Dialog Empowers the Next Generation with Coding and Robotics

The young aspiring coders with (L-R) Supun Weerasinghe, Group Chief Executive, Dialog Axiata PLC, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Corporate Executive Vice President and Regional Chief Executive for South Asia, Axiata Group Berhad and Sandra De Zoysa, Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC.

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, hosted a coding and robotics workshop for children of Dialog Club Vision customers at the Dialog Head Office Auditorium.

An initiative by the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), in collaboration with Dialog, joined hands to carry out this novel initiative, a workshop on coding and robotics for kids. The workshop not only allowed children to gain an understanding on basic IT skills at an early age, but also encouraged the next generation to take up IT as a profession in the future.

The workshop drew close to fifty children between the ages of 7-12, who experienced the thrill of developing games with simulations to learn coding and robotics skills with the support of Tec Sri Lanka. The young aspiring coders were divided into several teams and given an opportunity to code a Star Wars game, in which winning teams were rewarded with Dialog Virtual Reality (VR) sets. Furthering their digital native skills, the teams were also exposed to programming of robots.

Supun Weerasinghe, Group Chief Executive, Dialog Axiata and Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Corporate Executive Vice President and Regional Chief Executive for South Asia, Axiata Group Berhad addressed the gathering and further re-iterated the importance of coding and Dialog’s role in spearheading digital transformation amongst the next generation of makers and movers.

Sandra De Zoysa, Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC said, “The workshop set aside a whole day to teach children on how to code and help them understand the basic mechanics of coding, with the goal of educating, enabling and ensuring children are equipped with tools and skills that will be essential for their education. Sri Lanka has a global reputation in best-in-class software development and through this initiative we hope to truly equip a generation that will experience the future, today.” She added “We believe that it is important to expose children to coding as part of their early education so that they comprehend its vast potential and take a keen interest in technology right from their formative years.”

Dialog with the support of SLASSCOM and its member companies aim to empower and encourage young children to develop fundamentals in computer science through a series of workshops and simulations focused across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), whilst educating children in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. This initiative is the first of many workshops in Colombo and is set to roll out across the island to include key regions such as Kandy, Galle and Jaffna.

About Dialog Axiata Group

Dialog Axiata Group, a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata), operates Sri Lanka’s Leading Quad-Play Connectivity Provider. Dialog Axiata PLC, listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, supplements its market leading position in the Mobile Telecommunications sector with a robust footprint and market presence in Sri Lanka’s Fixed Telecommunications and Digital Television markets through its fully owned subsidiaries Dialog Broadband Networks (Private) Ltd (DBN) and Dialog Television (Private) Ltd., (DTV). Dialog Axiata Group is Sri Lanka's largest Foreign Direct Investor (FDI) with investments totaling USD 2.3 Billion.

The winner of six Global Mobile Awards, Dialog has the distinction of being voted by Sri Lankan Consumers as the Telecom Service Provider of the Year for seven years in succession at the SLIM-Nielsen People's Choice Awards. Dialog was also voted by Sri Lankan consumers as the Internet Service Provider of the Year for six years consecutively, and has topped Sri Lanka’s Corporate Accountability rankings for the past eight years in succession, and is an ISO 9001 certified company. The Company has received numerous local and international awards including the National Quality Award and Sri Lanka Business Excellence Award.

Dialog has been at the forefront of innovation in the mobile industry in Sri Lanka since the late 90’s, propelling the nation’s mobile telephony infrastructure to a level of advancement on par with the developed world. The company delivers advanced mobile telephony and high speed mobile broadband services to a subscriber base in excess of 12.7 Million Sri Lankans, via 2.5G and 3G/3.5G and 4G/4.5G networks.