Recognitions for RukshanJS

Publications

Peer-reviewed research papers I've authored.

IEEE SCSE 2026

What Do Students Need from Mobile Learning Platforms for High-Stakes Examination Preparation? An Empirical Study of Sri Lankan Advanced Level Students

An empirical study based on a survey of 135 Sri Lankan A/L students across 17 districts to identify what they actually want from mobile learning platforms. Key finding - 94% rated MCQ practice as important (79% "very important"), and five features stood out - explanatory feedback, leaderboards, progress tracking, competition, and time management. These insights are shaping alevellers.lk, a mobile learning platform for Sri Lankan A/L students. Co-authored with Dr. Upeksha Ganegoda.

Topics

edtechmobile-learningsri-lankahci

Venue: IEEE SCSE 2026, University of Kelaniya
Date: 26 March 2026
Role: First author
Co-author: Dr. Upeksha Ganegoda

IEEE SCSE 2026

How Well Do LLMs Understand Sinhala Metaphors? Insights from SinMet-5K

Introduces SinMet-5K, the first multi-annotator Sinhala metaphor dataset with 5,000 sentences from song lyrics, and evaluates how GPT-5.2 and DeepSeek-V3 handle figurative language classification in Sinhala in a zero-shot setting. Key finding - LLMs excel at detecting similes (93%+ recall) thanks to explicit markers, but struggle with implicit metaphors, highlighting a significant gap in low-resource figurative language understanding. Co-authored with MPhil supervisor Dr. Thilina Thanthriwatta.

Topics

nlpllmsinhalalow-resource

Venue: IEEE SCSE 2026, University of Kelaniya
Date: 26 March 2026
Role: First author
Co-author: Dr. Thilina Thanthriwatta

Talks

Talks and lightning sessions I've delivered.

Lecture hall full of first-year students at the workshop

ITFSU & INTECS, FIT University of Moratuwa

Introduction to Modern Software & Git - Hands-on Workshop, FIT University of Moratuwa

Invited talk for first-year IT undergraduates, hosted by the ITFSU and INTECS student clubs. Walked through Andrej Karpathy's "Software 3.0" framing (1.0 code, 2.0 weights, 3.0 prompts) and why all three matter today, then dropped into Git - the problems it solves, why even personal projects belong on GitHub, and a live demo creating a repo, making commits, and pushing changes. Slides for the session were generated with Claude Code.

Topics

public-speakinggitsoftware-engineeringuniversity-of-moratuwa

Event: Introduction to Modern Software & Git Workshop
Host: ITFSU & INTECS
Venue: Faculty of IT, University of Moratuwa
Date: 12 March 2026
Format: Invited Talk - Hands-on Workshop

Lecture hall full of Batch 25 undergraduates during the orientation talk

Faculty of IT, University of Moratuwa

Past Student Talk - Orientation Program for Batch 25, FIT University of Moratuwa

Invited as a past student to address the newest batch during their orientation at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa - the same faculty where I completed my undergrad and continue my MPhil. Shared lessons across GPA vs. extracurriculars, hackathons and meetups, navigating AI without doom, maintaining a real online presence (LinkedIn / portfolio / GitHub), the value of English, staying humble, setting clear goals, leveraging free tools like the GitHub Education Pack, and respecting the fundamentals.

Topics

public-speakingmentorshipuniversity-of-moratuwa

Event: Orientation Program for Batch 25
Venue: FIT, University of Moratuwa - 4LH01A & 4LH02A
Date: 23 January 2026
Format: Past Student Talk

KCD Sri Lanka 2025

KCD Sri Lanka 2025 - Lightning Talk: SHOULD you Kubernetes?

Delivered a lightning talk titled "SHOULD you Kubernetes?" at Kubernetes Community Days (KCD) Sri Lanka 2025, hosted at BMICH on 26 October 2025. The session challenged the default reach for Kubernetes and walked the audience through when it actually pays off versus when simpler infrastructure wins.

Topics

kubernetescloud-nativepublic-speaking

Event: KCD Sri Lanka 2025
Venue: BMICH, Colombo
Date: 26 October 2025
Format: Lightning Session