A NUSHA W ITHANA
School of Computer Science
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Sydney.
J12/1 Cleveland St, Darlington NSW 2008, Australia.

Voice: +61 286 277 056
wdanusha@acm.org
http://withana.info
DoB: 1983-02-20, in Sri Lanka

I am a lecturer in School of Information Technologies, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia. My research
is focused on fabricating blended interfaces that are interactionally, ergonomically and technologically fit to sustain in realworld applications. Such interfaces are vital to expand the traditional human computer interaction (HCI) from desktops toa broader social interaction paradigm and will play an important role in future smart societies accommodating education,
play and wellbeing.

EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Media Design (HCI) - Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
Thesis: Integration of Multimodal Interactions for Inter-Spatial Continuum
Advisors: Prof. Masahiko Inami, Prof. Naohisa Ohta, Prof. Akira Kato

2010 to 2014

M.Sc. in Media Design (HCI) - Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
Thesis: ImpAct: Immersive Haptic Interface - Exploring Direct Touch and Manipulation
Techniques for Surface Computing
Advisors: Prof. Masahiko Inami, Asst. Prof. Maki Sugimoto2008 to 2010

B.Sc. (Hons.) in Electronics and Telecommunication - University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Grade Point Average (GPA) = 3.91 (First Class)2003 to 2007

GCE A/L Examination, Sri Lanka
District Rank: 1st (Out of appr. 20,000), National Rank: 41st (Out of appr. 180,000).
Maths: A, Physics: A, Chemistry: A, Z-score: 2.4838

2000 to 2002

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES
School of IT, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia
Lecturer

July 2017 - Now

Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Saarland University, Germany
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dec 2016 - Apr 2017

Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
Postdoctoral Fellow

Jan 2014 - Oct 2016

University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Visiting Researcher
Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
Researcher
SCOPE (Strategic Information and Communications R&D Promotion Program)Research Assistant
SCOPE (Strategic Information and Communications R&D Promotion Program)Jun - Aug 2015

Oct - Dec 2013

Oct 2012 - Mar 2013

JST ERATO Igarashi Design Interface Project, Tokyo, Japan.
Research AssistantJul 2009 - Mar 2011

Dialog Telekom Ltd., Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Core Network Engineer

Nov 2007 - Sep 2008

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

Page 1 of 10

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
Google scholar citation summary:h-index: 11;i10-index: 11,

Retrieved: 25-10-2018

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
J1Juan Pablo, Piyum Fernando, Priyashri Sridhar, Anusha Withana, Suranga Nanayakkara, Jurgen Steimle, and Pattie
Maes. PostBits: using contextual locations for embedding cloud information in the home. Personal andUbiquitous Computing, 20(6):1001–1014, nov 2016

J2

Yuta Sugiura, Kakei Gota, Anusha Withana, Daisuke Sakamoto, Masahiko Inami, and Takeo Igarashi. Direct Operation Method with Self-projectable Finger Gestures for Bipedal Robots. Journal of Information Processing (JIP),
52(2):737–742, 2011

J3

Miyuru Dayarathna, Anusha Withana, and Kazunori Sugiura. Infoshare : Design and Implementation of Scalable
Multimedia Signage Architecture for Wireless Ubiquitous Environments. Wireless Personal Communications,60(1):3–27, mar 2011

J4

Anusha Withana, Yasutoshi Makino, Makoto Kondo, Maki Sugimoto, Gota Kakehi, and Masahiko Inami. ImpAct: Immersive Haptic Stylus to Enable Direct Touch and Manipulation for Surface Computing. Computers inEntertainment, 8(2):1, dec 2010

SELECTED CONFERENCE PAPERS
C1

Narjes Pourjafarian, Anusha Withana, , Joe Paradiso, and Jürgen Steimle. Multi-Touch Kit: A Do-It-Yourself Technique for Capacitive Multi-Touch Sensing using a Commodity Microcontroller. In The 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology - UIST ’19 (to appear), New York, New York, USA, 2019. ACM
Press

C2

Daniel Groeger, Martin Feick, Anusha Withana, and Jürgen Steimle. Tactlets: Adding Tactile Feedback to 3D
Objects Using Custom Printed Controls. In The 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software andTechnology - UIST ’19 (to appear), New York, New York, USA, 2019. ACM Press

C3

Anusha Withana, Daniel Groeger, and Jürgen Steimle. Tacttoo: A Thin and Feel-Through Tattoo for On-Skin
Tactile Output. In The 31st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology - UIST ’18, pages
365–378, New York, New York, USA, 2018. ACM Press

C4

Aditya Shekhar Nittala, Anusha Withana, Narjes Pourjafarian, and Jürgen Steimle. Multi-Touch Skin: A Thin andFlexible Multi-Touch Sensor for On-Skin Input. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - CHI ’18, pages 1–12, New York, New York, USA, 2018. ACM Press

C5

Bernd Ploderer, Justin Fong, Anusha Withana, Marlena Klaic, Siddharth Nair, Vincent Crocher, Frank Vetere, andSuranga Nanayakkara. ArmSleeve: a Patient Monitoring System to Support Occupational Therapists in Stroke
Rehabilitation. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - DIS ’16, pages
700–711, New York, New York, USA, 2016. ACM Press

C6

Anusha Withana, Roshan Peiris, Nipuna Samarasekara, and Suranga Nanayakkara. zSense: Enabling Shallow
Depth Gesture Recognition for Greater Input Expressivity on Smart Wearables. In Proceedings of the 33rd
Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’15, pages 3661–3670, 2015

C7

Anusha Withana, Shunsuke Koyama, Daniel Saakes, Kouta Minamizawa, Masahiko Inami, and Suranga
Nanayakkara. RippleTouch: initial exploration of a wave resonant based full body haptic interface. In Proceedings of the 6th Augmented Human International Conference on - AH ’15, pages 61–68, 2015

C8

Santiago Ortega-Avila, Jochen Huber, Nuwan Janaka, Anusha Withana, Piyum Fernando, and Suranga
Nanayakkara. SparKubes: exploring the interplay between digital and physical spaces with minimalistic interfaces. In Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures the
Future of Design - OzCHI ’14, pages 204–207, 2014

C9

Shunsuke Koyama, Masahiko Inami, Yuta Sugiura, Masa Ogata, Anusha Withana, Yuji Uema, Makoto Honda, Sayaka
Yoshizu, Chihiro Sannomiya, and Kazunari Nawa. Multi-touch steering wheel for in-car tertiary applications
using infrared sensors. In Proceedings of the 5th Augmented Human International Conference on - AH ’14, pages
1–4, New York, New York, USA, 2014. ACM Press

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

Page 2 of 10

C10

Anusha Withana, Shunsuke Koyama, Yuta Sugiura, Yuji Uema, Kazunari Nawa, Sayaka Yoshizu, Chihiro Sannomiya,and Masahiko Inami. Effects of Relative Rotation on Gesture Interaction in a Multitouch Steering Wheel Based
Gaming Interface. In 18 Virtual Reality Conference, Osaka, Japan, 2013. Virtual Reality Society of Japan

C11

Yuta Sugiura, Calista Lee, Masayasu Ogata, Anusha Withana, Yasutoshi Makino, Daisuke Sakamoto, Masahiko Inami, and Takeo Igarashi. PINOKY: A Ring That Animates Your Plush Toys. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM
annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’12, pages 725–734, New York, New York, USA,may 2012. ACM Press

C12

Anusha Withana, Yuta Sugiura, and Masahiko Inami. Haptic Telescope: Visual to Haptic Cross Modal Display. In
17 Virtual Reality Conference. Virtual Reality Society of Japan, 2012

C13

Anusha Withana, Miyuru Dayarathna, Masa Inakage, and Kazunori Sugiura. Infoshare: Content, design and system independent multimedia signage architecture. In 2011 2nd International Conference on Wireless Communication, Vehicular Technology, Information Theory and Aerospace & Electronic Systems Technology (Wireless VITAE),
pages 1–6. IEEE, feb 2011

C14

Yuta Sugiura, Gota Kakehi, Anusha Withana, Calista Lee, Daisuke Sakamoto, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami, andTakeo Igarashi. Detecting shape deformation of soft objects using directional photoreflectivity measurement.
In Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology - UIST ’11, pages
509–516, New York, New York, USA, oct 2011. ACM Press

C15

Yuta Sugiura, Diasuke Sakamoto, Anusha Withana, Masahiko Inami, and Takeo Igarashi. Cooking with robots: designing a household system working in open environments. In Proceedings of the 28th international conferenceon Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’10, page 2427, 2010

C16

Kazunori Sugiura, Miyuru Dayarathna, and Anusha Withana. Design and implementation of distributed and scalable multimedia signage system. In 2010 Second International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks(ICUFN), pages 273–278. IEEE, jun 2010

DEMONSTRATIONS, INSTALLATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
D1Anusha Withana and Jürgen Steimle. Personalized Interactive Surfaces with Printed Electronics. In Adj. Proceedings of the Interactive Surfaces and Spaces - ISS ’17, pages 473–476, New York, New York, USA, 2017. ACM
Press

D2

Anusha Withana, Shanaka Ransiri, Tharindu Kaluarachchi, Chanaka Singhabahu, Yilei Shi, Samitha Elvitigala, andSuranga Nanayakkara. waveSense : Ultra Low Power Gesture Sensing Based on Selective Volumetric Illumination. In Adj. Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pages
139–140, New York, NY, USA, 2016. ACM Press

D3

Thomas Schroepfer, Suranga Nanayakkara, Anusha Withana, Aloysius Lian, and Lonce Wyse. The RIBbon @ Read
Bridge: Interactive light installation, 2015

D4

Thomas Schroepfer, Suranga Nanayakkara, Anusha Withana, Aloysius Lian, Roger Boldu, John Naylor, and Sachith
Muthukumarana. SonicSG: Interactive light and sound installation for celebration of SG50, 2015

D5

Thomas Schroepfer, Suranga Nanayakkara, Anusha Withana, Thomas Wortmann, Alex Cornelius, Yu Nong Khew,
and Aloysius. Lian. Keepers & Bees: an interactive light-art installation of interactive critters that visitors caninteract with in real time via their smartphones., 2014

D6

Thomas Schroepfer, Suranga Nanayakkara, Anusha Withana, Juan âĂŃPablo, Thomas Wortmann, Alex Cornelius,
Yu Nong Khew, and Aloysius Lian. nZwarm: a swarm of luminous sea creatures that interact with passers-by,
2014

D7

Thomas Schroepfer, Suranga Nanayakkara, Thomas Wortmann, Alex Cornelius, Yu Nong Khew, Aloysius Lian,
Yeo Kian Peen, Roshan Peiris, Anusha Withana, Werry. Iain, Benjamin Petry, Santiago Otega, Nuwan Janaka,
Samitha Elvitigala, Piyum Fernando, and Nipuna Samarasekara. iSwarm: a swarm of luminous sea creaturesthat interact with passers-by, 2014

D8

Yuta Sugiura, Calista Lee, Masayasu Ogata, Anusha Withana, Yasutoshi Makino, Daisuke Sakamoto, Masahiko Inami, and Takeo Igarashi. PINOKY: A Ring-like Device That Gives Movement to Any Plush Toy. In CHI ’12
Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’12, pages 1443–1444, New York, NY, USA,2012. ACM

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

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D9

Gota Kakehi, Yuta Sugiura, Anusha Withana, Calista Lee, Naohisa Nagaya, Daisuke Sakamoto, Maki Sugimoto,
Masahiko Inami, and Takeo Igarashi. FuwaFuwa: Detecting Shape Deformation of Soft Objects Using Directional Photoreflectivity Measurement. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2011 Emerging Technologies on - SIGGRAPH ’11,
pages 1–1, New York, New York, USA, aug 2011. ACM Press

D10

Anusha Withana, Yuta Sugiura, Charith Fernando, Yuji Uema, Yasutoshi Makino, Maki Sugimoto, and Masahiko Inami.
ImpAct: Haptic Stylus for Shallow Depth Surface Interaction. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Emerging Technologies
on - SA ’11, pages 1–1, New York, New York, USA, dec 2011. ACM Press

D11

Yuta Sugiura, Anusha Withana, Teruki Shinohara, Masayasu Ogata, Daisuke Sakamoto, Masahiko Inami, and Takeo
Igarashi. Cooky: A Cooperative Cooking Robot System. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Emerging Technologies on SA ’11, pages 1–1, New York, New York, USA, dec 2011. ACM Press

D12

Anusha Withana, Makoto Kondo, Gota Kakehi, Yasutoshi Makino, Maki Sugimoto, and Masahiko Inami. ImpAct:
Enabling Direct Touch and Manipulation for Surface Computing. In Adjunct proceedings of the 23nd annual
ACM symposium on User interface software and technology - UIST ’10, page 411, New York, New York, USA, oct2010. ACM Press

D13

Yu Ebihara, Masa Inakage, Chihiro Kondo, Maki Sugimoto, Satoru Tokuhisa, Takuji Tokiwa, Kentaro Harada, Hiroaki
Miyasho, Toshitugu Yasaka, and Anusha Withana. Composing sounds and images for public display using
correlated KANSEI information. In ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2010 Posters on - SA ’10, page 1, New York, New York,USA, dec 2010. ACM Press

D14

Anusha Withana, Rika Matsui, Maki Sugimoto, Kentaro Harada, and Masa Inakage. Narrative image composition
using objective and subjective tagging. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Posters on - SIGGRAPH ’10, page 1, New York,New York, USA, jul 2010. ACM Press

D15

Adrian David Cheok, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Nimesha Ranasinghe, James Keng Soon Teh, Wei Wang Thang, Kening
Zhu, Makoto Danjo, Miyuru Dayarathna, Charith Lasantha Fernando, Nancy Lan-Lan Ma, Yukihiro Morisawa, Dilrukshi
Abeyrathne, Anusha Indrajith Withana, Chamari Priyange Edirisinghe, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Isuru Sawubhagya Godage, Kris Hoogendoorn, Junsong Hou, Kasun Karunanayaka, and Michelle Narangoda. Petimo: children’s companion for safe social networking. In ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Art Gallery & Emerging Technologies: Adaptation on - SIGGRAPH ASIA ’09, page 80, 2009

D16

Adrian David Cheok, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, and Charith Lasantha Fernando. Petimo: Enhanced tangible social networking companion for children. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in
Computer Enterntainment Technology - ACE ’09, pages 411–412, 2009

D17

Adrian David Cheok, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, and Charith Lasantha Fernando. Petimo: Safe Social Networking Robot for Children. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children IDC ’09, page 274, New York, New York, USA, jun 2009. ACM Press

D18

Charith Lasantha Fernando, Takeo Igarashi, Masahiko Inami, Maki Sugimoto, Yuta Sugiura,
Anusha Indrajith Withana, and Kakehi Gota. An operating method for a bipedal walking robot for entertainment. In ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Art Gallery & Emerging Technologies: Adaptation on - SIGGRAPH ASIA
’09, page 79, New York, New York, USA, dec 2009. ACM Press

PATENTS
P1

Anusha Indrajith Withanage Don, Suranga Chandima Nanayakkara, and Shanaka Ransiri Pulukkutti Arachchige Don.
Method and device for determining position of a target, 2018

P2

Anusha Indrajith Withanage Don and Suranga Chandima Nanayakkara. Gesture recognition devices, gesturerecognition methods, and computer readable media, 2017

P3

Suranga Chandima Nanayakkara, Nuwan Janaka Nanayakkarawasam Peru Kandage, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, andAnusha Indrajith Withanage Don. Rehabilitation exercise system, 2017

P4

Sayaka Yoshizu, Hihiro Sannomiya, Shunsuke Koyama, Yuta Sugiura, Anusha Indrajith Withanage, Don, Masayasu
Ogata, and Masahiko Inami. Input device and input acquisition method, 2015

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

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HONOURS AND AWARDS
Rutherford Fellowship for Visiting Researcher
The University of Sussex, UK.

2019

Most Promising Technology Award: zSense: Gestures on Smart Wearables
Innovfest unBound 2016 event. Organized by NUS, unBound IDA Singapore.

2016

Best Pitch Award: zSense: Gestures on Smart Wearables
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Bootcamp, 2015.

2015

Monbukagakusho MEXT
Japanese Government Monbukagakusho MEXT scholarship for higher education2009 to 2013

Best Paper Silver Award ACM ACE2010
ImpAct: Immersive haptic stylus to enable direct touch and manipulation for surface
computing at 7th International Conference in ACE2010 at Taipei.

2010

InventiON: First prize in the ICT track for Petimo
Petimo: social networking robot for children, won the first prize in an international innovationcompetition in Milan, Italy sponsored by the MMCC. April 22, 2010

2010

Petimo: Winner of the C4C (Como for Children) Competition at IDC
The 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC): Learning andPlaying in the pre-school of the future, Como, Italy, June 2009

2009

Dean’s List (University of Moratuwa)
Dean’s List of Faculty of Engineering University of Moratuwa, Level 1 and 2.

2003 to 2004

DialogGSM Change ScholarshipAwarded for outstanding performance in GCE A/L examination in physical science stream.

2003 to 2007

District Rank 1 GCE A/L examination (Kalutara District)
Score the highest mark in GCE A/L examination in Kalutara District, Sri Lanka.

2002

RESEARCH GRANTS
AWARDEDCI of User Centered Fabrication of Interactive Things, Source: FEIT ECR MES
Centrally formed and wrote the research program. 104K AUD

2019

Co-PI of zSense: Gestures on Smart Wearables, Source: SMART Innovation Grant
Centrally formed and wrote the research program. (PI: Nanayakkara). 216K SGD

2016 to 2017

Co-PI of zSense: Gestures on Smart Wearables, Source: SMART Innovation Grant
Centrally formed and wrote the research program. (PI: Nanayakkara). 60K SGD

2015 to 2016

Gestures on Steering Wheel, Role: Lead research, Source:Toyota IT
Collaboratively formed and wrote the research program (PI: Inami). 4 million JPY.

2012 to 2013

Impact V2 - For Design and Creation, Role: Lead research, Source:Keio University
Centrally formed and wrote the research program. (PI: Inami). 400K JPY

2012 to 2013

Ambient Haptic Display for Car Steering Wheel, Role: Lead research, Source:Toyota IT
Collaboratively formed and wrote the research program (PI: Inami). 4 million JPY.

2011 to 2012

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

Page 5 of 10

TEACHING EXPERIENCES
Core Lecture Human Computer Interaction, Saarland University, Germany, (Co Teach)Prepared and conducted lectures (3), labs and tutorials on HCI, Interaction Design, UCD
and Evaluation. (9CP). Professor: Juergen Steimle

2017

Systems and Control, SUTD, Singapore, (Co Teach)
Conducted lectures, labs and tutorials on Signals, LTI, Convolution, Laplace, FT, FS. Professor: Suranga Nanayakkara, Class: Systems and Control

2016

Functional Prototyping: Basics of Actuators, Keio University, Japan, (TA)Design and conducted a lecture on basics of electronic actuators and their usage in a workshop style class. Professor: Masahiko Inami, Class: Introduction to Media Design

2013

Experiment Design, Keio University, Japan, (TA)Assisted in designing and conducting a lecture on experiment design in HCI context.
Professor: Masahiko Inami, Class: Design of Experiments

2012

Rapid Prototyping: Fabrication with Laser Cutter, Keio University, Japan, (TA)Design and conducted a lecture on fabrication with Laser cutter in a workshop style class.
Professor: Masahiko Inami, Class: Introduction to Media Design

2011

Functional Prototyping: Sensors, Keio University, Japan, (TA)Instructed on basics of electronic sensors and their usage in a workshop style class.
Professor: Maki Sugimoto and Masahiko Inami, Class: Introduction to Media Design

2010

INVITED TALKS
Highly Personalized Multimodal Interfaces on Skin, The University of Sussex. UK

Feb, 2019

Highly Personalized Multimodal Interfaces on Skin, Monash University, Australia.

Dec, 2018

Unburdening the User: Disappearing Wearable Interfaces, Honda Research Institute, Europe, Germany. HRI-EU

Nov, 2018

Keynote: Embedded Sensing and Actuation for Expressive Tangible Interactions, European tangible interaction studio (ETIS) 2017

June, 2017

Invited talk: zSense and RippleTouch: Appropriating Technologies for Social and Ubiquitous Interfaces, IDL seminar
Social NUI Group, University of Melbourne, Australia. [www.socialnui.unimelb.edu.au]June, 2015

Invited talk: Auralities and Luminosities: When the object is not concrete, Lux14
Lux Wellington light festival. Lux Critical Forum, New Zealand. [lux.org.nz]

2014

Invited talk: ImpAct: Challenges in Through Surface Interaction Design,
UniSA-Keio GCOE Workshop on Application on Human Sensing and Interaction, Keio University, Japan

2011

Invited talk: Infoshare: Content, design and system independent multimedia signage,

2011

IEEE Wireless VITAE 2011 International Conference, Chennai, India.

ACADEMIC SERVICES AND ACTIVITIESProgram Committee, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

2018

Program Committee, ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS)2018

Co-Chair - Demonstration, ACM ISS2018 (To be held in Tokyo)
ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces

2018

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

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Workshop - Personalized Interactive Surfaces with Printed Electronics, ACM ISS2017
ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces, Brighton UK2017

Program Committee, ACM - Augmented Haman 2016

2016

Co-Chair - Demonstration and Poster, AH15
ACM - Augmented Haman 2015 International Conference. [dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=2735711]

2015

Program Committee Member, ACM - Augmented Haman 2015

2015

Secretary, Sri Lanka Students’ Association in Japan, SLSAJ
Published SLSAJ journal, Anual multidisciplinary scientific research journal. [slsaj.com]

2008-2009

Reviewer, Different scientific Conferences
ACM CHI, ACM UIST, ACM AH, IEEE VR, ACM ACE

2009-now

Editor of the E-Club, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
E-Club, Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of
Moratuwa; for academic year 2004/2005. Published the E-Clubs yearly magazine E-Carrier.
[ent.mrt.ac.lk]

2004-2005

STUDENT SUPERVISIONPHD STUDENTS
Nisal Menuka, PhD Thesis
Fabricating Wearable Interfaces.
The University of Sydney, Australia.

2019- now

MASTERS STUDENTS
Alister Palmer, Masters research project
Machine Generated Humurous Captions for Cartoons.
The University of Sydney, Australia.

2019- now

Fereshteh Shahrabi, Masters thesis
Wearable hand gestures with differential sensing.
Saarland University, Germany.

2016 - 2018

Manoz Banda, Masters thesis
Printed electronics for multi-modal interfaces.
Saarland University, Germany.

2016 - 2018

Shunshuke Koyama, Masters thesis
Multi-touch steering wheel for in-car tertiary applications using infrared sensors.
Keio University Japan.

2011 - 2012

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Zixuan Wang, Honors research thesis
Mechanomyographic Sensing of Hand Activities.
The University of Sydney, Australia.

2019- now

Ziyu Amy Liu, Honors research thesis
Predicting Bodily Movement with Wearable Sensors.
The University of Sydney, Australia.

2019- now

Zhuolin Xu, Honors research thesis
Passive Wearables for Gesture Sensing.
The University of Sydney, Australia.

2019- now

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

Page 7 of 10

Samuel Cheong Li Yang, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)
Asthma, Air and Me: Ubiquitous device to measure air quality.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2014 - 2015

Chanaka Singhabahu, Undergraduate Internship Program
zSense: Enabling Shallow Depth Gesture Recognition on Smart Wearables.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2015 - 2016

Tharindu Kaluarachchi, Undergraduate Internship Program
SHRUG: Stroke Haptic Rehabilitation Utilising Gaming.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2015 - 2016

Jessica A. Fang, MIT MISTI Internship Program
SonicSG: Interactive light and sound installation for celebration of SG50.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2015

Akshika Wijesundara, Undergraduate Internship Program
zSense: Enabling Shallow Depth Gesture Recognition on Smart Wearables.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2014 - 2015

Nipuna Samarasekara, Undergraduate Internship Program
zSense: Enabling Shallow Depth Gesture Recognition on Smart Wearables.
Singapore University of Technology and Design.

2014

LANGUAGE SKILLS AND COMPETENCES
EnglishFluentIELTS, December 2014.
Results: Listening: 8.0, Reading: 7.0, Writing: 8.0, Speaking: 7.0, Overall: 7.5
Sinhalese

NativeJapanese

Intermediate

SELECTED PRESS
Singapore designers create lights for the deaf and rings for the blind, 2015
Showcased the project zSense in November 19, 2015. [https://t.co/lJespV3wwD]
National Television Sri Lanka (Rupvahini): Featured in program Nugasewana, 2015
Showcased zSense and ImpAct, December 31, 2015. [https://youtu.be/kDMqWdr9AbA]

CNN

Rupavahini, SL

Sonic sculpture livens up river, 2015
Showcased the project SonicSG in December 28, 2015. [https://goo.gl/51HQaW]

NUS’ News Portal

An interactive tribute to Singapore (printed and web), 2015
Showcased the project SonicSG in December 23, 2015. [http://goo.gl/tqL7mt]

Straits Times

The More Well Wishes for the Nation, the Brighter the Interactive Light Up, 2015
Showcased the project SonicSG in December 23, 2015. [http://tinyurl.com/ho8sd9z]

Lianhe Zaobao

Blinking curtain of lights to bring SG50 to a close, 2015
Showcased the project SonicSG in December 23, 2015. [http://tinyurl.com/jq3d7wh]

Berita Harian

Keio university develops a device to probe content inside iPhone through a stylus, 2010
Showcased the project ImpAct in November 18, 2010. (in Japanese). [http://goo.gl/yJgtt2]GizmodoMixed Reality Lab on Discovery Science Channel “Future of Communication”, 2009
Showcased the project Petimo. [http://goo.gl/mizn6j]

Discovery

Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

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Social Networking Robot for Children: Article in newspaper Straits Times, 2009
Showcased the project Petimo in June 16, 2009.
Social Networking Robot for Children: appeared in NUS’ News Portal, 2009
Showcased the project Petimo in June 03, 2009. [http://goo.gl/8UbC8Z]
Social Networking Robot for Children: Article in newspaper Lianhe Zaobao, 2009
Showcased the project Petimo in May 31, 2009.
Walky robot understands iPhone gestures, football fanaticism, 2009
Showcased the project Walky in November 17, 2009.

Straits Times

NUS’ News Portal

Lianhe Zaobao

Engadget

FABRICATION, PROTOTYPING AND SOFTWARE TOOLS
Programing and Application Implementation
Network Application programing with “HTML5”, “NodeJS”, “NW.js” and “JavaScript”
Object Oriented Programming with “JAVA”
Android mobile Application Programming with “JAVA”
Procedural Programming with “C”
Web CMS with “Drupal 7”
Web service programing with “PHP”
Object Oriented Programming with “C++”
MVC programing with “Ruby on Rails”

ExpertExpertExpertExpertExpertExpertExpertIntermediate

Fabrication
Pritned Electronics with functional inks
3D Modeling with “Solidworks”
Rapid Prototyping / Additive Manufacturing “Laser Cutter”, “3D Printer”
Electronics circuit design and PCB layout with “Altium DXP”
Firmware and embedded programing in “GNU-ARM”, “Arduino”, “AVR”, “CCS C PIC”

ExpertExpertExpertExpertExpertResearch Tools
Statistics and data manipulation with “R”
Machine learning and data manipulation “Weka”

ExpertExpertAnusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

Page 9 of 10

REFERENCES
Prof. Juergen Steimle (Previous Supervisor)
Professor.
MMCI Cluster of Excellence.
Saarland University and Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Germany.
Tel: +49 (0)681 302 71080
Email: steimle@cs.uni-saarland.de
Prof. Sriram Subramanian (Collaborator)
Professor of Informatics (Informatics).
Graduate School of Media Design.
University of Sussex, UK.
Tel: +44 1273 876829
Email: Sriram@sussex.ac.uk
Prof. Masahiko INAMI (Previous Supervisor)
Professor.
The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.
University of Tokyo, Japan.
Tel: +81-03-5452-5368
Email: drinami@star.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Last Updated June, 2019.
Anusha Withana, Ph.D. - Curriculum Vitae

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