I am currently working as a Research Fellow (Level B) under Australian Laureate Professor John Grundy, in the HumaniSE lab, Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, Faculty of IT, Monash University, Australia. I am working on human-centric software engineering projects with both external and internal collaborators (current projects).  I am open to both academic and industry collaborations. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me here. 

I completed my PhD in Software Engineering in April 2023, focusing on the thesis titled “Investigating the Influence of Personality and Motivation in Requirements Engineering (RE)-related Activities”. I worked in the HumaniSE lab, under the supervision of Professor John Grundy, Associate Professor Rashina Hoda and Dr Ingo Mueller. My doctoral research yielded several significant outcomes, including a systematic literature review (SLR), a practical framework, a prototype Jira plugin and a set of strategies & guidelines to handle the impact of personality and motivation on RE. Check here to find more about my PhD research. These outcomes were published in IEEE TSE, ACM TOSEM, EMSE journals as well as presented at conferences such as COMPSAC 2023, and FSE 2022.

During my PhD, I  worked as a Teaching Associate in the Faculty of IT for both undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts, conducting on-campus/online tutorials and evaluating student activities. Before coming to Australia (August 2019), I worked as an Assistant Lecturer and Teaching Associate at the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka. There, I conducted lectures and tutorials for undergraduate cohorts in BSc. Information Systems degree and BSc. Computer Science degree. I also supervised and mentored number of students to complete their software development projects/ research successfully.  Further details of my teaching and supervision experience can be found here. 

I graduated with a First Class Bachelor of Science (Hons.) degree in Information Systems from the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka. Notably, I was recognized as the Gold Medallist for the Best Undergraduate Research Project (jointly), and won the Silver Award at the renowned National Best Quality Software Award (NBQSA), in Sri Lanka for the same project, paving the way to represent Sri Lanka at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA) in 2018. 

Apart from research and teaching, I am highly interested in sharing my experiences with others as well as involving in diverse volunteering work and organizing committees. I was a member of Toastmasters International, Panadura Toastmasters Club, Division A, District 82 from 2014 -2019 and held number of executive committee positions (Vice President of Education, Vice President of Public Relations, Secretary), leading the club to achieve prestigious club awards. I also volunteered at numerous conferences and currently serving as the Publicity and Social Media Chair for IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) 2024. 

I am a solitude seeker, sunset enthusiast, dog lover and a coffee-loving reader.