Menasha Thilakaratne

Dr Menasha Thilakaratne

Lecturer

School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

I am a co-founding member of the Language Technology for Social Good (LT4SG) group and a member of the Computer Science Education Research (CSER) group in the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide. 

My principal research strengths lie in the realms of data mining, knowledge discovery, natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning, and the semantic web. My abilities extend beyond the theoretical as I have effectively harnessed these disciplines to address a diverse array of problem domains. These include but are not limited to, scientific literature mining, medical applications, social sciences, educational studies, and psychological research.

In essence, my work is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach that bridges cutting-edge technological concepts with practical, real-world applications. I am committed to expanding the boundaries of what is possible, using computer science as a tool to drive innovation and positive change in numerous fields.

Winnovation Awards 2021

 

  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2021 - ongoing Researcher & Lecturer University of Adelaide
    2017 - 2020 PhD student University of Adelaide, Adelaide

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2021 Award Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence The University of Adelaide Australia -
    2021 Award Winner of Winnovation Awards in the Maths & Data category Women in Innovation (Sponsored by FIXE - Future Industries eXchange for Entrepreneurship) Australia -
    2021 Recognition Finalist of Winnovation Awards in the Emerging Innovator category Women in Innovation (sponsored by Stone & Chalk) Australia -
    2020 Scholarship Faculty of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences Travel Scholarship The University of Adelaide Australia -
    2018 Scholarship SRW ACL2018 Travel Grant Roam Analytics Australia -
    2018 Achievement Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences Faculty Finalist The University of Adelaide Australia -
    2017 Scholarship Faculty of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences Divisional Scholarship and Full Fee Scholarship The University of Adelaide Australia -
    2015 Award Professor Mohan Munasinghe Award for Computer Science University of Colombo School of Computing Sri Lanka -
    2014 Award David Pieris Group Gold Medal for the Best Performance in Industrial Placement University of Colombo School of Computing Sri Lanka -

  • Language Competencies
    Language Competency
    English -
    Sinhala; Sinhalese -

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    2017 - 2020 University of Adelaide Australia Doctor of Philosophy
    2011 - 2016 University of Colombo, Colombo Sri Lanka Bachelor in Computer Science

  • Certifications
    Date Title Institution name Country
    — Machine Learning Professional Certificate IBM -
    — Applied Data Science with Python Specialisation University of Michigan -
    — Natural Language Processing Specialisation DeepLearning.AI -
    — Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) Specialisation DeepLearning.AI -
    — Learning to Teach Online The University of New South Wales -
    — University Teaching The University of Hong Kong -
    — Blended Language Learning: Design and Practice for Teachers University of Colorado Boulder -
    — Inclusive Online Teaching Teach-Out Johns Hopkins University -
    — Resilient Teaching Through Times of Crisis and Change University of Michigan -
    — Online education: The foundations of online teaching Macquarie University -
    — Certification in Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Foundation Level CIMA -

  • Research Interests
    Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning Natural Language Processing Pattern Recognition and Data Mining

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2022 Atapattu, T., Herath, M., Elvitigala, C., de Zoysa, P., Gunawardane, K., Thilakaratne, M., . . . Falkner, K. (2022). EmoMent: An Emotion Annotated Mental Health Corpus from two South Asian Countries. Proceedings - International Conference on Computational Linguistics, COLING, 29(1), 6991-7001.
    Scopus3
    2020 Atapattu, T., Falkner, K., Thilakaratne, M., Sivaneasharajah, L., & Jayashanka, R. (2020). What Do Linguistic Expressions Tell Us about Learners' Confusion? A Domain-independent Analysis in MOOCs. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 13(4), 878-888.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS4
    2019 Atapattu, T., Falkner, K., Thilakaratne, M., Sivaneasharajah, L., & Jayashanka, R. (2019). An Identification of Learners' Confusion through Language and Discourse Analysis.. CoRR, abs/1903.03286.
    2019 Atapattu, T., Thilakaratne, M., Vivian, R., & Falkner, K. (2019). Detecting cognitive engagement using word embeddings within an online teacher professional development community. Computers and Education, 140, 14 pages.
    DOI Scopus34 WoS21
    2019 Thilakaratne, M., Falkner, K., & Atapattu Mudiyanselage, T. (2019). A systematic review on literature-based discovery workflow. PEERJ COMPUTER SCIENCE, 5, 40 pages.
    DOI Scopus28 WoS18 Europe PMC10
    2019 Thilakaratne, M., Falkner, K., & Atapattu Mudiyanselage, T. (2019). A systematic review on literature-based discovery: General overview, methodology, & statistical analysis. ACM Computing Surveys, 52(6), 34 pages.
    DOI Scopus34 WoS18

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2020 Thilakaratne, M., Falkner, K., & Atapattu Mudiyanselage, T. (2020). Connecting the Dots: Hypotheses Generation by Leveraging Semantic Shifts. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) Vol. 12085 LNAI (pp. 328-340). Switzerland: Springer.
    DOI Scopus1
    2020 Thilakaratne, K., Falkner, K., & Atapattu Mudiyanselage, T. (2020). Information extraction in digital libraries: First steps towards portability of lbdworkflow. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) (pp. 345-348). online: ACM.
    DOI Scopus2
    2020 Atapattu Mudiyanselage, T., Falkner, K., & Thilakaratne, K. (2020). Garbage in, garbage out? an empirical look at information richness of lbd input types. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) (pp. 369-372). online: ACM.
    DOI
    2018 Thilakaratne, M., Falkner, K., & Atapattu, T. (2018). Automatic detection of cross-disciplinary knowledge associations. In ACL 2018 - 56th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Proceedings of the Student Research Workshop (pp. 45-51). online: Association for Computational Linguistics.
    DOI Scopus4
    2017 Thilakaratne, M., Weerasinghe, R., & Perera, S. (2017). Knowledge-Driven Approach to Predict Personality Traits by Leveraging Social Media Data. In J. E. Guerrero (Ed.), Proceedings - 2016 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence, WI 2016 (pp. 288-295). Piscataway, New Jersey, USA: IEEE.
    DOI Scopus5
    2016 Thilakaratne, K. M., Weerasinghe, R., & Perera, S. (2016). Knowledge Driven Approach to Predict Personality Traits by Leveraging Social Media Data. In Proceedings of 2016 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI) (pp. 288-295). online: IEEE.
    DOI WoS5
  • "Contextually Situated Anomaly Detection" ($100,000)

     funded by the Defence Innovation Partnership

     in collaboration with the Deakin University and the University of Melbourne, Australia

 

  • "MindSpace – a Fitbit for language" ($10,000)

     funded by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources

     in collaboration with the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

  • "Automated glossary generation for effective information extraction from COVID-19 related scientific articles" ($20,000)

     funded by the Defence Innovation Partnership

 

  • "Development of a Novel Dataset for Intelligent Skimming of Research Content in Computer Science" ($4,000)

     funded by the CMS

 

Grant Shortlisted:

 

  • "SCANN: Security Classification using Artificial Neural Networks" ($273,960)

     Finalist of the National Intelligence Postdoctoral Grant (NIPG)

 

 

Course Coordinator & Teaching:

  • COMP SCI 7210: Foundations of Computer Science Python A (OTP6 - 2023)
  • COMP SCI 7211: Foundations of Computer Science Python B (OTP5 - 2023)
  • COMP SCI 7210: Foundations of Computer Science Python A (OTP4, OTP5 - 2022)
  • COMP SCI 7210: Foundations of Computer Science Python A (Trimester 1, 2, & 3 - 2022)
  • COMP SCI 7211: Foundations of Computer Science Python B  (Trimester 1, 2, & 3 - 2022)
  • COMP SCI 7317: Using Machine Learning Tools PG (Trimester 2 - 2022)
  • COMP SCI 7210: Foundations of Computer Science Python A (Semester 2 - 2021)
  • COMP SCI 7211: Foundations of Computer Science Python B (Semester 2 - 2021)

Curriculum Development:

  • Project Lead: COMP SCI 7210: Foundations of Computer Science Python A (For Trimester teaching - 2022)
  • Project Lead: COMP SCI 7211: Foundations of Computer Science Python B  (For Trimester teaching - 2022)
  • COMP SCI 7317: Using Machine Learning Tools PG (For Trimester teaching - 2022)

Teaching:

  • COMP SCI 7327: Concepts in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (Trimester 1 - 2022)

Teaching Philosophy:

My teaching philosophy is deeply rooted in student-centric methodologies, with an aim to facilitate immersive, project-based learning environments that push students to delve into and thoroughly explore course topics. This approach not only encourages an in-depth comprehension of the course content but also promotes long-term retention.

I am a strong advocate for the flipped classroom approach, utilizing online modules as a means of delivering information-rich content prior to in-person instruction. This includes short video lectures, notes, interactive quizzes, and other engaging forms of content. This method allows students to engage with and contemplate course topics beforehand, enabling them to arrive to class with a foundational understanding of the information.

By empowering students to absorb the basics before the face-to-face classes, we maximize the utility of in-person sessions, transforming them into platforms for meaningful interactions and engagement, as well as opportunities to expand upon concepts introduced in the online modules. This methodological shift enhances their understanding of the course content, allowing for a more thorough exploration of the subject matter.

I also strive to foster a positive and inclusive learning environment within the classroom, ensuring that every interaction contributes to this goal. It is my belief that by reinforcing an atmosphere of respect and inclusivity, students will feel more comfortable and open to participating, thereby maximizing their learning outcomes.

Certifications:

  • Learning to Teach Online by UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales)
  • University Teaching by The University of Hong Kong
  • Blended Language Learning: Design and Practice for Teachers by University of Colorado Boulder
  • Inclusive Online Teaching Teach-Out by Johns Hopkins University
  • Resilient Teaching Through Times of Crisis and Change by the University of Michigan
  • Online education: The foundations of online teaching by Macquarie University
  • Instructional Design Foundations and Applications by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (in progress)
  • Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Curriculum by Commonwealth Education Trust (in progress)

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2022 Co-Supervisor Cyberbullying Causes Detection and Model Advancement through User Knowledge Integration Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Isuru Mahagani Arachchige

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2022 - ongoing Principal Supervisor Classifying Argumentative Structures in Student Writing University of Adelaide - Honours - Olivia Florence Byrnes
    2022 - ongoing Principal Supervisor Exploring outlier-detection techniques to detect fake news University of Adelaide - Honours - Jacob Thomas Schwarz
    2022 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Student Writing Evaluation using Explainable AI University of Adelaide - Doctorate - Abhilash Sridhara
    2021 - ongoing Co-Supervisor PRISMA Methodology The University of Adelaide - Other - Dasuni Jayawickrama (Research Assistant)
    2021 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Masters of Computing & Innovation (MCI) projects The University of Adelaide - Master - 12 Masters Students
    2021 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Emotion-trigger extraction from unstructured text The University of Adelaide - Honours - Dasuni Jayawickrama (Advanced Topics Student)
    2021 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Emotion-cause modeling from Natural Language text The University of Adelaide - Honours - Georgia Zhang (Honours in Computer Science Student)
    2020 - 2021 Co-Supervisor Systematic literature review on emotion-cause extraction from unstructured text The University of Adelaide - Other - Dasuni Jayawickrama (Research Assistant)

  • Mentoring
    Date Topic Location Name
    2022 - ongoing Multi Task Learning University of Adelaide Ankit Yadav
    2021 - ongoing Adobe Analytics Challenge 2021 The University of Adelaide Ankit Yadav

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2022 - ongoing Member STEM Women Australia

  • Review, Assessment, Editorial and Advice
    Date Title Type Institution Country
    2022 - ongoing Transactions on Learning Technologies Peer Review IEEE -
    2021 - ongoing Scientometrics (SCIM) Peer Review Springer Journals -
    2020 - ongoing Bioinformatics Peer Review Oxford Academic -
Connect With Me
External Profiles