Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Thusitha Thilina Dayaratne

What are you currently working on or worked on before?

My main focus is on false data injection attacks on distributed demand response systems. Under that, I work on how adversaries can use false data injection attacks on future residential demand response schemes, how to detect such attacks accurately and how to mitigate the impact of those attacks.

What encouraged you to pursue your research topic?

Most countries are gradually transforming their traditional power grids to smart grids. While this transformation enhances the efficiency of the grid solving many issues, it also opens up a large attack surface that didn’t exist. Moreover, the concept of smart homes which are in total control of individual personnel and less secure IoT devices can trigger a significant impact on the grid.

Thus, it is very important to have a better understanding on what can go wrong and how to tackle them in order to that transformation to be beneficial for all the stakeholders (energy providers, customers, service operators, etc..). That is what encourages me in this research. You can find my publications here.

Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?

Knowing that my research helps to have more secure smart grids where people can be beneficial.

What is the name of your current institute?

Cybersecurity Center of Faculty of IT, Monash University.

What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?

• Failures are inevitable especially when it comes to publications. Don’t get distracted by them. Try harder.
• Always aim for top conferences/journals. The worse that can happen is getting rejected. But still, you get good feedback.
• Have regular meetings with your supervisors and get their feedback.

What motivated you to be a researcher?

The main motivation was that being a researcher provides the opportunity to explore a topic of interest. Moreover, being a researcher provides me with more opportunities to engage both in academia and the industry while contributing to the advancement of society.

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?

• In my opinion, the Sri Lankan education system is mostly focused on providing theoretical knowledge. Understanding the theory is important. But just knowing the theory doesn’t guarantee that a person knows how to apply it to the real world. Thus, I think it is really important to provide more opportunities for practicals/applications from the education system.
• It would be much interesting and helpful for students if the exams/assessments (at least CS/IT related) are more practical oriented rather than answering a set of questions.
• The curriculum needs to be updated to be aligned with top-ranked universities.
• Students also have the responsibility to actively engage in education rather than just trying to get a Degree. Asking questions should be encouraged rather than just listening to lectures. Forming academic associations/clubs and take part in different levels of competitions/meetups can be motivated to provide opportunities to develop their skills as well as to explore the latest trends in the industry.
• Students should also try to maintain blogs, publishing their projects/research, actively engage in forums/discussions which helps in building their brand