Tamasha Malepathirana

Human Researcher Computer Science Engineer

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About

Let me introduce myself.

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I am a Machine Learning Researcher currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Pattern Recognition and Optimization group at the University of Melbourne. My primary research interests include Deep Neural Networks, Continual Learning, and Bioinformatics.

I completed my PhD in 2023 at the University of Melbourne, where I focused on the challenges associated with neural networks when used on continually generated and high-dimensional data. Previously, I served as a Junior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

Work Experience

Academic Tutor

Feb 2021 - July 2023

Junior Lecturer

Jan 2019 - July 2019

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Provided supervision, mentoring and academic assistance for the modules: Software Architecture & Design Projects, Object-Oriented Software Design, Programming Languages and Graph Theory

Visiting Instructor

Aug 2018 - Dec 2018

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Provided academic assistance for the module: Database Management Systems

Software Engineering Intern

July 2017 - Dec 2017

Sysco Labs, Sri Lanka

Worked in two different teams:
Data and Analytics team: Developed a machine learning based solution for a market basket analysis.
Reports team: Engaged in frontend and backend development in Datamart Reports Application.

Education

PhD in Engineering

Sep 2019 - Dec 2023

University of Melbourne, Australia

Research Topics : Deep Neural Networks, Continual Learning, Machine Learning and Bioinformatics

Supervised by:
Prof.Saman Halgamuge
Dr.Vini Gautam
Associate Prof. Lezanne Ooi
Prof. Chennupati Jagadish

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computer Science and Engineering

Sep 2014 - Dec 2018

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Obtained a First Class and the second highest GPA (4.08/4.2) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Awards & Grants

Best Thesis Award

2023

Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne

Google ExploreCSR grant

2023

Google

Co-principal investigator of the Google ExploreCSR grant, amounting to USD 24,000. This grant aims to enhance the research experience of undergraduates from the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, empowering them to advance their academic pursuits.

The Rising Stars Women in Engineering Workshop

2023

Asian Deans' Forum

Selected to attend the Asian Deans' Forum organised by Asia’s top engineering schools, aims to bring together young women professionals in engineering disciplines from around the world.

GCI Women In STEM Student Award (2nd Prize)

2022

Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering

The GCI Women in STEM Student Award is a research support initiative with the aim to acknowledge, celebrate achievements and also provide opportunities for women graduate researchers at the University of Melbourne who are contributing to the innovation and leadership in biomedical engineering field.

IEEE Victorian Section Best Regular Paper Award

2021

IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB)

IEEE Victorian Section Awards are awarded for papers from the Australian states of Victoria/Tasmania

Melbourne Graduate Research Scholarship

2019

University of Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne graduate research scholarship is awarded for students to pursue a graduate research degree program based on their academic merit. I received this scholarship to pursue my PhD at the University of Melbourne.

First Class Honours

2019

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

First Class Honours in BSc (Hons) in Computer Science & Engineering with a GPA of 4.08 (out of 4.2)

Dean's List

2014-2018

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

I was a Dean's List awardee in semesters 1 to 8 in Faculty of Engineering

Migara Ranathunga Trust Award

2017

Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL)

This award is awarded for the best achievers of the semester 6 industrial training module at the Annual Sessions of IESL.

Mahapola Higher Education (Merit) Scholarship

2014-2018

University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka

Mahapola scholarships are awarded under the Merit Category based on the performance of the students at G.C.E. A/L examination

Best Student

2013

Physical Science Stream, Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Sri Lanka

Highest School Scorer (Combined Mathematics)

2013

Department of Education, Sri Lanka





Publications

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake, D., Gautam, V., Engel, M., Balez, R., Lovelace, M.D., Sundaram, G., Heng, B., Chow, S., Marquis, C. and Guillemin, G.J., 2024. Visualization of incrementally learned projection trajectories for longitudinal data. Scientific Reports, 14(1), p.13558.

Hai-Hang W., Wang, R., Malepathirana T., Oetomo, D.,. and Halgamuge, S., 2024. When To Grow? A Fitting Risk-Aware Policy for Layer Growing in Deep Neural Networks. 38th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-24)

Chen, K., Seneviratne, S., Wang, W., Hu, D., Saha, S., Hasan, T., Rasnayaka, S., Malepathirana, T., Gong, M. and Halgamuge, S. (n.d.). AniFaceDiff: High-Fidelity Face Reenactment via Facial Parametric Conditioned Diffusion Models. ArXiv.

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake, D.,. and Halgamuge, S., 2023. NAPA-VQ: Neighborhood-Aware Prototype Augmentation with Vector Quantization for Continual Learning. Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV).

Saha, S., Perera, R., Seneviratne, S., Malepathirana, T., Rasnayaka, S., Geethika, D., Sim, T. and Halgamuge, S., 2023. Undercover Deepfakes: Detecting Fake Segments in Videos. ICCV 2023 Workshop and Challenge on DeepFake Analysis and Detection.

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake, D., Vidanaarachchi, R., Gautam, V.,& Halgamuge, S. (2022). Dimensionality reduction for visualizing high-dimensional biological data. Biosystems, 220, p.104749.

Ranasinghe, N., Ramanan, A., Fernando, S., Hameed, P.N., Herath, D., Malepathirana, T., Suganthan, P., Niranjan, M. and Halgamuge, S., 2022. Interpretability and accessibility of machine learning in selected food processing, agriculture and health applications. arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.16699.

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake D., Gautam, V., Halgamuge H., Robustness of visualization methods in preserving the continuous and discrete latent structures of high-dimensional single-cell data. In 2021 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake D., and Halgamuge H. "Convolutional Neural Network for complex Multi-Electrode Array signal pattern analysis”, 2020 Deep Learning in Medical Biology Symposium [Abstract]

Malepathirana, T., Senanayake D., Deerasooriya Y., Ooi L. and Halgamuge H. "Analysing Multi-Electrode Array (MEA) data derived from Alzheimer Disease organoids" 2020 Lorne Genome [Abstract]

Malepathirana, T., Perera, R., Abeysinghe, Y., Albar, Y., & Thayasivam, U. (2019, January). Adaptation of Multivariate Concept to Multi-Way Agglomerative Clustering for Hierarchical Aspect Aggregation. In The Thirty-Second International Flairs Conference.

Perera, R., Malepathirana, T., Abeysinghe, Y., Albar, Y., & Thayasivam, U. (2019, January). Amalgamation of general and domain-specific word embeddings for improved hierarchical aspect aggregation. In 2019 IEEE 13th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC) (pp. 55-62). IEEE.





Teaching

Tutor, ENGR30004 Numerical Algorithms in Engineering, Semester 2, 2021 Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne

Project supervisor, COMP90082 Software Project, Semester 2, 2021 Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne

Tutor, SWEN30006 Software Modelling and Design, Semester 1, 2021 Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne

Tutor, MCEN90048 AI for Engineers, Semester 1, 2020 Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne





Volunteering

Treasurer, Sri Lankan Graduate Society (SLGS) , University of Melbourne (2021-Present)

Committee Member, Sri Lankan Graduate Society (SLGS) , University of Melbourne (2021)

President, ICON'16 conference organised by AIESEC Colombo South (2016)

Vice President, AIESEC Awrudu organised by AIESEC Colombo South (2016)

Committee Member, Lead CS 2.0, and Heal a Nation 2.0 organised by AIESEC Colombo South (2016)

Committee Member, Business Development Team in AIESEC Colombo South (2015/2016)

Member, Young Leaders of Science programme conducted by National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka. (2014)

Media Assistant, BMICH Media Center for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) (2013)