DreamSpace Academy records each activity on its own page: workshops, bootcamps, openings, visits, festivals and relief operations, in the order they happened. New entries are added as they are documented.
The pages about the organisation describe how the work is meant to fit together, and these pages are the record it can be held against. They record what happened, including days where only a date, a place and a photograph are held.
Where a participant count appears, it counts the people in a room on one day, recorded at the time. It does not count separate individuals, and the counts are never added together into a figure for reach. A repeated title means the same format delivered again to a different group, and summing five mornings into one number would overstate the reach.
No activity matches those filters. Activities are uneven across years and places, so an empty combination usually means that pairing never happened, not that an entry is missing.
2026 ( 8 activities )
DreamSpace Academy and the municipality opened a makerspace inside the public library, in a building the municipality owns. The President inaugurated it.
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Twelve robotics projects shown
The closing showcase of the school robotics programme funded by a micro-grant.
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Uki: second full-stack cohort
The six-month full-stack programme opened again, fully sponsored and taught in Tamil.
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Blockchain workshop
What blockchain is, in plain terms, and how a local skill can become a paid digital service.
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Colomboscope
DreamSpace Academy worked with the contemporary-arts festival where the climate sound project was presented.
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Makerspace at Hantale
Another site in the hill country, after Hatton.
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Knorr-Bremse visits
A German corporate foundation that funds education and water projects in Sri Lanka visited.
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Makerspace in the public library, opened by the President
DreamSpace Academy co-created it with the Municipal Council at the Batticaloa Public Library, and the President of Sri Lanka inaugurated it.
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In-school programme reaches Nuwara Eliya and Kantale
Empowerment Inside School extends into the central estate sector and into Trincomalee district.
2025 ( 44 activities )
DreamSpace Academy opened a hub at Hatton in the hill country, a cohort returned after twelve months to pitch what they had built, and the year ended with flood relief in five districts.
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Music workshop
A music workshop in mid-December, in a year that also ran a three-month music bootcamp and a music hackathon.
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RC aircraft workshop
Participants assembled a radio-controlled aircraft, then flew it.
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VisAct Media at Splice Beta
A third consecutive year at the media-startup festival, and a top-nine finalist place on the climate pitch stage.
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Micro-grant disbursed for school robotics
A micro-grant from the Sabrina Yusoof Foundation, for a robotics and science programme at a Batticaloa school.
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Aruppë workshops
The youngest group of the year, and a robotics awareness session at Aruppë College in December.
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Maker Exhibition and Certificate Ceremony
Robotics makers showed their prototypes, collected certificates, and signed up for the next level the same day.
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Kathira Greens
Venture activity for Kathira Greens, which a month later was distributing flood relief alongside the academy.
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Magiladithevu school workshop
A school workshop at Magiladithevu, photographed on 2 November 2025.
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Cyclone Ditwah flood relief
Emergency relief across the East and North with local partners, after cyclone flooding displaced families in five districts.
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Pitch day: one year of growth, grit and guts
Seven young entrepreneurs pitched what they had built after a year in the campus, the clearest twelve-month follow-through in the record.
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Make and Play
A recurring hands-on format for young children, sometimes with their parents, sometimes with their teachers.
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Certificate ceremony
A cohort received certificates, photographed on 9 October 2025.
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Children's Day, Hatton
The new hill-country centre's first celebration, five days after it opened.
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Distact Asia visits
Distact Asia visited on 8 October 2025.
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DreamSpace Hatton opens
A DreamSpace hub in the hill country, the first new site within Sri Lanka since Mullaitivu.
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3D design and printing workshop, Hatton
A 3D design and printing workshop in the hill country, days before the Hatton centre opened.
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Art workshop
An art workshop at the academy, photographed on 8 September 2025.
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Maker Kit workshop
More than thirty children assembling kits, solving puzzles and building their first robots.
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The Routes We Take
Two days of creative workshops, talks and performances with ten Eastern Province creatives, on art, sustainability and circularity.
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Navigate Digital bootcamp
A three-month certificate course in digital tools, professional communication, online safety and freelancing.
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School project work
Students worked on school projects at the academy, photographed in early August 2025.
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Entrepreneurship training for women
Product building, marketing fundamentals and go-to-market for women starting businesses.
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Project Roots collaboration
A fortnight of joint work in July, including advocacy sessions and a closing celebration.
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Uki full-stack development programme
A six-month full-stack course in the Eastern Province for school leavers with no route into technology.
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Build a Robot workshops
Children built robots in teams in two July sessions, with a one-day follow-up in August.
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VisAct journalism training
VisAct Media ran journalism training, photographed on 13 June 2025.
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DreamSpace Records at Dinacon
Ocean-data sonification and instruments built from scavenged plastic, at the fourth Digital Naturalism Conference.
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AI with Electronics workshops
Participants trained an artificial-intelligence model, then wired it into an electronics project.
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World University Service of Canada visits
WUSC visited on 5 May 2025.
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UN Resident Coordinator visits
Marc-André Franche, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, toured the ventures and the workshop floor.
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Open Day 2025
Thirty-odd visitors toured the labs for demonstrations, hands-on sessions and conversations with the team.
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UNICEF Chief of Education visits
Erin Tanner, Chief of Education at UNICEF Sri Lanka, spent a day at the academy.
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International Media Support visits
Three visits in March to review the media unit's growth, challenges and roadmap.
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Videography and video-editing bootcamp
A three-month bootcamp hosted by DreamSpace Productions, an independent company formed from the media lab.
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CERI digital storytelling final event
The closing event of the CERI digital-storytelling work, photographed on 1 February 2025.
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DreamShot MakerFaire and AI Hackathon
Four days of hackathons, exhibitions, masterclasses, music and Koothu, the academy's largest single event of the year.
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Dreams of Women leadership workshop
A two-day leadership workshop run by Dreams of Women, on leadership styles and identity.
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Youth Entrepreneurship Campus, second run
The second run of the campus first photographed in August 2024, and the start of the year that ended in a pitch day.
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Kuluvinanmadu school opening
A school opening at Kuluvinanmadu, in a community the media team had worked in the previous October.
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Connections through Culture: Weather Reports
A British Council grant for a trilingual climate sound and performance work with ten Sri Lankan and UK artists.
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ChanceMaker Foundation Circle, Stuttgart
Co-founder Aravinth Panch in conversation before fifty potential supporters in Stuttgart.
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Disrupt Asia
The academy attended Sri Lanka's flagship startup gathering and the national entrepreneurship-week launch.
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Ecoversities Global Gathering
Two team members joined a hundred participants working on community-rooted alternatives to mainstream education.
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Empowerment Inside School reaches two districts
The in-school programme runs in Batticaloa and Hatton, with government approval and teacher training behind it.
2024 ( 68 activities )
The makerspace got its own name and its own building, the Navigate hub opened, and senior donor and diplomatic visitors came in a steady run.
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CERI visits
CERI visited ahead of the digital-storytelling final event in February.
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AI training
DreamSpace Academy closed the year with artificial-intelligence training.
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UNICEF visits
The UNICEF team toured the labs, three months before the Chief of Education.
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Media literacy workshops
Two consecutive days in December.
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USAID delegation visits
The Agreement Officer and the Deputy Director for Economic Growth came to see the SCORE work.
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ACTED visits
ACTED visited in the same week as media bootcamps in Mullaitivu.
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Global Entrepreneurship Week
DreamSpace Academy hosted the national entrepreneurship week locally, with the women's venture leading.
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Cybersecurity for peacebuilding trainers
A session for Search for Common Ground's own trainer programme.
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ChildFund Sri Lanka visits
Three visits across late 2024.
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Build Peace, eleventh annual conference
Two of the team at the first Asian edition of the technology-and-peacebuilding conference.
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Blood donation camp
A blood drive for the teaching hospital, with a stem-cell awareness strand.
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Splice Beta, second year
VisAct Media returned to the media-startup festival in Chiang Mai.
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UN Peace and Development Adviser visits
Patrick Mc Carthy toured the labs and the ventures.
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Canadian High Commission development head visits
Linda Ehrichs and her team toured the labs and the ventures.
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DiGiZEN, digital storytelling
A session on digital storytelling as a communication tool, for a partner's programme.
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GIZ hands over 3D printers
GIZ gave the makerspace 3D printers, and the academy trained potters in 3D printer assembly.
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Digital Story Creation Competition
More than thirty-five learners entered a competition about family-based care, told through digital storytelling.
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VisAct at Kuluvinanmadu
Field work in a village where a school opened three months later.
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Mushroom farming with Dreams of Women
A hands-on livelihood workshop for women running households and small businesses.
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Co-working agreement with TRACE
The national technology campus took co-working space in Batticaloa.
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Six years
DreamSpace Academy marked its sixth anniversary with employee recognition at the centre.
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Navigate: public opening
A digital community technology hub opened, four months after it started teaching.
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Navigate: videography and digital advocacy
Two strands ran the day before the centre's public opening.
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Photography workshop, Nuwara Eliya
Delivery in the central estate sector, a year before the in-school programme arrived there.
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New building at Eastern University
The academy's physical presence at the university grows.
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Digital literacy bootcamp, Mullaitivu
Twenty young people, three days, on digital literacy, internet safety and cybersecurity.
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VisAct workshop and programme
Media-venture delivery in late summer.
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High Commissioner of Canada returns
Eric Walsh came back to see the new makerspace and meet the grassroots innovators.
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Digital Security School: training the trainers
Trainers learned cybersecurity, digital risk assessment and safe practice, for Sri Lankan media professionals.
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Youth Entrepreneurship Campus begins
A five-day intensive that began the year leading to seven founders pitching on a stage.
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Founds and Good News visit
A visit in August 2024.
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Two visits from Rajan Bala
Aligambai in August, and here in November.
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MakerSpace Batticaloa launches
The first dedicated makerspace in the district opened under its own name.
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Navigate: handover
USAID formally handed over the facility, two months before its public opening.
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GIZ visits
GIZ visited three months before the 3D printer handover in October.
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Search for Common Ground: delivery
Programme work with the peacebuilding partner, and a cyber-equity strand that followed.
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Certificates at Navalady school
Certificates issued under a Dreams of Women programme.
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Leadership and skills training in Jaffna
DreamSpace Academy delivered training in the Northern Province capital.
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Visit to the production house
A visit to the MakerSpace production house.
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Ocean Star
Marine and coastal work along the lagoon and the coast.
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Travelling History Museum
An eight-day exhibition on the district's recent history, the largest-reach event on record.
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Digital marketing training with the YMCA
DreamSpace Academy delivered contract training for the YMCA.
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ARAM UK visits
A visit in June 2024.
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Digital marketing training with MJF
DreamSpace Academy delivered digital marketing training for a partner organisation.
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Peradeniya engineering: Eastern Province intake
Undergraduates from the Eastern Province came back for bench time their course does not include.
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USAID Deputy Director visits
Michael Haines, of the Office of Governance and Vulnerable Populations, saw the SCORE work first-hand.
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Learn to Discern, 2024 series
Seven more media-literacy workshops, in Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Batticaloa.
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Navigate: first workshops
Robotics and videography, four months before the centre had a public opening.
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English workshops in Porathivu
Three sessions in a rural division across the summer.
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Naga Pasumai product shoot
Product photography for the agriculture venture, showing it had reached something saleable.
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Movie Club at the American iHub
A recurring public programme inside the innovation hub, five months after it opened.
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The O Group opens
A co-founded venture opens.
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International Media Support visits
The earliest photographed visit, a year before the three visits in March 2025.
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IREX visits
The partner behind the media-literacy curriculum and the Digital Security School.
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Software workshop
A software workshop, alongside a 3D printing session earlier that month.
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Kattumurivu and Veedha
Two community and school visits on the same day.
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Lemonaid and ChariTea Foundation visits
A visit in February 2024.
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Dham Dham Riddim
A ten-day music-production bootcamp, ending in a release on the label’s own Bandcamp.
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English workshop series
Five workshops across the spring, in Batticaloa and out in the region.
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Art and entrepreneurship
An artist taught other artists how to make a living from their work.
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Global Communities visits
The implementing partner behind the SCORE work, later a client for the closeout films.
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Web development bootcamp
A web-development bootcamp in the Software Lab.
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Leadership workshops in the North
Mullaitivu and Jaffna, and then leadership training for trainee teachers at a national college.
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Zonal Education Department visit
The state relationship the school programmes run on.
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Workshops in Mullaitivu and Batticaloa
Three days across two districts in early February.
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Videography and video editing
A one-day workshop for content creators: lighting, camera settings, angles, editing.
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Dreams on Wheels
A mobile workshop that takes hands-on making to schools that cannot come to the building.
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Five-day skills workshop for the team
Public speaking, communication, leadership, teamwork and problem-solving for the people who deliver the programmes.
2023 ( 61 activities )
DreamSpace Academy moved from teaching children to training the people who train the teachers, and the United States Ambassador inaugurated an American innovation hub at the academy.
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Photography workshop, Kacheri
A photography workshop closing the year.
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FungiScope bootcamp
Bio-lab work with a microscope built for fungi, continuing the mycelium research line.
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VisAct stakeholder meeting
The first of a run of stakeholder dialogues around the media unit.
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Build Peace, Kenya
At the peacebuilding-and-technology gathering, a year before the Philippines edition.
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COP28
A changemaker from this pathway represented Sri Lanka at the climate conference in Dubai.
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Mellidaimettu community session
A community session outside the town.
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Search for Common Ground visits
The first photographed visit from a peacebuilding partner already three years into the relationship.
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VisAct in action
Delivery under the visual-activism programme.
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American iHub opens
The fifth American Space in Sri Lanka, opened by the United States Ambassador and operated by DreamSpace Academy.
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Splice Beta, first year
The media unit joined an Asian media-startup festival for the first time.
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Mahilavedduvaan school visit
A school visit in November 2023.
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Knodel Foundation visits
A visit, an interview, and a workshop at a school the following week.
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Innovation competition
DreamSpace Academy held it days after the Jaffna festival.
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YGC Innovation Festival
Showing the work at the Jaffna Cultural Centre, to a crowd of more than a thousand.
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Nurainiya school visit
A school visit in October 2023.
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Media workshop for deaf and non-speaking participants
Camera operation, photography and design, taught by a staff photographer who is himself deaf.
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Visual Content Makers graduate, and Dive EAST launches
The first cohort received awards, and an Eastern Province tourism platform launched the same evening.
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Yaazh Gaanam, opening a concert in Jaffna
The music team performed to a crowd reported at more than 80,000 beside Jaffna Fort.
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Two days in Jaffna with the Community Resource Centre
A content-creation workshop with well-known creators, including RJ Vigneshkanth.
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Changemaker discovery session
The pathway's recruitment stage, run again.
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DreamSpace farm
The first dated evidence of the DreamSpace farm, the agriculture strand behind two later ventures.
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Five years
DreamSpace Academy marked its fifth anniversary with a maker exhibition and a market.
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Street Child school visit
A visit in September 2023.
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Robotics workshop series
Four robotics workshops across the second half of the year.
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United States Embassy recruitment session
The Embassy held it at the academy two months before the American innovation hub opened.
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Laser engraver workshop
Laser cutting and engraving, 2D design, and design-to-manufacture software, with a mini project each.
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Kalkudah zone, teacher training
Zonal training on keeping a school innovation lab running after the training ends.
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Deputy High Commissioner of Canada visits
Daniel Bood and the Counsellor for Political and Trade Affairs looked at economic-development ventures.
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Three labs documented
A single dated survey of the electronics, media and software labs as finished infrastructure.
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Training-of-trainers series
Four more days training the education zones' own trainers, across the autumn.
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Meet and greet, Navz-47
Tamil-Canadian artist Navz-47 met the musicians of Batticaloa at the academy.
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Cyber security, training the trainers
DreamSpace Academy trained a women's network to teach digital security in their own communities.
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Kids' robotics, building automated railways
Twenty-seven young makers, aged six to fourteen, building automated railway systems.
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Drones at Chenkalady Central College
An introduction to aerial mechanics for eleven-year-olds, with an international volunteer.
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Third Lifecycle cohort closes
DreamSpace Academy launched and felicitated the third Lifecycle cohort's grassroots innovations, two years after the call went out.
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UNDP Sri Lanka visits
A visit in July 2023.
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Green technology workshop
A one-day workshop on sustainable innovation, built around hands-on experiments.
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AI Camp
Three days of image classification, pose detection and sound classification, aimed at problems in nature.
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Language learning session
German and English language teaching.
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Visual Content Maker, second cohort
Fifteen people began a five-day residential training led by media professionals.
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Changemakers pitch
Two pitch days ahead of the cohort's closing ceremony in July.
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USAID SCORE team visits
The first photographed contact with a partner central to the following two years.
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Kattankudy school workshop
A school workshop in Kattankudy.
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BOOKBRIDGE cohort visits
BOOKBRIDGE's twentieth programme cohort visited the academy.
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Canadian diaspora delegation visits
One of several Canadian-linked visits across 2023 and 2024.
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Kiran Central College, a science quiz and a workshop
A workshop for teachers, parents and learners at a provincial science competition.
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Multicultural event
DreamSpace Academy returned the invitation a fortnight after the interfaith Ifthar.
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High Commissioner of Canada visits
Eric Walsh toured the labs, the first of two visits.
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Living Architecture
Two workshops on growing buildings from trees, with the root bridges of Meghalaya as the precedent.
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Interfaith Ifthar
The Bismi Institute invited DreamSpace Academy to a Ramadan gathering and dialogue at a mosque in Kattankudy.
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Wireless AC power tester
A learner found a fault in a tester and built a better one.
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Music production bootcamp
Three months from music theory to mixing and mastering, open to people with no experience.
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Training the teacher trainers
Directors and deputy directors of education zones worked through technology and design teaching methods.
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Learn to Discern, media literacy across six districts
Eight workshops in six districts on spotting misinformation, the start of a series that ran for years.
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SteamHead workshop
DreamSpace Academy ran a workshop with SteamHead, whose co-designed curriculum carried the year's teacher training.
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Digital drawing workshop
DreamSpace Academy taught digital drawing basics, character design and the tools to people new to the field.
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Women's Day open day, She PRIDE of the Nation
DreamSpace Academy ran the Dreams of Women zone at a mass public event, and the Provincial Governor visited it.
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Vocational Training Authority, Vantharumoolai
DreamSpace Academy works with the state vocational-training authority.
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University of Peradeniya, engineering workshop
DreamSpace Academy ran hands-on sessions for engineering undergraduates, including integrated circuits and microcontrollers.
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Media Lab
The earliest dated evidence of the Media Lab, which was complete by September.
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SLTC partnership meeting
DreamSpace Academy met SLTC Research University; a sponsored research lab agreement followed in May.
2022 ( 18 activities )
An international field-biology conference ran in the building for a month and left a floating science centre on the lagoon.
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Changemaker discovery workshops
Workshops for shortlisted applicants in two districts, the first step into the twelve-month programme.
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Electromechanics at Cheddipalayam Maha Vidyalayam
A workshop at a well-resourced school twenty kilometres from Batticaloa that needed people to teach the subject.
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One Young World, Manchester
Both co-founders represented Sri Lanka at the One Young World summit in Manchester.
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The actor Nassar visits
A dialogue with artists in Batticaloa, with the academy as visual partner.
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Dreamboat, a floating science centre on the lagoon
A solar-powered floating makerspace that turns live environmental data from the lagoon into public visualisations.
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Dinacon, Thaalam Riddim Reapers
Three days of digital music production, blending music with the natural environment.
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Dinacon, game development in Unity
A two-day workshop building 3D scenes and game logic, run with the Software Lab.
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SLASSCOM Ingenuity, Emerging Women Technopreneur
Trash for Trade won for the Northern Province, and placed second in the sustainable-development category.
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Dinacon, the Fighouse
A bamboo structure testing banyan and fig as a building material, with a sensor pod that turned leaves into sound.
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Dinacon, biomaterials from mycelium
Growing materials from fungi in the Bio Lab, and the start of the biocomposite work.
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Dinacon, the Wild Lifes bootcamp
Participants told stories about wild animals from the animals' point of view.
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Dinacon, a month-long conference in Batticaloa
DreamSpace Academy hosted the third Digital Naturalism Conference for the whole of July, with fifty-plus international participants.
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SheTechpreneur bootcamp
A three-month bootcamp for women in technology and enterprise, supported by the Lenovo Foundation.
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Dinacon scouting visit
The director of Digital Naturalism Labs scouted Batticaloa as the site for the next conference.
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The founders of Lanka Upcycles visit
The co-founders of an upcycling business toured the academy's facilities.
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The Digital Nomad Ambassador visits
Matthew de Caussin met the founders from the East and toured the research, development and electromechanics floor.
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Microbiology and mycology workshop
A one-day fungal-cultivation workshop, aimed at building a community around biotechnology at the academy.
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Lenovo TransforMe Award
An international award for digital empowerment.
2021 ( 42 activities )
The building was shut for most of the year and three deliveries are logged. The work that did happen reached the International Space Station and a glider school in the Canary Islands.
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Recognised at PeaceCon
Recognition at the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s annual conference, a year after the award.
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Science Hackday and an equipment handover
A hack day paired with a donation of equipment for the floor.
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Ara, a visit
A visit in December 2021, recorded in fourteen photographs.
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A candidate on the UNICEF panel
A candidate from the academy's pathway spoke on UNICEF Sri Lanka's panel for its seventy-fifth anniversary.
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IEEE Innovation Nation, finalist
One of five finalists from 1,346 startup ideas submitted nationally.
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Intercultural Innovation Award, Smart Advocates
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group recognised the social-cohesion initiative.
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Seed grants for eleven social-innovation ideas
Eleven community ideas took seed grants at a ceremony with the District Secretary, under a UNDP-funded programme.
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The Ambassadors of Norway and the Netherlands
Academy representatives met two ambassadors through the peacebuilding work.
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She Loves Tech Sri Lanka, runner-up
Abitharani Jeyachandran placed second in the national round of a global competition for women in technology.
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AsiaBerlin Summit, keynote
A keynote at the Berlin Senate's annual summit on under-served communities tackling local challenges.
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The DreamShot Startup Challenge launches
DreamSpace Academy launched its own startup competition, with seed funding for the strongest ideas.
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Marine Diversity Education, a ten-session course
Ten sessions and nearly seven hours of teaching on marine biology, all published openly.
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Ecosystem partner to 10,000 Ideas
DreamSpace Academy joined the national initiative to build a thousand technology startups, as an incubating partner.
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Virtual Startup Accelerator bootcamp
Thirty founders took part in a three-month accelerator funded by the American Center.
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ExoLab-9, the experiment runs again
The same microgravity experiment ran again, launched on SpaceX's twenty-third cargo mission.
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PLOCAN Glider School, first Asian accepted
A maker from the academy's workshop floor became the first Asian accepted onto an ocean-glider programme in the Canary Islands.
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One Young World, delegate and flagbearer
One Young World selected co-founder Aravinth Panch to represent Sri Lanka at its youth leadership summit.
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Project AISLE, the call-out for a third cohort
DreamSpace Academy opened applications for the third changemaker cohort of the twelve-month programme.
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Trainee cohort farewell
The closing event for a trainee cohort, and where some trainees went next.
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Shark's Tank Awards
A Shark's Tank award from the organisation's own timeline. The category and recipient are not confirmed.
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Bio Lab session
Bench work in the bio lab, set up as a community lab.
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iREACT, a virtual exhibition against hate speech
A virtual exhibition of posters and poems against hate speech from contributors across the country, the first public output of a strand that ran for years.
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Global Talent Mentoring, talent development in the Global South
DreamSpace Academy is the nominating partner for Sri Lanka on an international mentoring platform.
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MATTER, Berlin
On tackling local problems through challenge-based learning.
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The Software Lab
The earliest dated evidence of the software teaching track, taught in Tamil and English.
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Most Creative Learning Centre
BOOKBRIDGE named DreamSpace Academy the most creative learning centre in its Sri Lanka network.
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Photography bootcamp
A three-month accredited bootcamp, from handling a camera to working in the field.
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BBC World Service interview
The BBC World Service interviewed a maker from the academy's pathway on the legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh.
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SLASSCOM National Ingenuity, Best Innovative Project
Trash for Trade won the university category of the national technology-industry awards.
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Training centre field visit
A field visit with a partner training centre.
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FIRST Tech Challenge, skills of the future
On the international FIRST Tech Challenge programme, through Lecture Without Borders.
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BOOKBRIDGE staff training
DreamSpace Academy delivered staff training with BOOKBRIDGE, and delivered it again two years later.
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Women in Tech photography competition
DreamSpace Academy ran a photography competition for women photographers to mark International Women's Day.
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Photography taught from home
Learners photographed their own houses, streets and families because they could not come to the building.
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ExoLab-8, an experiment on the International Space Station
Young people here joined a microgravity experiment on root nodulation, launched on Cygnus NG-15.
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National Youth Dialogue, a greener planet
Speaking on "Greener Youth for a Greener Planet" at the UNDP national youth dialogue.
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Back in operation after the closure
Electronics workshops restarted with a capped number of people in the room.
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The Path, field visit
A group from The Path toured the workshop platforms and heard how the learning pathway works.
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The underwater glider is named in Parliament
A member of Parliament cited a prototype built on the academy's workshop floor in a speech in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
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Nestlé Idea Hackathon
Recognition recorded in the achievements list; the placement and the team are not confirmed.
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UBL Business Plan Competition
Recognition recorded in the achievements list; the placement and the venture are not confirmed.
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Intercultural Innovation Hub, recipient and fellowship
DreamSpace Academy entered the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations hub, with a fellowship running into 2022.
2020 ( 26 activities )
Almost nothing could be delivered in person. The year produced a chatbot in Tamil, open-source respirator work, a gold medal for a rice biosensor, and a peacebuilding award presented to a US congressional audience.
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HackX 2020, first runner-up
Trash for Trade placed first runner-up out of thirty teams.
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Peace Direct Award, winner
DreamSpace Academy won an award for technology-led peacebuilding in war-affected Sri Lanka, presented at PeaceCon.
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Les Echos, collective intelligence against COVID
The French business daily covered the open-science response to the pandemic that the academy worked through.
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iGEM 2020, gold medal for a rice biosensor
A joint team won gold at the international synthetic-biology competition for a biosensor for a fungus that destroys 40 per cent of stored rice.
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Bertelsmann Stiftung, Change Magazin
The German foundation featured DreamSpace Academy in its changemaker reporting.
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Climathon Jaffna, runner-up
Trash for Trade, the plastics venture, placed second at a 24-hour climate hackathon.
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Impact Hero, finalist
The Earth Company named co-founder Aravinth Panch a finalist in its annual Impact Hero selection.
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Photojournalism training across three districts
Two senior journalists taught participants from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara online.
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Second anniversary
The team and the makers marked two years of the academy, during the pandemic, in a building that had been shut for months.
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Global Community Bio Summit, MIT Media Lab
DreamSpace Academy gave two sessions at the community-biology summit: biodiversity conservation, and the open-source test kit.
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Industrial Dialogue, Eastern University
Co-founder Kishoth Navaretnarajah spoke at the annual research session of the Faculty of Commerce and Management.
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Visual Content Makers exhibition
Trainees exhibited photographs and video of destinations and culture across the East.
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Corona Hunter, XPRIZE rapid testing semi-finalist
An open-source rapid test kit reached the semi-finals of a global XPRIZE.
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HackaDev information and application session
Jayanthan Amalanathan, the previous year's seed-grant winner, ran the session for the next cohort.
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Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge, top three nationally
The underwater glider pitch placed in the national top three.
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Digital nomadism workshop
Two online entrepreneurs from the United States and Ukraine taught participants how to sell their skills on global platforms.
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OPEN COVID19, open-source respirator work
Respirator-mask work that built on two international open-hardware platforms and contributed back to them.
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CoronaBot, pandemic answers in Tamil
A chatbot answering COVID-19 questions in Tamil: statistics, local medical supplies and self-assessment.
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HackCorona, global online hackathon
DreamSpace Academy took part in the first edition of a global hackathon in the opening weeks of the pandemic.
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Innovation Ecosystems Around The World
Aravinth Panch gave two talks in one week, and after the one at the academy, makers from Ampara to Vakarai stayed on to discuss their ideas.
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Stockholm Junior Water Prize, awareness session
DreamSpace Academy hosted the national awareness and information session for the water prize.
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Skills for Inclusive Growth exhibition
DreamSpace Academy exhibited in Batticaloa under Skills for Inclusive Growth, the Australian-funded skills programme behind the year's media work.
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Story-mapping training, Griffith Film School
A senior academic from Griffith Film School spent three days mapping the organisation's own story with the team.
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MakerSpace workshops for schoolchildren
One-day science and engineering workshops, run in January and again in February 2020.
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The first two changemakers
Trash for Trade and OceanBiome, the first two ventures to come through the whole pathway.
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Global Community Bio Fellowship
The fellowship behind the Bio Lab strand.
2019 ( 24 activities )
The first full year: a building, a launch, a village visited weekend after weekend for five months, and an international science-engagement award in Berlin at thirteen months old.
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Chaos Communication Congress, 36C3
DreamSpace Academy presented on the Global Innovation Gathering track at the hacker congress in Leipzig.
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DOTS, The Impact Summit, Nakuru
DreamSpace Academy gave a talk on sustainable making in Kenya, organised through the Global Innovation Gathering.
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Merit Award, 8th National Youth Film Festival
A trainer here won a merit award at the national youth film festival in Colombo.
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Entrepreneurship Ideation Caravan, Eastern University
DreamSpace Academy ran a session on networking and collaboration at Eastern University, whose technology park the academy now shares.
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ReLogia keynote, Sofia
Aravinth Panch gave a keynote in Sofia under the academy's tagline, "Co-Creating The Dreams".
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Falling Walls Engage, Science Engagement of the Year
DreamSpace Academy won the 2019 international science-engagement award in Berlin, in its second year.
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Open Door
A reopening with BOOKBRIDGE, attended by the heads of two other learning centres.
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Duke of Edinburgh's Award, regional office opens
DreamSpace Academy became host of the award's regional coordinating office for the North and East.
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HackaDev Social Innovation Challenge
DreamSpace Academy sent four projects to the national youth social-innovation challenge, and one maker won a seed grant.
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Community building through passion
A three-day residential workshop on building community around what people already cared about.
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Anthem for Peace and Image of Emotions
Music-for-peace and visual-storytelling workshops, funded through the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
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The chess programme
Chess coaching for children, opening with the history of the game.
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STEP NUS Sunburst Brain Camp, selected for Sri Lanka
A core team member selected as one of Sri Lanka’s representatives to an environmental programme at the National University of Singapore.
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Instrumental music sessions
Certified instrumental music sessions from June 2019, the earliest photographed music activity at the academy, four years before the record label existed.
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Residential weekends at Pullumalai
Residential weekend gatherings in a border village, from June to October 2019.
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The Access Programme
The first standing programme: English, computing, maker education, life skills and leadership, run in batches.
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Maker Faire Berlin
DreamSpace Academy's first international event, in its eighth month.
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Public launch of the academy
DreamSpace Academy opened its programmes to the public.
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Design thinking training of trainers
A trainer from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Berlin taught the team design thinking in the first month of operations.
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Maker Education, training of trainers
Co-founder Aravinth Panch trained the team in workshop delivery, the earliest training of trainers on record, four days before the centre opened.
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Community Innovation Centre launch
DreamSpace Academy opened the founding home of its maker programmes on 16 April 2019, with a public panel on the education system.
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First logged delivery, Pullumalai school workshop
DreamSpace Academy ran a school workshop at Pullumalai for more than fifty participants, the first entry in its activity log.
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The MakerSpace building takes shape
Construction and fit-out of the workshop floor, photographed through March 2019.
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International talks and events in 2019
DreamSpace Academy presented in four countries in one year and started the network it has drawn on since.
2018 ( 1 activity )
DreamSpace Academy was founded on 30 September, out of a youth consortium that had already been running for five years.
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DreamSpace Academy founded
DreamSpace Academy started in Batticaloa on 30 September 2018, growing out of a youth consortium that had already run for five years.
What the activity record does not yet include
The record runs from the founding in September 2018 to the present and is not complete. It is built from what was documented at the time (photographs, posts, planning packs), so a quiet month means a month nobody wrote down, not a month with nothing in it. Of the 292 activities listed above, 218 carry images and the rest show a placeholder while their pictures are prepared for publication.
Where a page holds only a date and a place, nothing more was recorded. DreamSpace Academy publishes a thin entry that is true in place of a fuller one that is partly invented, and thin entries are the ones most likely to be filled in later. Two entries name a partner that could not be independently confirmed, and say so on the page; the work is still listed.
The unevenness across years is real. 2021 holds three logged deliveries and a launch to the International Space Station; 2024 holds sixty-eight entries. That reflects a pandemic, an economic crisis and a recovery, and it is not smoothed into a growth curve.