CINEC Campus at Malabe celebrated the official opening of the Orange-CINEC Collaborative Research Centre graced by CaptAjithPeiris, President of CINEC and MrKushanKodituwakku, Managing Director of OREL Corporation on Tuesday 29th March 2016. 

Senior staff members of both parties, Prof (Capt) NalakaJayakody, Vice President, Admiral ThisaraSamarasinghe, Senior Consultant, Prof N. Rajkumar, Director Research & International Cooperation, MsTharangaGamage, General Manager Finance & Project Planning, Dr Janaka Liyanagama, Dean Faculty of Engineering & Technology, from CINEC, and MrIndikaKulatunga, General Manager Innovation, MrSudath Kumara, Director Finance & SCM, Mr Leslie Uduwavidane, Marketing Manager, from Orel Corporation, were present on the occasion  
The Collaborative Research Centre was established by the Innovation Centre of Orel Corporation (PVT) Ltd with CINEC, for the purpose of carrying out research in areas in IoT (Internet of Things), Home Automation System, Remote monitoring and related topics. The Centre will function under the direction of Prof. N. Rajkumar, Director Research and International Cooperation at CINEC, who was responsible for the establishment of the centre at the request of Mr.IndikaKulatunga, General Manager Innovation at Orel Corporation. 

Having graduated from CINEC with a BEng (Hons) degree in Mechatronics of the University ofWolverhampton, UK, MrKulatunga had a passion to start something that could benefit the staff and students of CINEC, as a gratitude for the high quality education he received at CINEC. The Research Centre at CINEC is the result of two great minds coming together, ably supported by the visionary leadership of both institutions.

The Research Centre will be equipped with essential state-of –the-art equipment that would be used to carry out diversified research by the staff and students of the Faculty of Engineering & Technology of CINEC. The Students will be involved in research in the above areas and will be guided by the Orange R&D engineers providing them knowledge and industrial experience towards the subject. The collaborative research will be used for the development of devices and systems from Orange. The completed projects will be commercialized, with the possibility of obtaining patents.

IoT enabled devices are expected to be widely used in all aspects of life in the near future and the research centre is a step up from Orange to tap into the ever-growing demand for the betterment of life. 

Students who work in this facility will be exposed to the cutting edge technology of home automation and would get a chance to develop a fully-fledged home automation system with highly advanced features for variety of home automation requirements

Orange has been manufacturing Panel Boards which are being used in different parts of the country in the domestic market. As such there is a need for these panel boards to be remotely monitored for trouble shooting so that remedial measures could be carried out expeditiously. 

Orange is now in the process of developing a device for remotely monitoring the functions of the panel boards. This project will also be one of the main tasks of the research centre.Leaders of both institutions pledged their commitment for a productive and sustainable long term partnership.