Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Mahendrini Fernando Ariyachandra

What are you currently working on or worked on before?

Making informed decisions in all stages of the infrastructure life cycle and by all parties involved is a key element of infrastructure management. Even experienced professionals can avoid major mistakes with the right type and amount of information. However, the process of acquiring that information faces two great challenges; the lack of automation in collecting and analyzing the data needed to convert it to useful information, and the lack of formalized systematic processes in representing and visualizing data and information. My research focuses on inventing new methods that automate data collection with the help of state-of-the-art sensors and sensor systems and provide flexible ways for analyzing the data into information suitable for construction-related applications, specifically in my project, to reconstruct the as-is geometry of existing and under construction railways. Particular emphasis is given on methods that handle visual and spatial data, due to a large amount of information that can be harvested from them despite their unstructured nature.

What encouraged you to pursue your research topic?

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has always been my passion in which I wanted to pursue my future career from my undergraduate days. At present, significant developments are been implemented in BIM, (specifically related to Digital Twin applications) and expected to grow exponentially in the future. Hence, I possess a strong desire to broaden my exposure to address BIM and Augmented Reality applications which are the new era of the BIM.

What is the name of your current institute?

University of Cambridge

Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?

Science is interesting and solving puzzles is neat but science is also a tool for the benefit of Humanity. The best inspiration for my work is the sense that this work matters and that it really has a practical application.

Can you share with us some of your publications?

Yes, you can find them using a below-mentioned URL.

What’s one of your biggest personal achievements so far?

I received the award for ‘Best Research Performance’ during my graduation.

What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?

A researcher’s life is a journey in which we, learn to fail, fail to learn, and eventually learn from our failures.

What motivated you to be a researcher?

I feel the thrill of discovering something new is something that is hard to compete with.

If there is a chance, will you help build research in Sri Lanka?

Absolutely!

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?

Above all, the system must be changed from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach.