Malhansi_Research

In my degree program, we had a GPA module named “Research Project (CH4070)” contributed 2 credits from a total of 135 GPA credits. In semester 6, a list of research project titles with supervisors was provided and the student was able to select a topic according to his/her preference. However, it was conducted on a first-come-first-serve basis due to the limitations of the number of students per lecturer/project. Students also had the freedom to decide on their project and discuss it with a lecturer for being his/her supervisor. However, it should be an acceptable research problem. My research project was about “Fermentation of Morinda citrifolia (noni) fruit juice” and my supervisor was the former Head of the Department, Dr. (Mrs.) Sanja Gunawardena. I pay my sincere gratitude to her for guiding and advising me and my research partner (Eng. Thushitha Chandrasiri) even in her busy schedules. My research project consisted of two main objectives. Part 1: we focused on variations of anti...

The undergraduate research project is very crucial for getting selected for a postgraduate research program. However, it does not mean that it is only necessary for a student who will be in academia in the future. It is important to develop a wide range of skills including analytical skills, technical writing, creativity, problem-solving skills, time management, team working, communication skills, presentation skills, and critical thinking. These skills are not required only by academia but also by many industries/ organizations that favour the mentioned skills in their recruitment processes.  I also experienced that during my interviews in two private organizations I worked at before my PhD study. In my interview for the internship at GSK, one interviewer asked me what are the projects I participated in? Since our internship program was completed before the final year, at that time I did not do my undergraduate research project. But in semester 3, since I had some interest in rese...

Since after launching my blog ( https://malhansi.blogspot.com/ ) & conducting several sessions on higher studies, I have checked the first emails, SOPs, research proposals, and CVs of many people and was able to give feedback. Recently also I checked a few documents made by future PG students.  I thought to share one of my experiences that may be useful for readers of this blog. It is about "Technical/formal writing". I have gathered up my thoughts and they are as follows. 1. Writing skills are not built up within one day. It is developed from the experiences you gained throughout your study/working period. One critical phase is during your bachelor's. Copying and being lazy to make your coursework, assignments, reports, research papers, thesis, etc will not improve your writing skills. These days, I have also seen that option of paying for someone for your assignment writing is available on some platforms/groups. I still remember that one of my lecturers told us when...

Some undergraduates and fresh graduates from my department at the University of Moratuwa told me about an issue of publishing research papers Because they were unable to do experiments during this pandemic. If you can manage to do the experiments and proceed with the publication, it is the best option. But I am aware that it may not be the practical scenario. Thus, I remembered that my recent experience would be one solution for your issue and thought its relevant to share it. This is one of my experiences regarding a research conference I attended in 2021 in Singapore. As a 1st year PhD student, we must complete some modules like you are doing in the bachelors. One of the modules I did in 1st semester was “Processing of Organic Materials”. In that module, the final assessment was to create a “Poster” (a research poster is one type of presentation of your research). Professor conducted a zoom meeting and told us to do a literature review first and then make a poster according to the gi...

Publishing My Research Papers I had to take one more month after my final year exams to complete my experiments and after that, I started writing my first research paper using the results of the first part of my research study. About three months were used for the writing process since it was my first time, and I had many things to learn and correct. I had a strong desire that I would present my first paper at an international conference held in a foreign country. Therefore, after drafting the content of my paper, I searched for a research conference held in Asian countries. First, it was difficult to find an appropriate research conference because there were many research conferences just organised for monetary purposes without proper standards. So, I was struggling with how to identify such conferences. After doing some search and self-study, I was able to find some strategies to find reliable conferences and they are as follows. Research Conferences  I Attended  for My Unde...