Experience at the Ports Authority of Sri Lanka

SLPA is one of the best places an engineering apprentice can complete his or her in-plant training. They have three engineering divisions electrical, mechanical and civil. I was fortunate enough to train at the electrical division under the Chief engineer. Here are few photos of my experience at SLPA.

Following pic was taken at the very beginning of our training during a visit to the terminals. As you can see we were amazed by the size of  ships at close range. lol.

I covered both the electrical and electronic components in my training. The six month training program of SLPA is internationally recognized. Following pics were taken at the pilot station of SLPA which is one of the most important places in the port.

They use the best products in the market for best performance. Here is a photo of a CISCO access point used for wireless communication.

Although it is a big place with a large income, they allocate very less for new technologies. The port is getting old day by day. However for a trainee it is a good place to learn.

HNDE Electrical Syllabus problems

According to the FINAL REPORT PHASE 2 – SYLLABUS SEMESTER SYSTEM ELECTRICAL 2010 and FINAL REPORT PHASE 2 – SYLLABUS MECHANICAL ENGINEERING MARCH 2010\

1)   No place in the syllabus where  microcontrollers are covered in ELECTRICAL engineering. ( But syllabus for mechanical engineering has 8051 Microcontroller as a part of their Mechatronics II ME 3124 subject for third year which is the same microcontroller used in Open University of Sri Lanka for ECX4236[microprocessors and interfacing] subject. Plus ECX4236 is a common subject for all deciplines of except civil engineering at OUSL  )

2)   PLC designing and programming, and Numerical controls theories are taught for Industrial electronics subject which is an optional subject for Telecommunication electrical engineering.(PID is also taught in ME 2114 Control Systems and Introduction to Mechatronics for mechanical engineering in mechanical engineering)

3)  Engineering Mathematics with Mat lab MA2101 subject is common for Electrical and Mechanical engineering but its applications for engineering is not discussed at any subject of Electrical engineering. (ME 2114 Control Systems and Introduction to Mechatronics Mechanical engineering uses matlab to analysis and compensators design problems )

4)   No practicals sessions for Matlab.

5)   P, PI, PID controllers is not covered at any phase for Power electrical engineering.

6)   Numerical controls for telecommunication electrical engineering contains the following topics for EE 3113 Industrial Electronics

But the syllabus for mechanical engineering covers the following topics for numerical controls for ME2215 CAD/CAM subject.

according to the lecture hours spent the EE 3113 Industrial Electronics takes 2 hours more to cover 1/3 of what is taught for ME2215 CAD/CAM.