The AI and Data Science Club of KDU organised the Grand Finale of the Inter University Power BI Competition, BIVIZWAR, on 02 February 2024. Vice Chancellor of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Rear Admiral HGU Dammika Kumara, VSV, USP, psc, MMaritimePol, BSc (DS) graced the occasion as the chief guest.

This competition, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, aimed to make budding data scientists demonstrate their data visualization skills using Power BI dashboards: an essential skill that data scientists should demonstrate in the industry.

The competition started in November 2023 with a series of 13 workshops led by data science professionals to enhance participants’ knowledge on Power BI. With the invaluable support of Microsoft Sri Lanka, expert resources were made available. Then 40 teams entered the competition, of which 10 were chosen as semi-finalists and 5 entered the final. Participants from several institutions such as the University of Moratuwa, the University of Peradeniya, the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, SLIIT and NIBM also took part.

Five finalists presented their dashboards before a panel of distinguished judges including Mr. Udaya Chathuranga (Technical Lead) from Fortude, Mr. Gishan Nirmasanka (Senior Software QA Engineer) from BISTEC Global Services, and Dr. Amirthanathan Prashanthan (Engineer) from Sri Lanka Telecom PLC.

Team VIZWHIZ from KDU emerged the winner. SLIIT’s Team Predictors and KDU’s Team BI-Slayers secured the first and second runner-up positions respectively.

The event was sponsored by BISTEC Global Services, Fortude, Octave – John Keells Group, and Xeynergy.

Addressing the gathering the Vice Chancellor emphasized the need for data scientists in the future job market and highlighted how KDU attempts to fulfil this need. Mr Chandima Ranaweera from BISTEC Global Services praised KDU’s effort by highlighting the excellent performance of interns in the KDU’s BSc in Applied Data Science Communication degree, who worked in their company and have successfully secured permanent employment.