I am a research scholar exploring how people make sense and attribute meaning to technology, how new technologies are adopted to transform organizations, and what role social media discourse plays in the adoption and diffusion of technologies. I apply computational methods along with qualitative methods to uncover latent patterns in the data and derive insights that have practical implications.
I was born and raised in Sri Lanka. I obtained BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), where I had my first research experience on semantic web service discovery. I joined the industry as a software engineer and gained immense knowledge and experience in both agile software development and agile project management. I was the first female programmer in the company I worked for, in an era where you hardly find women in tech in the Sri Lankan IT industry. While working in the industry gave me maturity in my professional development, I also earned a great bunch of friends for life. I had an awesome time!
Since my childhood, I always love my freedom and experiencing ‘newness’. I always wanted to do things differently and do something unique. That desire forced me to continue my research interests. I undertook MBA in Information Technology degree at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and I graduated at the top of the class. During my MBA, I attended a summer school in Germany and presented my research work at international conferences.
I moved to Australia to pursue my PhD studies at the Queensland University of Technology. I followed a path that was emerging by stepping into computational social science. It has been a rewarding experience to learn something new and be an expert in the area. I am proud to be a recipient of the QUT 2021 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. Currently, I am doing my postdoctoral studies at HEC Montreal, Canada.
Since my undergrads, I am continuing my passion, knowing more about the world, knowing more about the people, and knowing more about the sciences that govern the world while maintaining my cheerful smile. In this journey of wisdom seeking, something I believe is I must give back what I learn for free because I am a product of free education!