Udara Samaratunge

Position

Lecturer

Teaching area

Software Engineering, Programming, Case Studies in Software Design, IT Project Management, Enterprise Software Analysis and Design, Professional Practices in IT, Artificial Intelligence

Qualifications

  • M.Sc. in Enterprise Application Development (EAD) (1st class) in Sheffield Hallam University in UK, Passed with Distinction and won the best performance award
  • B.Sc. in Information Technology (IT) in Curtin University in Australia
  • B.Sc. Special (Hons) in (IT) in Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT)
  • Certified in Small Business in Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in New Zealand
  • Oracle Certified Professional Java Programmer

Biography

Udara is a dedicated Lecturer in Digital Technologies at Manukau Institute of Technology. He has over 5+ years of industry experience as a Software Engineer and IT Industry Trainer, and 10+ years of academic experience as a Lecturer, Program Coordinator, and Research Engineer in universities and IT institutes. Throughout his career, he has delivered lectures to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, supervised and examined research projects, and published over 25 IEEE conferences and journal papers. Additionally, he has actively contributed to university curriculum development for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes, chaired international conferences, organized university events, and is certified in Teaching Methodology in Higher Education in Sri Lanka.

Why I love MIT

I value MIT for its strong sense of community and the remarkable diversity of learners who bring unique perspectives to the classroom. It is truly inspiring to be part of an institution that emphasizes hands-on learning and empowers students to develop into confident, career-ready professionals. What I admire most is how MIT fosters an environment that supports students holistically not only in their academic journey but also in their personal growth. I am proud to contribute by assisting with their studies, guiding them through course decisions, and providing support for their wellbeing and mental health whenever needed.

Publications

Over 25 IEEE publications in Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yX6RRPgAAAAJ&hl=en

First Author Publications

Udara Srimath S. Samaratunge Arachchillage, D. N. K. Jayakody, S. K. Biswash and R. Dinis, “Recent Advances and Future Research Challenges in Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for 5G Networks,”?2018 IEEE 87th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2018, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/VTCSpring.2018.8417843.

Udara Srimath S. Samaratunge Arachchillage, D. H. L. Amarasinghe, M. C. Kirindegamaarachchi, A. B. L. and F. W. M. K. S. S. W., “Smart Intelligent Floriculture Assistant Agent (SIFAA),” 2021 3rd International Conference on Advancements in Computing (ICAC), 2021, pp. 449-454, doi: 10.1109/ICAC54203.2021.9670885. (Best Paper Award)

Udara Srimath S. Samaratunge Arachchillage, “Smart Virtual Expert System To Assist Psychiatrist (SVESTAP),” International Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science (IJITCS), vol. 10, no. 1, pp.59-67, 2018. DOI: 10.5815/ijitcs.2018.01.07

Scholarly activities

RESEARCH ENGINEER (2016 – 2017):??National Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), In Tomsk, Russia

Responsibilities:

  • Conducted research on Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) for 5G wireless communication.
  • Conducted simulations using MATLAB and facilitated knowledge dissemination.
  • Published a survey paper in IEEE and conducted reviews for IEEE Transactions.

LECTURER (2014 to 2023): SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY | SRI LANKA

Lecturing Responsibilities:

  • Conducting Lectures for both undergraduate and postgraduate students
  • Actively participating in faculty Curricular Development in designing, developing, and moderating in undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in SE and IT specializations.
  • Designing and developing Final exam papers, Marking Rubrics for all the lecturing modules.
  • Developing Video lecture materials and conducting Webinars for Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

Research Responsibilities:

  • Supervising and Examining both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Research Projects and involving from Projects Proposals to Final Thesis Evaluation.
  • Supervising students in multi-disciplinary Research Areas evaluate Proposal and Defense Presentations.
  • Publishing Conference and Journal Papers in different disciplines.
  • Manuscript reviewer in IEEE VTC, Physical Communication Journal (Elsevier), and IEEE Conferences.
  • Session Co-Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIML) track in International Conference on Advancement in Computing (ICAC)

Software Engineering Program Coordinator Responsibilities:

  • Acting as a Program Coordinator of Software Engineering (SE) Specialization degree program, involves evaluation and selection process of SE Specialization students.
  • Module (Course) content developer (Lectures, Practical contents), Design Module Outlines, Program/Course Learning Outcomes, Course contents in both SE/IT degree programs.
  • Moderating Final exam papers, Marking Rubrics of many Software Engineering modules.

Software Engineering Projects Consultation:

  • Conducting technical consultation for SLIIT internal Software Engineering projects.
  • Conducting interview sessions for Software Engineering students in Industry Internship Program.
  • Conducting technical training sessions for internal staff.
  • Designing high-level architecture, developed test framework and conducting daily stand up meetings.

Administrative Duties:

  • Appointed as a Programming Module Committee Chair.
  • Member in the publication committee of annual International Conference on Advancement in Computing (ICAC) conference.
  • Member in Industry Consultative board annually conducted in Software Engineering Specialization.
  • Member in Academic Misconduct Committee in Faculty of Computing.

Research interests

Software Engineering Automation, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Generative AI, NLP, Knowledge Construction (Ontology Engineering), Semantic Web, Augmented/Virtual Reality, and Human Computer Interactions

Award and grants

Winner of the Best Performer Award in Master of Science in Enterprise Application Development Program

Industry activities

SOFTWARE ENGINEER:??ConInnova Construction with Automation Company| Ellerslie, Auckland, New Zealand

Skills: Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate, PHP, Java Script, React JS, Amazon AWS, AWS EC2, My SQL, Azure, Deep Learning, Generative AI, LLMs, Prompt Engineering, NLP, IoT

Responsibilities

  • Performing requirement Analysis and Design for enterprise-scale applications in construction domain
  • Working as a Backend software development for the company internal applications
  • Doing Research and Development activities in various domains (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Generative AI, LLMs, Prompt Engineering, Knowledge Constructions, Natural Language Processing (NLP), IoT)
  • Design private LLMs for Quantity Surveying domain and planning to accelerate Cost estimation and Tender proposal generation for Government Electronic Tender System (GETS)
  • Conducting Unit Testing, Integration Testing and Test Automation
  • Involve with Application troubleshooting and maintenance phases
  • Conducting code reviews and refactoring sessions according to the industry standards and best practices
  • Communicating effectively with clients and team to adapt to performance improvements, nurturing positive relationships

SOFTWARE ENGINEER (2010 to 2015):??VIRTUSA (PVT) LTD. COMPANY | SRI LANKA

PROJECT: WSO2 ESB Connector Development Project (Sri Lanka)

Skills: Java, Java Script, Apache Synapse, Axis2 Web Services, REST Services, XML/XSD, XSLT, JSON, POX, TestNG, Apache Maven, TCP Mon, WSO2 Carbon platform, Authentication techniques (Basic, OAuth 2.0, AWS Signatures, Google SDKs)

Responsibilities:

  • Performing Enterprise Applications integration
  • Implemented API connectors for WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), developing connectors for various platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Amazon AWS/DynamoDB, Google Contacts, YouTube, Bitbucket, GitHub, JIRA, and more
  • Analyzed and designed APIs for the implementation of connectors
  • Developed proxy services, XML templates, and mediator patterns using Apache Synapse and Java
  • Implemented connectors for WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), and conducted testing of requests using SOAP UI
  • Conducted training sessions for the project team.

PROJECT:? New York Life Billing project (USA)

Skills: Java, SOAP Web Services (JAX-WS), Hibernate, IBM WebSphere, EJB, JPA, JMS, XML/XSD, XSLT Transformation, Gradle, Apache Groovy, Apache Felix (OSGi), Serena Repository

Responsibilities:

  • Developing web services in two endpoints (PEGA and Future First) using JAX-WS.
  • Implemented the Virtual Product Modelling System (VPMS) for business-specific calculations.
  • Implemented JAX-WS web services and developed JMS queues to facilitate the sending of asynchronous messages.
  • Implemented a JPA (Java Persistence API) application as the persistence layer and deployed it for the OSGi framework.

PROJECT:? Adobe CQ Virtusa Internal Project (Sri Lanka)

Skills: Java, Adobe CQ5, CRX, JCR Repository, Java Script, JQuery, HTML, CSS, Apache Sling, Apache Felix (OSGi) Framework, Apache Jackrabbit

Responsibilities:

  • Conducted training sessions and project ramp-up sessions related to the OSGi framework.
  • Performing backend development
  • Implemented all backend services and deployed them for Apache OSGi, serving as the service layer implementation.

PROJECT:? Martin Dawes Bill Analysing System (USA)

Skills: Java, Flex 3.0/4.0, Spring DAO, Hibernate, Cairngorm MVC, Parsley Framework, Blaze DS, JAX-WS Web Service, RESTful Web Services, iBatics, Apache Maven, Web Sphere 8.0, Windows Server 2003, Perforce Repository

Responsibilities:

  • Implemented the frontend using Flex 3.0/4.0, Cairngorm MVC, and Parsley frameworks.
  • Configured the Blaze DS middle layer to facilitate communication between the Spring DAO Framework and Flex.
  • Implemented the Business and Data Access layers using the Spring DAO and iBatis frameworks.
  • Responsible for the implementation of JAX-WS web services and RESTful Web services.
  • Scheduled ETL jobs for loading data from data warehouses.
  • Transformed the ETL job execution process from the UNIX platform to the Windows platform.

PROJECT:? British Telecommunication Project (UK)

Skills: Java, Struts, Spring DAO, Hibernate, Oracle, Web Logic Server 8.0, VERITAS Cluster management, SQL Developer, Putty, File Zillah, XFB, SOAP Web services

Responsibilities:

  • Performing full-stack development
  • Engaged in product development monitoring and release management.
  • Managed and maintained UNIX Servers

Memberships and affiliations

  • Member in the publication committee of annual International Conference on Advancement in Computing (ICAC) conference.
  • Member in IEEE
  • Member in Computing Society of Sri Lanka (MCSSL)
  • Advisor in FOSS Community in Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT)