IQ Labs

In this podcast we will explore the Science behind BusinessManagement with Dr. Isuru Koswatte. Dr. Koswatte is an Assistant Professor inBusiness and Management at University of the West of Scotland. He is also anAdjunct Senior Research Fellow at NSBM Green University.  He also suervesas an external examiner at Northumbra University.

He completed his PhD from the University of Manchester in2020 at the age of 27 and is skilled in Mixed Method Research, StructureEquation Modelling and qualitative research. He holds a first class honours inMSc in International Business from the University of Manchester as well as donea BSc in Business and Management from the University of Birmingham.

Dr. Koswatte’s research interests are diverse and spans inthe areas of organizational resilince, crisis management, entrepnuership aswell SDG goals. He has published several international journals, book chaptersand taken part in conference as well as involved in funded internationalresearch collaborations. 

He is also involved in several roles administrativelyholding responsibilities as the Deputy Programme Leader for the BA BusinessDegree programe at UWS as well as Co-Chairing the Staff Research Forum atUWS.   

He is presently an associate member of National Centre forResilience, a cross sector partnership spanning Scottish universities,government and practice. He is also a member of the British Academy EarlyCareer Researcher Network in Scotland as well as a member of the Academy ofInternational Business (AIB).

Dr Koswatte is an experienced academic holding Fellowship inhigher Education (FHEA) as well as The Certified Management & BusinessEducator (CMBE) status for his recognition in the Business and Managementfield.

You can check about Dr. Isuru Koswatte’s work from theselinks:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drisurukoswatte/?originalSubdomain=uk 

Isuru KoswatteUniversity of the West ofScotlandhttps://research-portal.uws.ac.uk › persons › isuru-koswatte 

https://www.nsbm.ac.lk/staff/dr-isuru-koswatte/

00:00 Introducing Isuru

01:01 Isuru’s journey after school

05:49 About Business Management

09:47 Our understanding of a businessman is very negative

11:14 Research on crisis management and resilience building

16:01 Sri Lankan companies are well ahead with their CSR

17:08 Resilience comes from being hospitable

18:25 Why are we behind in job creation?

22:51 Business management and entrepreneurship is not asubject but a skill

24:45 Sri Lankans are good in subject knowledge but not inapplication

27:33 How can we create a culture which fosters this?

31:17 Lack of role models

38:46 Politicians make the best brands

41:43 American parents teach their kids to be leaders

50:44 Problem with falling for political ad campaigns

52:11 Developed Asian companies focus on systems, westernculture focusses on personalities

58:15 How to make a brand?

1:03:52 Sri Lankans making poor choices with migrations

In this podcast I invited my batchmate, Kaneru Vimantha

To get intouch with Kaneru you can connect with him on

00:00 About Kaneru

02:59 Kaneru as a project manager

03:53 Importance of clubs and societies: AIESEC Club

07:01 Kaneru’s awakening – introvert to extrovert

08:16 Try different clubs

12:44 AIESEC is like a kitchen – not like a restaurant

16:28 Origins of “Great place to work”

23:25 What makes a great place to work? What are the

26:19 Employees and management is like the neck of the

34:11 How important is statistics to your company?

45:27 Statistics is not enough – expert knowledge is needed

52:57 Mistakes Sri Lankan companies make

59:03 Importance of wellbeing

1:00:52 Advice to undergrads who enter the job market

1:10:24 Extracurricular activities and Emotional

Dr. Muditha Bandara is a senior lecturer at the Department

00:00 Muditha’s journey

02:24 Negative impression of Nuclear science Department

05:00 Medical Physics and Nuclear Science overlap

06:09 Meeting Dr. Janaka Wansapura

08:15 Paper qualifications can’t judge a person

09:43 People bloom in different times

11:16 Starting FOS blog and media unit and hobbies

15:36 Differences in students across generations

18:28 Differences in American students

19:55 American students like asking questions

23:00 Doing PhD in Sri Lanka – positives and negatives

30:26 Muditha’s research

39:58 Inter-disciplinary research

42:45 Post Doctoral experience in USA at UT Southwestern

45:30 Did you doubt yourself when you came to the USA?

46:07 How broad is Medical Physics?

49:39 Last comments

You might remember Dr. Muditha Senarath-Yapa from my

00:00 What is Innovation?

07:06 Science/innovation brought prosperity examples

13:43 What National plan would you propose to achieve this?

24:11 How can we foster this mindset from the school level

28:33 American kids selling candy in the park

30:54 We lack people’s skills

33:34 Is spending money on R&D is a waste?

46:03 Can small scale businesses do R&D?

54:50 Things you can do in your home/garage

01:01:19 Encourage hobbies among people

01:03:38 Challenges in taking product to market

01:09:54 Information at our fingertips

01:10:40 Allocate time to develop knowledge

01:13:43 Time to make change in our country

You might remember Dr. Nirma Jayawardena from my PhD advice

A short bio/description about Nirma

Dr. Nirma Sadamali Jayawardena is an Assistant Professor in

Links about her work, where people can reach out to her

00:00 Intro Dr. Nirma Jayawardena

01:05 About Nirma’s journey

05:08 Advice to those who enter Private Universities

06:36 Passion for teaching

08:14 Why did you choose Marketing?

09:38 How important is Marketing?

13:01 Visual memory on advertisements

14:44 Negative publicity is good publicity

15:33 We use marketing everyday: Job interview

16:23 Applying a marketing theory (Case study)

18:33 Lipton tea advertisement

24:04 Metaphorical framework on human judgement

25:56 What is Marketing? Nirma’s definition

28:05 Marketing after the rise of

30:46 Common misconceptions about this field

31:54 Tools and skills needed for Marketing

33:23 Nirma’s publication

42:10 Misuses of marketing: social engineering, political

47:18 Can a company recover after losing its reputation?

48:24 Future of marketing – interesting questions worth

Sahitha Karapitiya was selected to present his work at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) for their Annual International Meeting in 2023. He is the only participant from Sri Lanka. He received his undergraduate degree in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya. The title of his research is "Simulation of the Temperature Profile of Coffee Beans Roasted Under Far-Infrared Radiation" done under the supervision of Professor K. S. P. Amaratunga (Sanath Amaratunga).

If you want to help Sahitha or get in touch with him:

Website sahitha.super.site

Email: [email protected]

Facebook Sahitha Karapitiya

Linkedin Sahitha Karapitiya

00:00 About Sahitha

01:24 Sahitha's story

04:07 What were your dreams?

06:48 Entering Faculty of Agriculture at Peradeniya

11:25 What is the potential of Agriculture faculty

15:02 Versatile degree programs

16:22 About Sahitha's research

19:46 Model development

22:26 Experimental Setup

25:15 About ASABE

26:35 Prof. Sanath Amaratunga

28:45 Side business

31:23 Time management

37:41 Plans for the future

Ayodhya Sovis Wickramasooriya is doing her Post Graduuate studies in Agricultural economics at the University of Goettingen, Germany. She is a graduate from the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and she completed her bachelors in Agriculture Business Management.

Agricultural economics is a branch of economics that focuses on the study of agricultural production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services related to agriculture. The field of agricultural economics is concerned with understanding the complex interactions between farmers, consumers, policymakers, and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

00:00 About Ayodhya

03:49 Potential of Agriculture

04:27 About International Agriculture

05:55 Economics in Agriculture

13:10 Undergraduate research

16:24 Agriculture in the North

17:55 Banning of chemical fertilizers

20:29 Organic Farming

22:13 Sustainable Agriculture

26:23 New technologies

27:24 Will Sri Lanka continue with agriculture

31:52 Challenges of learning economics

32:53 Future plans

I invited Kethmi Hettige to talk about the Z-score. For those who did A/Ls in Sri Lanka - this is a life deciding equation. Kethmi received her Bachelors in Industrial Statistics and Mathematical Finance from the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. She is currently doing her PhD in Singapore.

00:00 About Z-score

00:59 Origins of the equation

01:52 Statistical measure

04:30 Mean,SD can be subjective

05:33 Why use it for A/Ls?

06:46 How to calculate it?

10:35 Problem with 2011 A/Ls

11:49 Bell curves

14:03 Biggest assumption with Z-score

16:09 Is it a good method?

20:22 Representative samples

21:35 What determines cutoff marks?

රසායනික බන්ධන විවිධ පරිමාණ වලින් - Computational ව්‍යාපෘතියක් කරමු

Let's do a computational chemistry project using OpenMM (39:42)

How do chemists understand a chemical bond? Molecular orbital theory helps us understand this.

If you haven't watched the previous videos you can check it out here:

1. Quantum Vs Classical mechanics - https://youtu.be/EsRlDKCi2EM

2. What is a chemical bond? https://youtu.be/oERFHqewf_A

Many thanks to Dulitha Prasanna for joining the podcast to talk about Quantum Mechanics.

00:00 Mathematics of molecular orbital theory

03:39 Molecular orbital diagrams

05:09 Contribution of each orbitals

06:46 Intro to GAMESS (Practical example)

09:42 Input file (for Nitrogen)

18:30 Visualizing molecular orbitals

22:24 Our understanding of bonding

23:18 Calculations and output file

25:41 Anti-bonding orbitals

27:40 Benzene rings

29:02 Dipeptide hydrolysis

30:51 Computational range/length

33:31 Classical mechanics

36:31 Experiments Vs Simulations

39:06 Course-grained, mesoscale

39:42 OpenMM Python package

45:30 Interaction in solvent box

47:11 Using super computing clusters

49:43 Future projects (Fundraiser)