The Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ), is one of the five Departments of Study of the Faculty of Engineering, USJ, established in January 2016 with a mandate to offer study programmes in Engineering. Department of Mechanical Engineering, USJ, offers particularly an undergraduate study programme in Mechanical Engineering leading to the award of the degree of the ‘Bachelor of the Science of Engineering’.
The first acting Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, USJ was Dr. K.M.C. Konthesingha. Professor N.S. Senanayake who is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the Open University of Sri Lanka shouldered the tasks of developing the curriculum and processing the procurements for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Emeritus Professor N. R. Arthenayake, who was a former Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Sri Lanka and Senior Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was appointed as the Lead Consultant to spearhead the establishment of the Faculty of Engineering who also provided guidance to the successful inauguration of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, USJ. The first permanent staff member of the department, Dr. M.H.V.D.Y. Mudunkotuwa joined in October 2016. The first and current Head of the department is Dr. P.M.T. Bandara who assumed his duties as the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in June 2017.
As a remarkable celebration for the 60th anniversary of the USJ, the Innovation Invention and Venture Creation Council (IIVCC-USJ) organized the exhibition INNOVATE SRI LANKA 2019, in which the Department of Mechanical Engineering, USJ won the Gold and Silver awards for the best inventions of the year.
Capital Racing Team which is the Formula Student Racing team of USJ was formulated under the guidance of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, USJ. The team is ambitious and has undertaken Europe’s most established educational engineering competition in the undergraduate level which is to design and build a race car to compete in the Formula Student competition which is organized by Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), UK.
IMechE student chapter of USJ was installed in December 2019. As its duties, IMechE student chapter communicates with IMechE Sri Lanka group and organises an annual plan which includes industrial workshops, mechanical engineering competitions such as Speak Out for Engineers (SOFE) and Formula Student. The main objective of this chapter is to enhance and develop the soft skills of the engineering undergraduate students which is an essential requirement for a successful career in engineering.
Inaugural batch of students was admitted to the department in January 2018, which was followed by two subsequent batches in 2019 and 2020. The first batch of the department are currently undergoing Industrial training and will be enrolled to the final year of the degree programme upon successful completion of Industrial training.
