‘Inspiring Young Minds’

Marist Centennial Oration organized by MSC OBA Colombo branch, delivered by Dr. Ranga Rodrigo, Head, Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa.

Thank you, Mr. Merrick Goonaratne, esteemed Maristonian of the Order of the Rising Sun for the kind introduction.

Rev. Bro. Principal Sunanda Alwis, Rev. Bro Principal Shanthi Liyanage, Rev. Brothers, President of the Maris Stella College Old Boys’ Association Colombo Branch, Eng. Shirley Jayakody, Secretary, Mr. Mithra Weerakoon, members of the executive committee, past presidents, members, spouses, ladies and gentlemen,

Let your mind think of our world of plenty—rivers, minerals, trees, animals, fruits—but with no human beings. Emptiness rumbles through the dark hills and valleys. Then, it is the man, the pinnacle of creation, which enlivens the lifeless world. It is man’s mind, like the sun that bathes the world with morning light, that energizes the world out of empty darkness into meaning. What is man: a thinking being. Man uses the mind, the power of imagination, to transform the world from emptiness to a habitat. If our desire is to have a vibrant and peaceful world, it is the mind of the man that must be inspired. What is the milieu of a man’s mind that can be inspired? It is only a sapling that turns toward the sun. It is only moist clay that can be molded into a beautiful pot. It is the student who is awake who can be inspired. The nature of a mind that can be inspired is its receptiveness, like a sapling, moist clay, or a listening student. A young mind does not essentially is in a youngster, but in a human who is receptive. Inspiring young minds is, then, empowering those who are receptive to work towards a renewed world.

If the entire existence depends on inspired minds, and such an inspiration is only advantageous, what is the barrier? As I see, there are two barriers: noise and incorrect metrics. A young boy resorts to a windowsill to indulge in reading a book, a treasure trove. There he hears a tone, the tone of an instant message. He drops the book, picks the phone, and immerses in the muddy, turbulent, noisy waters of messages, social networks, and videos. There is no time for reading or reflection when noise is taking its toll. However, children’s love for tools that create noise should not be dealt with retribution. In this context, children will retaliate. The dawn of the era of devices brings to our mind the invention of the printing press in 1440s.

This sent shockwaves through Europe: the press can widely publicize adulterous prints. However, today, we know how to decipher between a good book and a terrible book with ease. The era of devices will reach the same destiny. The second barrier, incorrect metrics, is worse than noise. The story of the bus driver provides me reasons to justify the existence of a lethargic uninspired mind corrupted by an incorrect metric. The driver starts form Piliyandala, where I live, and drives toward Colombo. In his world of incorrect metrics, boarding as many passengers as possible is the goal – the metric. The correct metric should have been the income over expenditure per hour of driving. Noise and incorrect metrics lead anyone far away from inspiration.

In the world drowned in noise and marred with incorrect metrics, how can we go about inspiring young minds? Among many possible, three methods come to my mind: one-on-one mentoring, exemplary life, and joyfulness. An undergraduate dropped by my office to ask what more degrees should he do. He already had a Bachelor of Information Technology Degree and an LLB degree. He was following our Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering degree program, arguably, the most sought after. I told him that more qualifications are of limited use and to get engaged with research. Following that, the work that he did with a couple of more students led to a paper in a high-impact journal, a paper in the Conference on Winter Applications of Computer Vision and, finally, a paper in the coveted Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. At WACV in Hawaii, the student related to me, another researcher has asked “Do these things, i.e., vision research, happen in your country, Sri Lanka, and where is Sri Lanka, by the way?” The student is now with the computer vision group at University of Maryland. One-on-one mentoring works.