Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Suranga Seneviratne

What are you currently working on or worked on before?

My research with the The School of Computer Science, University of Sydney looks at how to secure networked systems and end-user devices from cyberattacks. The main challenge in doing this is the trade-off between the usability and the level of security — it’s not practical to develop highly secure systems if they force additional usability overheads onto the user.

Under this broader theme of cybersecurity, I work on multiple areas such as mobile & IoT security, behavioral biometrics, network security, and AI applications in security.

What encouraged you to pursue your research topic?

Cybersecurity has always been an arms race between the attackers and the researchers. As security researchers, we need to identify vulnerabilities and potential threats before they are exploited and come up with countermeasures when attackers change their strategies. I enjoy this continuous challenge of working in network security and its very dynamic nature.

You can find a list of my publications for reference here.

Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?

I usually keep myself updated by reading the latest publications from the top conferences in my area, listening to talks by pioneers in the field, and discussing & brainstorming with peers. High-quality research work always inspires me and gives me ideas to further explore.

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

I believe each piece of research you complete is an achievement. While my students and I were successful in getting some of our papers accepted in top-conferences and journals, I think the most significant achievement to date was receiving the Google Faculty Rewards in 2017 for our work in mobile app security.

What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?

I think sometimes it can be daunting to work on a single topic for a long time and it might appear as not going anywhere. It is vital to believe in yourself and be tenacious. Also, one should always aim high, be it the conferences/journals you want to publish or the grad school you want to join.

What motivated you to be a researcher?

I was driven by curiosity. Being a researcher allows exploring topics that I find exciting at-depth and make scientific contributions that will be useful to many others.

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?

There is no doubt that our education system is on par with international standards, and we produce highly talented graduates. Most of them do exceptionally well when they are into research.

The improvements I could think of are more exposure to research (i.e. overseas internships, research collaborations) and create awareness during the junior years on research methods and what they need to achieve by the time they graduate if they are to pursue higher studies.

Given the chance, I would absolutely support the development of the Research industry in Sri Lanka.