![Dushani Imesha Perera Ushettige](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/7340?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Overview
My research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Design, and Social Sciences with a particular interest in Sustainability, Information Visualisation, and Data Physicalization domains. I believe that a breakthrough in technology can be used in an everyday product providing benefits to society for centuries.
As an undergraduate, I followed Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), Sri Lanka. I graduated in February 2020 with a Bachelor of Honours degree in Software Engineering from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. My final year research project was awarded as the best research for the year 2019. Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I had the privilege of joining UCSC staff and working as an Instructor and then as an Assistant Lecturer. Currently, I pursue my PhD at Cardiff Univeristy, UK while also working as a Teaching Assistant. My hobbies are compering / EmCeeing at conferences and public speaking.
My interdisciplinary research project involves information visualisation through data physicalizations to encourage sustainable practices in household contexts to help address climate change.
Publication
2024
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Lannon, S., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Eco-Garden: A data sculpture to encourage sustainable practices in everyday life in households. Presented at: IEEE VIS 2024, Virtual, 13-18 October 2024IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Climate Action and Sustainability (Viz4Climate + Sustainability). IEEE pp. 28-35., (10.1109/Viz4Climate-Sustainability64680.2024.00008)
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Lannon, S., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Exploring the design of physical artefacts to visualise household consumption for encouraging sustainable practices. Behaviour and Information Technology 43(14), pp. 3356-3370. (10.1080/0144929X.2024.2398673)
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Exploring household preferences for visualising consumption information: towards data physicalizations to promote sustainable practices. Interacting with Computers (10.1093/iwc/iwae054)
2023
- Weerasinghe, G., Herath, A., Karunanayaka, K., Perera, D. and Trenado, C. 2023. Modelling and prediction of pain related neural firings using deep learning. International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 16(2), pp. 47-55. (10.4038/icter.v16i2.7267)
- Samaranayake, H., Mudannayake, O., Perera, D., Kumarasinghe, P., Suduwella, C., De Zoysa, K. and Wimalaratne, P. 2023. Detecting water in visual image streams from UAV with flight constraints. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation 96, article number: 103933. (10.1016/j.jvcir.2023.103933)
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Eslambolchilar, P. and Gwilliam, J. 2023. Challenges and design considerations for home-based visualisations to encourage more sustainable practices. Presented at: 36th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference, 28-29 August 2023.
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2023. Understanding household consumption practices and their motivations: opportunities to foster sustainability practices. Presented at: 6th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies, Cape Town, South Africa, 16-19 August 2023COMPASS '23: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. New York, US: Association for Computing Machinery pp. 30-42., (10.1145/3588001.3609360)
- Sandamini, A., Jayathilaka, C., Pannala, T., Karunanayaka, K., Kumarasinghe, P. and Perera, D. 2023. An augmented reality-based fashion design interface with artistic contents generated using deep generative models. Presented at: International conference on advances in computing in emerging regions, 30 November 2022 - 01 December 2022Proceedings 2022 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTer58063.2022.10024084)
- Weerasinghe, G., Karunanayaka, K., Kumarasinghe, P., Perera, D., Trenado, C., De Zoysa, K. and Keppitiyagama, C. 2023. Identification of previously unseen Asian elephants using visual data and semi-supervised learning. Presented at: 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, 30 November 2022 - 01 December 2022Proceedings 2022 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTer58063.2022.10024068)
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslam-Bolchilar, P. 2023. Exploring the challenges and opportunities for the physicalization of household consumption data to encourage sustainable practices in Wales. Presented at: CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg, Germany, 23-28 April 2023.
2022
- Kodagoda, D., Perera, D., Seneviratne, G. and Kumarasinghe, P. 2022. Minimize traffic congestion with emergency facilitation using deep reinforcement learning. Presented at: 21st International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, 02-03 December 2021Proceedings 2021 21st International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICter). IEEE, (10.1109/ICter53630.2021.9774792)
2021
- Jayamini, C., Sandamini, A., Pannala, T., Kumarasinghe, P., Perera, D. and Karunanayaka, K. 2021. The use of augmented reality to deliver enhanced user experiences in fashion industry. Presented at: IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Bari, Italy, 30 Aug – 3 Sep 2021Proceedings of the Multisensory Augmented Reality Workshop, Interact, Vol. 12936. Springer Verlag
2020
- Perera, D., Rajaratne, M., Sandaruwan, D. and Kodikara, N. 2020. Fraud detection in a financial payment system. Presented at: 3rd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2020), Paris, France, 27-29 August 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings, Vol. 1253. Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 520-526., (10.1007/978-3-030-55307-4_79)
- Perera, D., Raharatne, M. and Arunathilake, S. 2020. HelaBeat: an extensible audio streaming mobile application. Presented at: 3rd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2020), Paris, France, 27-29 August 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications III, Vol. 1253. Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 115-121., (10.1007/978-3-030-55307-4_18)
- Perera, D., Rajaratne, M., Arunathilake, S., Karunanayaka, K. and Liyanage, B. 2020. A critical analysis of music recommendation systems and new perspectives. Presented at: 2nd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET-AI 2020), Lausanne, Switzerland, 23-25 April 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications II, Vol. 1152. Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications II International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 82-87., (10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_12)
Articles
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Lannon, S., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Exploring the design of physical artefacts to visualise household consumption for encouraging sustainable practices. Behaviour and Information Technology 43(14), pp. 3356-3370. (10.1080/0144929X.2024.2398673)
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Exploring household preferences for visualising consumption information: towards data physicalizations to promote sustainable practices. Interacting with Computers (10.1093/iwc/iwae054)
- Weerasinghe, G., Herath, A., Karunanayaka, K., Perera, D. and Trenado, C. 2023. Modelling and prediction of pain related neural firings using deep learning. International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 16(2), pp. 47-55. (10.4038/icter.v16i2.7267)
- Samaranayake, H., Mudannayake, O., Perera, D., Kumarasinghe, P., Suduwella, C., De Zoysa, K. and Wimalaratne, P. 2023. Detecting water in visual image streams from UAV with flight constraints. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation 96, article number: 103933. (10.1016/j.jvcir.2023.103933)
Conferences
- Ushettige, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Lannon, S., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2024. Eco-Garden: A data sculpture to encourage sustainable practices in everyday life in households. Presented at: IEEE VIS 2024, Virtual, 13-18 October 2024IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization for Climate Action and Sustainability (Viz4Climate + Sustainability). IEEE pp. 28-35., (10.1109/Viz4Climate-Sustainability64680.2024.00008)
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Eslambolchilar, P. and Gwilliam, J. 2023. Challenges and design considerations for home-based visualisations to encourage more sustainable practices. Presented at: 36th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference, 28-29 August 2023.
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslambolchilar, P. 2023. Understanding household consumption practices and their motivations: opportunities to foster sustainability practices. Presented at: 6th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies, Cape Town, South Africa, 16-19 August 2023COMPASS '23: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. New York, US: Association for Computing Machinery pp. 30-42., (10.1145/3588001.3609360)
- Sandamini, A., Jayathilaka, C., Pannala, T., Karunanayaka, K., Kumarasinghe, P. and Perera, D. 2023. An augmented reality-based fashion design interface with artistic contents generated using deep generative models. Presented at: International conference on advances in computing in emerging regions, 30 November 2022 - 01 December 2022Proceedings 2022 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTer58063.2022.10024084)
- Weerasinghe, G., Karunanayaka, K., Kumarasinghe, P., Perera, D., Trenado, C., De Zoysa, K. and Keppitiyagama, C. 2023. Identification of previously unseen Asian elephants using visual data and semi-supervised learning. Presented at: 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, 30 November 2022 - 01 December 2022Proceedings 2022 22nd International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTer58063.2022.10024068)
- Perera, D., Verdezoto Dias, N., Gwilliam, J. and Eslam-Bolchilar, P. 2023. Exploring the challenges and opportunities for the physicalization of household consumption data to encourage sustainable practices in Wales. Presented at: CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg, Germany, 23-28 April 2023.
- Kodagoda, D., Perera, D., Seneviratne, G. and Kumarasinghe, P. 2022. Minimize traffic congestion with emergency facilitation using deep reinforcement learning. Presented at: 21st International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, 02-03 December 2021Proceedings 2021 21st International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICter). IEEE, (10.1109/ICter53630.2021.9774792)
- Jayamini, C., Sandamini, A., Pannala, T., Kumarasinghe, P., Perera, D. and Karunanayaka, K. 2021. The use of augmented reality to deliver enhanced user experiences in fashion industry. Presented at: IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Bari, Italy, 30 Aug – 3 Sep 2021Proceedings of the Multisensory Augmented Reality Workshop, Interact, Vol. 12936. Springer Verlag
- Perera, D., Rajaratne, M., Sandaruwan, D. and Kodikara, N. 2020. Fraud detection in a financial payment system. Presented at: 3rd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2020), Paris, France, 27-29 August 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings, Vol. 1253. Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 520-526., (10.1007/978-3-030-55307-4_79)
- Perera, D., Raharatne, M. and Arunathilake, S. 2020. HelaBeat: an extensible audio streaming mobile application. Presented at: 3rd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2020), Paris, France, 27-29 August 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications III, Vol. 1253. Multisensory Augmented Reality 2021 Virtual Proceedings International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 115-121., (10.1007/978-3-030-55307-4_18)
- Perera, D., Rajaratne, M., Arunathilake, S., Karunanayaka, K. and Liyanage, B. 2020. A critical analysis of music recommendation systems and new perspectives. Presented at: 2nd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET-AI 2020), Lausanne, Switzerland, 23-25 April 2020 Presented at Ahram, T. et al. eds.Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications II, Vol. 1152. Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications II International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Springer Verlag pp. 82-87., (10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_12)
Research
My research interests are in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors in visualisation, Human Data Interaction, Technology-driven education, Social Science, Virtual Reality, and the Social Dimension of Technology. These interests have led me to conduct interdisciplinary projects which include:
- Drone Pilot Training Simulation Research - Research carried out in developing a drone simulation to train drone pilots in simulated environments. Algorithms using a machine learning approach gave better results in the dynamic model to predict the path over the mathematical dynamic model.
- An Open-Source Adaptable Extensible Audio Music Streaming and Recommender Platform for Alternate Reality Applications - For my final-year undergraduate research I developed a mobile music platform (Python, Android, and Node.js) to generate auto-completion search suggestions, personalized recommendations, gather user analytics, stream music, and cache songs. I developed a plug-in for Amazon Alexa to play music from the application. Research in the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction, recommender systems, and auto-completion search suggestions (URL to the codebase: https://github.com/helabeat).
- Insurance Policy Lapse or Retainment Prediction – I developed a model to detect the lapse or retainment of insurance policies (Keras and Weka).
- Natural Language Processing: Hate Speech Detection Project - Hate speech detection model (in Python) for Sinhala and English speech in Twitter. More than 60% accuracy was obtained (Logistic regression, n-gram, and word2vec model).
- Image Processing Application for Sleep Detection of Drivers – I developed a system for sleep detection using Haar-cascades (Python).
- Fraud Detection in Finance - Several approaches were tried to train and test a model using 4000 unique values for the ‘Synthetic data from a financial payment system’ dataset of Kaggle (the findings include that XGBoost gives better results over KNN and Autoencoders with a test accuracy of 91% obtained on the dataset).
- ARGAN - Use machine learning and Augmented Reality to deliver designs in the fashion industry.
