Speech for Undergraduates on "Computer Engineering vs Industry" in UOP

The beauty of the moments which let yourself back to the past and let you recall what you had been in old good days is that it just make you revisit through all your connected dots (If I speak Steve Job's language) and come up with an amazing story-line molded just like the way you wanted to have. In 8th March, '13, I happened to have such an amazing moment (which was a challenge a bit) that I of course enjoyed every bit of it. That was about expressing the self with my road map, experience,  insights and thoughts as an industrial professional & as a former undergraduate, for a very young, energetic and enthusiastic audience of Engineering Undergraduates (of ~500), which was  nowhere but in University of Peradeniya, the sweet little old place I used to love a lot.

It was started with a very casual, informal, friendly start-up speech (I love doing this always, specially when I have the ownership of hosting; that simply makes the audience so comfy with a little more motivation for the interaction, and to keep the enthusiasm and momentum going, as the environment is more friendly) in the usual loud voice, with a little bit of introduction of myself through undergraduate life, industrial experience, expertise and the fact of who am I right now. 

Defining the terminology "Engineering", "Industry", "Undergraduate", and "Role of a computer Engineer" at Industry's perspective was to be the effective kickoff of the speech. 

Expressing different domains of Computer Engineering in the industry in very details, along with hands-on use cases that I myself had gone through on each domain for last 6 years, Major projects/companies in the world I had interacted in order to conduct them took the major part and it was followed by some decorative discussion points such as the actual role of a computer engineer in each domain who owes the technical leadership and what's the real deal of the undergraduates in being able to be ready for such great challenges, and the major IT companies in the country & the value/trust gained internationally via the quality of their optimum computer-engineering solutions for each domain, etc... The middle part of the speech was to be considered as the core of the keynote. That ended up with this amazing example of brain wave measuring embedded system that I happened to touch a little bit long time back. Had many good feed-backs on that to be able to suppose that it was a hit within the audience.

Thirdly, some head-ups on how the engineers can be special in the industry, what is the kind of "perfect" model of a computer engineer that the industry's dying to look for; what qualities/talents typically expected, how(and what are the main approaches I may recommend) to build up the engineering thinking pattern & skills at the undergraduate level; and then, the current status of the local/foreign industry for all domains in computer engineering, brought a smooth and complete entry toward the end of the speech.

Finally, I had this 18th (secret & serious) slide prepared  with a couple of great sayings of two inimitable legends that inspired a "lot" on my way to who I am right now; Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs to add an extra motivation to the audience mixed with my own experience via the two of my ever most favorite fields of interests; Computing and Basketball... which declared the closure of the speech at a peak.

The feedback of the speech has been amazing (so far, at least :D) and I still enjoy every moment when I recall it. That was a big-break for me; which on the other hand, renewed the my confidence on public speaking and keynoting.. I had almost forgotten that I was pretty much into speaking earlier, probably this can be a point I will start re-thinking of it all the way back :-)

This Facebook Album shows some live actions of it.