Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Chathura Sarathchandra
What are you working on at the moment?
Virtualization techniques for next-generation devices
What encouraged you to pursue this topic?
Human advancement
Where are you currently based?
InterDigital Inc., and honorary fellow at the University of Essex
Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?
Everywhere around me. Works from varying domains and disciplines.
Can you share with us some of your publications?
Yes, anyone can find my publications here.
What’s one of your biggest personal achievements so far?
Besides all technical achievements to date, winning public research funding for collaborative project proposals — from EU and UK (e.g., one that is worth around €4M), that later funded my work.
What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?
Perseverance is key. Do not take shortcuts, it will definitely be worth it in the long run. Be curious about everything, you are never too cool for anything.
What motivated you to be a researcher?
Ability to test, break and redefine known, norms, rules, then add to the human knowledge in general.
If there is a chance, will you help build research in Sri Lanka?
Yes definitely.
According to your opinion, what are the changes that the Sri Lankan education system needs to do, in order to meet the requirement of the international industry and academia?
Encourage and guide students to inquire “why”s, teach some “how”s, then guide them to learn the rest of the “how”s (how to acquire knowledge and skills). Both these aspects (Hows and whys) are important and need to find the right balance between the two, as you can’t just have one or the other. I felt, there was too much learning of “how”s and not enough, or even at times, discouragement from asking “why”s (at least at schools). Therefore, maybe there should be better training for (e.g., maybe with new teaching methods), and selection of teachers at schools (e.g., requiring a minimum bachelors degree in the corresponding field), and research-led teaching at universities. We also should ramp up international research collaborations, create and offer visiting positions and fellowships (and other associations) to them (for research collaborations, lectures, seminars, workshops and meetings), and increase other interactions in general with the international communities. Most importantly, more research funding should be provided by government and private organizations.
