Savindi Wijenayaka

Savindi Wijenayaka

Passionate Machine Learning Engineer & Researcher

I'm passionate about creating something new to the world, to help people to overcome their physical or mental incapabilities. If someone's face lit up with a smile because of a product I contributed to make, that will be my ultimate satisfaction. My research interests include Medical Imaging Diagnosis, Brain-Computer Interface, Drug Discovery & Manufacturing. Apart from that, my unofficial occupation is teaching and sharing knowledge, which I enjoy a lot.

Education

Ph.D in Bio-Engineering - University of Auckland, New Zealand ( 2021 - 2024 )

  • Research Topic: A Micro-Structural Analysis of Gastrointestinal Sphincters

  • Key word: Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Medical Imaging Diagnosis

B.Sc. (Hons.) in Software Engneering - University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka ( 2016 - 2020 )

  • CGPA - 3.96/4.00 ( First Class Honours )

  • Domains: Data Science and Net Centric Application Development

Work Experience

Machine Learning Engineer - AI & Research Team, WSO2 Lanka ( 2020 - 2021 )

  • Worked in multiple research & development projects, in wide range of areas including Machine Learning (NLP) and performance optimization. Experienced in designing and developing production grade architectures using Azure based solutions.

  • Technologies & tools: Python, Ballerina, Bash, Flask, Unittest, Keras, Scikit-learn, Gensim, Seaborn, gRPC, Kusto, SQLAlchemy, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure DevOps pipelines, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Resource Manager Templates, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Eventhubs, Azure Function Apps, Azure SQL, Jmeter, Open API specification, GIT

Trainee Software Research Engineer - Applied R&D Team, Pearson Lanka ( 2018 - 2019 )

  • Carried out diverse Research and Development tasks in several projects, in wide range of areas including Machine Learning (Computer Vision, NLP) and Fullstack Development.

  • Technologies & tools: Python, Java, Flask, Spring boot, Django, AWS, Git, Ansible, Trello

Skills

Technical Skills
Knowledge Areas : Deep Learning (Vision & NLP)Languages & Frameworks : Python, Java SE, Ballerina, Bash, JavaScript, Django, Flask, SpringbootDevOps Capabilities : Linux, Azure, AWS, GCP, Kubernetes & Docker, Ansible Scripting, JMeterDatabases : MySql, SqlServer, Kasto
Soft Skills

Good Presentation skills | Leadership Skills | Strong team Player | Good Communication Skills
| Time Management | Interpersonal Skills

Top Research

Savindi Wijenayaka

Music Genre Recognition - Academic | Individual ( 2019 - 2020 )

Abstract: This research utilizes a combination of two mechanisms, a CNN and Attention, to predict the appropriate Genre of a piece of music represented as multiple features, instead of a single feature like Mel-Spectrum. The CNN is helpful for local feature extraction and the Attention is used to identify temporal patterns in the piece of music. The GTZAN dataset is used to extract domain-related characteristics and create multiple diverse features. These features are then be used to classify the genre by using the mentioned architecture. The final classification on the genre is produced as multi-class probabilities with the use of Softmax activation function. Finally, the performance of the new implementation is compared based on F1 score and accuracy.Keywords: Music Information Retrieval, Music Genre Recognition, Self-Attention, Multiple features
Automated Public Speaking Evaluator - Pearson Lanka | Team ( 2018 )

Abstract: This research analyzes a video stream of a student presenting their speech and evaluates the suitability of their gestures and emotions with respect to the context of the speech. It also counts the unnecessary words and breaks of the student and provides comprehensive feedback to the student. The emotion recognition subsystem of this project was the individual research and development responsibility given to me. Divided the task into two subparts as face detection and emotion recognition, and developed models to recognize emotion in a given video frame. The models were evaluated and selected using accuracy and F1 score. Apart from that, I participated in joint research of speech recognition subsystem of the projectKeywords: Face Detection, Emotion classification, Speech-to-text, Punctuation, Natural Language ProcessingTechnologies: Python, TensorFlow, Flask, Kaldi, OpenCV, Ansible, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, JQuery
Document Classifier - Pearson Lanka | Individual ( 2019 )

Abstract: Research-based project in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The task given is to automatically classify flashcards created by system or users under available topics. Had experience manipulating State-of-the-art Language Architectures like LSTM, GRU etc. and trying out models like ULMFiT, BERT for achieving the requirement. A service is created as a REST API using the final model and deployed in servers.Keywords: Document Classification, Topic Modelling, Natural Language Processing
Question and Answering Chatbot - Pearson Lanka | Individual ( 2018 - 2019 )

Abstract: Research in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP) which does reading-comprehension question and answering task, based on Pearson books and other documentation. Had experience manipulating State-of-the-art Language Models like BiDAF. for achieving the requirement. A service is created as a REST API using the final model and deployed in servers.Keywords: Reading comprehension, Question and Answering, Natural Language Processing

Special Achievements

Academic
4th Place : DataStorm 2020 Datathon organized by Octave (JKH Centre of Excellence for Big Data Analytics) & University of Moratuwa1st Runner Up : HackaDev - Matara 2017 (National Youth Software Competition) organized by UNDP-Sri LankaSemi-Finalist : UOJ Hack 2017 (University of Jaffna and UNDP-Sri Lanka) & iHack 3.0 (University of Colombo School of Computing)Dean list Enlisted : All 4 Academic Years (2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018), University of Kelaniya
Non-Academic
Champions - Chess : Four Nations Championship 2019 organized by Pearson Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd.Colours Recipient - Karate : Year 2018, Sri Lankan University Sport AssociationColours Recipient - Karate : Year 2016 & 2017, University of Kelaniya2nd Runner Up - Karate (Individual): Inter University Games 2017 & Sri Lanka University Games 2016Colours Recipient - Karate : Year 2013, Viskha Vidyalaya, Colombo 05Best Player - Karate : Year 2012, Visakha Vidyala, Colombo

Extra Curricular

Leadership
Vice President Marketing & Communication - AIESEC in Colombo North (2018/2019)Women's Karate Captain of University of Kelaniya (2018/2019)Finance Coordinator - RealHack 2.0 organized by Software Engneering Students’ Association of University of Kelaniya (2019)Appointed as a Senior Prefect of Visakha Vidyalaya (2012/2013)Appointed as the Karate Captain of Visakha Vidyalaya (2012/2013)Appointed as the Head Girl of Sri Somarathana Dhamma School 2011Appointed as a Junior Prefect of Visakha Vidyalaya (2010/2011)
Sports & Aesthetic
Member of University of Kelaniya Karate Team – Years 2016-2018 (National Level)Black Belter, Colours & Award Recipient and an active member of Visakha Vidyalaya Karate team – Years 2007-2014 (National Level)Member of Visakha Vidyalaya Kabbadi Team – Years 2011-2013 (National Level)Member of Visakha Vidyalaya Carrom Team – Years 2007-2009 (National Level)Member of the Visakha Vidyalaya Cadet Contingent – Year 2014 (National Level)Other Sports: Wushu, Volleyball, Swimming, Chess, Soccer (School Level)Aesthetic: Drama, Art (School Level)

Thank you!

Reach out to me if you are looking for a research collaboration

© Savindi Wijenayaka. All rights reserved. 2022