Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Thisum Buddhika
What are you currently working on or worked on before?
My research interests are largely on human-computer interaction. Specifically, I’m looking at ways of how computer science and technology can be used to enhance the capabilities of humans. That involves building software components that collect signals from various sources, analyzing them using machine learning algorithms, and presenting useful actionable information to the end-users.
Since mid-2019, I’m working in a small research group (Data, Science & Technology) at the MOHT, under the Ministry of Health Singapore. Our focus is on using technology to improve healthcare. These days we are conducting research in to “Digital Phenotyping” (analyzing the digital footprints of humans, which are made by the usage of daily digital devices like smartphones, fitness trackers, etc) and how it can be used to detect different mental disorders. Mental disorders are a significant problem in healthcare, but less technology involvement at the moment.
From mid-2016 until mid-2019 I was working at the Augmented Human Lab (which was in SUTD, Singapore and then moved to UoA, New Zealand) as a Research Engineer, mainly focusing on “Assistive Augmentation”. Some of the notable projects I was doing during that time are FingerReader — a device to aid visually impaired people to access visual information on the go, TapIO — a wearable interface for fringer-aware tapping interactions, oSense — a portable and scalable method to use the motor capabilities of the hand for object-activity recognition, fSense — force level detection of common gestures using a PPG sensor of a smartwatch, footSense — a lightweight portable device for early detection of foot ulcers. Most of these projects focused on portable/wearable devices, which gather information from different types of sensors and providing useful information to the users, which enhanced/improved the lives.
What encouraged you to pursue your research topic?
Interests in solving the needs of people, which has significant impacts on human lives, rather than wants
What is the name of your current institute?
MOHT — ( [Ministry of Health] Office of Healthcare Transformation) Singapore
Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?
People
Can you share with us some of your publications?
Yes, you can find my publications here.
What’s one of your biggest personal achievements so far?
I was able to take a research project (FingerReader) to the production/startup level.
What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?
Research is fun and also an important aspect of driving society ahead. Don’t be afraid to fail, there’s no absolute right
What motivated you to be a researcher?
The opportunity to learn new technologies and use them in projects, experience in collaborating with people from different disciplines (such as electronic/electrical engineers, doctors, designers etc.) and the freedom to initiate projects and continue.
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?
One important thing is soft skills and English. Including the ability to explain ideas, interacting with people and so on. Then in academia, better to look for international research collaborations. Trying to publish papers in top avenues would definitely help in this regard. Thirdly the attitude of learning.
Apart from that, I would like to share one of my personal experiences of a student club in Singapore, which is called SIMSA (https://www.simsa.sg/about-us). It’s an independent organization formed by the students of medical schools in Singapore. You can read more information from the above link.
One important thing I saw is, this association also helps students to find none-medical related (directly) internships in Singapore such as work in data science projects related to the medical field. This helps research teams to have the “domain knowledge”, and students get a rough idea about how the tech is improving and can be helped to solve problems in health, and then they can suggest important problems. In order to get this kind of internship, medical students should go through an interview process of SIMSA and then selected ones will be interviewed by the companies.
So What I want to highlight is, Sri Lankan education system or students themselves, can come up with these kinds of initiatives. As I saw, the Singapore government has respect for them, and government organizations help them in their activities.
