APAN59

Asitha Bandaranayake is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Peradeniya. He received his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA, in 2013 and his BSc in Engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 2001. He joined as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Peradeniya in 2014. Before joining the University, Dr. Bandaranayake worked as a Senior Software/QA Engineer at Cisco Systems Inc., in San Jose, CA, USA, for nearly two years, winning several performance awards.

Dr. Bandaranayake is a skilled university lecturer passionate about teaching, research, and administration. His research interests are Computer Networks, IoT, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, AI and GenAI applications in Healthcare, Administration, Finance and Education, Smart Agriculture, Computational Biology, and Education Technology. Dr. Bandaranayake is also a keen and ambitious administrator. As the Director of the Network and Communication Services Center (NCSU) at the University of Peradeniya from 2014 - 2021, he developed the master plan for the upgrade & extension of the campus network, with a vision for the next 20-30 years. Dr. Bandaranayake has been actively involved in Capacity Building, especially in the area of ICT and Generative AI in Education & Research, and is currently leading multiple projects such as AP-GAINED and AI-REACH.

Dr. Bandaranayake is the Consultant CTO of the Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN), the National Research & Education Network (NREN) of Sri Lanka. His vision is to ensure digital equity in higher education, and he is actively engaged in empowering the Sri Lankan education sector with Digital Transformation and Generative AI. He currently serves as a governor of the Asi@Connect project, which connects all the NRENs in the region and the rest of the world. He's the current and founding chair of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Working Group on HPC & AI.

He was a visiting research scholar at the University of Cincinnati, OH, USA, and a Member of the IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, and the IEEE Communication Society.