Undergraduates representing the Computer Society of the University of Peradeniya with Virtusa Certifications of Participation

Virtusa, a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions, successfully concluded the Code to Cloud: DevOps with AWS training programme, followed by an ambitious 98-minuteAWS Rush Hour hackathon challenge in partnership with the University of Peradeniya (UOP) recently.
With the world heralding the era of cloud computing, Virtusa ensured participating members of the Computer Society of UOP are equipped with the knowledge and skill set to aid them in gaining an advantage in the highly competitive IT job market at the conclusion of this training programme. 
The 15-hour training programme was broken down into 10 individual sessions, and hosted remotely by a specialist tech panel from Virtusa Sri Lanka comprising Indika Wimalasuriya - Senior Systems Engineering Manager, Managed Services who was joined by Kapila Sanjeewa - Associate Engineering Manager, Digital Engineering; Milinda Nandasena – Software Engineer – Managed Services; and Mohan Tharanga Edirisinghe – Senior Lead Software Engineer - Managed Services.
The training programme was carried out as part of Virtusa’s Campus Reach initiative – an industry-academia partnership designed to carry out immersive student engagements such as visitations, internships and mentoring among other activities, with an overarching objective to meet future IT talent needs of Sri Lanka. Anniston Leo – Associate Consultant – Campus Hiring SL represented the Campus Reach initiative and supported the tech team in facilitating the training programme. 

The training series covered key aspects of modern software development, where participants were provided with insights into DevOps principles, enabling them to explore diverse software architectures including serverless, and receive hands-on experience with AWS and Kubernetes. The programme also delved into Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Amazon Cloud Formation, microservices development, and deployment with AWS tools, as well as CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins. The journey concluded with an exploration of serverless computing through AWS Lambda. This programme equipped participants with the knowledge and experience needed to seamlessly transition code from development to the cloud.
With the conclusion of the training programme, Virtusa organized assessments for the undergraduates, providing them with hands-on experience to address real-world problems. Following this, a hackathon titled ‘AWS Rush Hour: The 98-minuteChallenge’ was conducted on the university premises. The hackathon was a remarkable success; program participants weregiven an opportunity to meet their Virtusa specialist trainers in person, network, and more importantly, gain valuable industry insights.

To mark the conclusion of this initiative, an award ceremony was held, during which Virtusa presented certificates to individuals who successfully completed the training programme. Certificates were also conferred upon the winners of the hackathon during an award ceremony, which was graciously attended by Prof. Saluka R. Kodituwakku, Senior Professor of Statistics and Computer Science at the University of Peradeniya. Prof. Kodituwakku expressed his gratitude to Team Virtusa, acknowledging their commitment and efforts in supporting young talent to thrive in their future careers. He deeply appreciated the individuals who dedicated their time and expertise to the event, ensuring that aspiring students received the guidance necessary to navigate their career paths successfully.