History

Late 1960’s

first mechanical calculators of Nippon and Facit models were used for teaching Statistics in the Department of Mathematics

the First course in Computer Programming (Fortran) was taught in Colombo University – only the theory was taught without programming; and an IBM sorter was hired to analyse survey data

1967
1968

Statistical Unit was established within the Department of Mathematics in 1968 at the request of the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Geography and the Faculty of Medicine

The Statistical Unit was formally approved by the Senate of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, at its 20th meeting held on 26-06-1970 as a unit for the entire university to undertake statistical and data processing.

1970
1970’s

The University of Colombo started teaching Fortran programming on mainframe ICL 1901 and the practical sessions were carried out using IBM Model 29 alpha-numeric punch card machine at the State Engineering Corporation, and subsequently the IBM mainframe S/360 Model 25 at the Department of Census and Statistics was used for the studies.

Under the Higher Education Reforms that took place in 1972 (Osmond Jayartne Report), the Department of Mathematics and the Statistical Unit of the University of Colombo made a groundbreaking attempt to initiate new course units in Mathematics, Statistics and FORTRAN Programming leading to Statistical Services job stream for the students with the new Special Degree in Development Studies in the Faculty of Arts

1972
1974

The Statistical Consultancy and Data Processing Service were established under the Statistical Unit of the Department of Mathematics, University of Colombo

The University of Reading, UK and the University of Colombo established a collaboration in 1974 for a period of 10 years and the University of Reading contributed to the Statistical Unit to become a National Centre for Statistical Research, Teaching and Consultancy

1974
1977

Under the Colombo-Reading Collaboration, the Department was gifted a HP 9825 Mini computer with a Card Reader

The Computer Centre of the University of Colombo was established.

1980
1980

A Data General Eclipse NOVA/4 minicomputer was obtained by a loan in 1980 for one year and housed in the Department of Mathematics.

The first mini computer Data General Eclipse model S/140 was purchased with time sharing OS and 16 VDU for Fortran and Cobol programming.

1981
1981

The curriculum in Computing was enhanced by introducing a new course in Numerical Analysis for the undergraduates of the Faculty of Science

The Department of Mathematics granted its first local Ph.D in Computing and Statistics for the first time in the history of the University Education in Sri Lanka.

1981
1982

BBC computers were used to process and release, to Rupavahini, the national TV the results of the 1982 presidential elections (first ever computerization of a national event); proliferation of BBC micro computers over Econet, the first LAN for file sharing, printing and Basic programming in a 30 machine PC lab; Introduction of first generation personal omputers – KayPro running CP/M

Three certificate courses in Computer Applications, specially designed for users in Scientific, Technological and
Financial & Management were introduced. Three courses are Certificate Course in Computer Applications in Science & Technology using FORTRAN, Certificate Course in Computer Applications in Financial & Management using BUSINESS BASIC and Certificate Course in Computer Applications in Finance & Management using COBOL.

1982
1982

Permission was granted to introduce two new course units for 3rd year students under Applied Mathematics. The two course units are AM 204 – Scientific Computing and AM 205 – System Analysis and Computer Applications in Finance and Management

Computer Assisted Education was introduced by the Ministry of Education to three schools as a pilot project
and the University of Colombo assisted the Ministry in launching its Computer Education Programme through teacher training.

1983
1984

Tandy Radio Shack TRS model 80 desktop machine running XENIX for Unix/C programming was installed.

The University of Colombo organised the First Asian Regional College of Microprocessor Technology and Applications held in Sri Lanka from 4th to 29th June in collaboration with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, in association with the University Grants Commission and the Computer and Information Technology Council (CINTEC) of Sri Lanka.

1984
1984

‘Statistics in Agriculture’, was held in December jointly with the University of Reading and cosponsored by the Computer Centre and the Statistical Unit of the University of Colombo.

Standard IBM PC/XT PC based on 8086/88 running MSDOS was introduced for Labs

1985
1985

The Department of Statistics and Computer Science(DSCS) was established amalgamating the Statistical Unit and the Computer Center of the Department of Mathematics

The first ever Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Applications in Sri Lanka was introduced.

1986
1986

Local Language Development

The Institute of Computer Technology (ICT) (with the assistance JICA, Japan) was established.

1987
1987

Collaboration between the Department of Statistics and Computer Science of the University of Colombo, Sri
Lanka and the Department of Computing Mathematics, University of Wales Collage of Cardiff, United Kingdom
was established.

NEC 430 mainframe was donated by Japan with 60 terminals for interactive Computing

1988
1988

UNICODE Initiative

Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency – JICA

1988
1989

UNISYS minicomputer was setup for student programming in Fortran, Pascal and Prolog labs with the assistance of UNDP; PC Labs with 80286/386 processors and Novell Netware 3.11/Widows 3.1 OS was established.

The first ever M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science was launched with the assistance of UNDP.

1989
1990

First ever Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in Sri Lanka was launched on 14th July by the Department of Statistics and Computer Science.1992– Sun Microsystems Workstation Lab with 10 machines running SunOS 4.1.2 with a 10Mbps Ethernet for Scientific Computing was installed.

Establishment of the Computing Services Centre of the ICT

1990
1992

The Third Country Training Programmes (TCTP) was launched with the assistance of JICA.

A dial up email service was provided for the University of Colombo when internet was first launched in Sri Lanka.

1994
1996

Along with the introduction of local language computing, came the world’s first ever Indic origin tri-lingual national web site (www.lk) for the Government Information Department of Sri Lanka, inaugurated by the late Hon. Minister Mr. Dharmasiri Senanayake at a public
ceremony held at BMICH on 15th September, 1996. The Tamil language related research and development activities were continued thereafter.

International Conference in Information Technology (IITC) was organized by UCSC and subsequently named as ICTER with IEEE technical sponsorship.

1998
1998

Graduate Training Programme (GTP) was commenced.

The Director Institute of Computer Technology was presented with JICA President’s Award for International Cooperation

1999
2000

A Campus wide fiber optic network was established for the University of Colombo using Swedish SIDA Grant;
Specialised servers like IBM RS/6000 (AIX OS) and Sun UltraSPARC (Solaris 7 OS) for graduates from ADB
S&T grant

A Joint PhD program was started for the internal staff of Sri Lankan universities with UCSC as focal point and with
the assistance of Swedish Universities of Uppsala, KTH, Gothenburg, Mid Sweden launched (Supported by Sida)

2000
2000

The first ever External Degree in Information Technology, Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) was introduced.

The Sinhala language Unicode was designed and published

2000
2001

The Department of Computer Science was established

The University of Colombo School of Computing was established by merging the Department of Computer Science and Institute of Computer Technology; National e-learning centre project funded by SIDA launched by UCSC

2002
2002

The Advanced Digital Media Technology Centre (ADMTC) was established with the assistance from JICA.

The Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology was commenced.

2002
2002

Master of Information Technology, Master of Computer Science, and
Master of Advanced Computing was launched

The Third phase of the Third Country training programme with JICA collaboration was launched

2005
2006

UCSC launched an International Journal on ICT for Emerging regions (ICTER)

Linneas-Palmer exchange program was established for the staff and students in collaboration with Umea
University, Sweden

2009
2012

Master of Science in Information Security was launched

With the active involvement of UCSC ,most public services available at the Department of Registrar General,
Department of Land Registry, Police fingerprinting and other services were computerized Under the Sri Lankan
government e-services drive

2013
2015

A separate Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems and Software Engineering was introduced at the University
of Colombo School of Computing.

Master of Information Technology, Master of Information Security, Master of Computer Science, and Master of Science in Computer Science was launched

2017
2018

Master of Business Analytics and Master of Cybersecurity was launched