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BDIC lecturer Dr Pasika Ranaweera receives Sri Lanka President’s Award for Scientific Research

Thursday, 18 December, 2025

President's Award

Dr Pasika S. Ranaweera, Lecturer at Beijing Dublin International College (BDIC), one of the China Joint Colleges at University College Dublin, has received the Sri Lanka President’s Award for Scientific Research in recognition of his publication in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials.

The award was conferred at the President’s Awards for Scientific Research ceremony held on 18 December 2025 at the Grand Ballroom, Waters Edge, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.

The award recognises the paper titled “Survey on Multi Access Edge Computing Security and Privacy”, co-authored with Dr Anca Delia Jurcut and Dr Madhusanka Liyanage. The paper has now received more than 400 citations, reflecting substantial international impact and sustained relevance to both academic and industrial communities working on secure 5G and beyond 5G systems.

The research was carried out during Dr Ranaweera’s earlier affiliation with the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of security and privacy challenges in Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC). It systematically identifies and analyses threat vectors within the ETSI-standardised MEC architecture, examines the vulnerabilities that lead to those threats, and discusses security and privacy solutions, along with future research directions.

Dr Ranaweera notes that the threat vector analysis framework introduced through this work later influenced and inspired discussion captured in the ETSI MEC security white paper, highlighting the practical value of the research for standardisation and real-world deployments.

Dr Ranaweera expressed his gratitude to his co-authors for their collaboration and acknowledged the mentors and colleagues he met during the ceremony, many of whom were also recipients of the President’s Award. He also highlighted that he and Dr Madhusanka Liyanage are now part of NETSLab at UCD, continuing research on secure, trustworthy, and intelligent networked systems.

Paper: (opens in a new window)Survey on Multi-Access Edge Computing Security and Privacy (IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials)

Dr Ranaweera with the award

Dr Ranaweera with the award folder at the President’s Awards for Scientific Research ceremony.

Certificate of recognition

Certificate of recognition for the President’s Award for Scientific Research (2021 publication category).

Award folder and certificate of recognition

Award folder and certificate of recognition.

Group photo with fellow award recipients

Group photo with fellow award recipients at the President’s Awards for Scientific Research ceremony.