boundaries.
Why ScholarX
ScholarX gives students the opportunity to further their academic and professional goals guided by the advice of their mentors, while building their increasing employability skills within the global market. Student testimonies from the previous cohort of ScholarX reflect on the fact that the program allowed for subject-specific guidance, improved quality of resume writing, provided information on starting and pursuing research, and allowed mentees to build and develop leadership qualities.
How to apply?
Applications for this year’s installment of the ScholarX program are now open and will close on 14th April 2020. The application form consists of a series of questions regarding your field of study, extracurricular experience and interest in the program, designed to allow for the best possible match between mentors and mentees.
Mentor information and areas of expertise are published on the SEF website and social media. Students will be asked to pick their top three choices in mentors and will be assigned to selected mentors based on these choices as well as the relative strength of their application.
To apply please click here.
Our mentors
This year’s cohort of volunteer mentors includes 17 mentors experienced in a broad spectrum of expertise ranging from medicine to arts to engineering and many other fields.
Dinithi Sumanaweera
Dinithi is a PhD candidate at Monash University with a focus on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Her main areas of expertise lie in academic research focused on computational biology.
She is capable of providing advice on doing research, specifically in computational biology.
Ganindu Nanayakkara
Ganindu is currently obtaining an MBA at the University of Kelaniya. He also has a BSc in Information Technology from Curtin University and was a former researcher at NASA Ames Research Center.
His areas of expertise are Innovation, Information technology, Business and Finance
Hasini Jayatilaka
Hasini was a Postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and is a Johns Hopkins University alum. She is also a recipient of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2019 for her discovery of a signalling pathway that controls how cancer cells metastasize through the body and a way to block that pathway.
Her areas of expertise are cancer biology, pre-clinical and clinical trials for drug development, biotech, biopharma, and fundamental research
Iromi Wanigasuriya
Iromi Wanigasuriya is a final year PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne and is currently working on an epigenetic modifier known as Smchd1. She also works as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Melbourne and the Gene Technology Access Centre in Victoria, Australia.
Isuru Daulagala
Isuru Daulagala is currently a Software Engineer at NVIDIA and has a background in Electronic Design Automation, Optimizing Machine Learning Algorithms and Reinforcement Learning.
He can provide guidance in topics surrounding Machine Learning and is looking to assist students with Machine Learning competitions as part of the mentorship.
Jeewika Ranaweera
Jeewika is the Principal Hardware Engineer at Oracle based in Santa Clara, California and is a University of Toronto alum.
Her expertise lies in hardware engineering and she can provide guidance and mentorship on pursuing graduate studies.
Lahiru Maramba
Lahiru is a Software Engineer at Google and has extensive experience in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), UX, research methodology and data structures and algorithms.
He has industry experience in design, prototyping and user testing and can guide students in topics relating to hardware prototyping, applied science and computing.
Nadeera Nilupamali
Nadeera has a PhD in Virology from the University of Peradeniya and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and is also the co-founder of Immunify.me, an organization that leverages technology for vaccination and immunization monitoring and eliminates manual intervention in record keeping
Nadeesha Chandrasena
Nadeesha is an expert in Urban Planning and is adept in Civil Engineering, Environment and Humanities. She was a National Key Consultant for the first-ever Multimodal Transport Center Development Project in Sri Lanka.
She can guide and mentor students in communication, invention and innovation.
Nivanthika Wimalasena
Nivanthika is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Harvard University and has experience in the industry with research relating to chemical biology and translational research.
She can provide mentorship in scientific writing, public speaking, and provide guidance with application essays and writing effective resumes.
Chethiya Abeysingha
Chethiya is looking specifically to mentor student for Software Engineering Interviews focused on companies like Google, Amazon, FB etc and other companies following a similar recruitment model.
Chethiya’s areas of expertise are software engineering, startups, building software products, programming and competitive programming
Ruwandi Kariyawasam
Ruwandi is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto working on her thesis in Parasitology. She will as of Fall 2020 be pursuing a Post Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Alberta.
She can assist and guide students interested in clinical microbiology, research or medicine.
Sajani Amarasiri
Sajani is the founder and CEO of Colombo Cooperative an entrepreneur hub and coworking space in Colombo, Sri Lanka with a mission to help everyone achieve their full potential.
She has industry experience in supply chain management and business and can provide guidance and mentorship in entrepreneurship and personal development and branding.
Yadurshini Raveendran
Yadurshini is currently pursuing an MSc. in Global Health at Duke University and has a background in biology. She has research experience in global health from past projects in India, US and Tanzania. She also has a deep interest in human rights and women empowerment research.
She can provide guidance on research methodologies, preparation for university application and scientific writing.
Rukshan Batuwita
Rukshan is currently a Data Scientist at Google and has a PhD in Applied Machine Learning from the University of Oxford.
He has extensive experience in Applied Machine Learning and Data Science and can provide mentorship in topics surrounding this field as well as statistics and computer science.
Nushelle de Silva
Nushelle is currently a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a focus in art history, architecture, design and material culture. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Fellow, a Queen’s Young Leader, and a YouthActionNet Laureate Global Fellow.
She can provide guidance and mentorship in grant and proposal writing, public speaking and teaching methods for the arts.
Nishantha Rajakaruna
Nishantha has over 15 years of teaching botany, biology, and environmental sciences at the university level. He has extensive experience in research and has provided mentorship and guidance to hundreds of students over the years and is currently Faculty in Residence at California Polytechnic State University living in residence first-year undergrads and providing academic advising and mentoring as needed.
Contact info
For more information on the application process and well as detailed bios on all our mentors for this year please visit our website.
For any questions about the program, please get in touch with our ScholarX Program Manager, Saumiyaa Pathmarajah at sustainableedufoundation@gmail.com or shoot us a message on Facebook!
The Sustainable Education Foundation (SEF) is a volunteer-driven organization that aims to empower students, educational institutes and education as a whole in Sri Lanka, by connecting Sri Lankan student communities with a constantly growing network of Sri Lankan industry experts and academics around the world. For more information on SEF and the work we do, visit our website!
