Experience, education, and teaching

CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701)

On-going

The Australian National University, School of Computing

Online. Expected completion by October 2026

PhD in Computer Science

August 2017 – March 2022

The Australian National University, School of Computing

Thesis title: Efficient Cryptanalysis Techniques for Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage.

BSc in Information and Communication Technology (Honours)

October 2011 – February 2016

University of Colombo School of Computing, Colombo,Sri Lanka

First Class, GPA 3.62

Honorary Lecturer

July 2026 – Present

Software Innovation Institute, the Australian National University, Canberra

• Developing a privacy-preserving MCP server connecting LLM agents to Solid PODs.
• Research on integrating Trusted Execution Environments within Solid PODs.
• Developing and maintaining Flutter/Dart open-source software packages for Solid POD based software development. See pub.dev package list
• Supervision of PhD, master's, and undergraduate students.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

July 2021 – July 2026

Software Innovation Institute, the Australian National University, Canberra

Lead Researcher and Developer ‐ Secure Data Management Platform for Clinical EEG Trials

• Co-led a multidisciplinary engineering team for two years to design and deliver three software applications.
• Delivered software currently supporting ongoing clinical trials (started in June 2026).
• Stakeholders from ANU School of Medicine, ANT Neuro Germany, and Melbourne.

Software Engineering Team Lead ‐ Digital Health Platform for Integrated Indigenous Healthcare

• Led a multidisciplinary team of software engineers for three years in the design and delivery of a secure digital health platform.
• Ran a controlled trial with real patients to evaluate the implemeneted platform's feasibility.
• Stakeholders from Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service Aboriginal Corporation and Yarrabah Leadership Forum.

Self-directed Research and Development

• Developed a secure data management protocol for Solid enabling Trust-No-One architecture within PODs environment.
• Developed multiple open-source software applications using Solid PODs as the backend for secure, privacy-preserving data management. See Solid Community AU Software Showcase

Supervisor / HDR Convenor

• Supervised and mentored PhD candidates, and master's and undergraduate students across software engineering, data science, and record linkage research projects.
• Led academic and professional development initiatives for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students within the Data Science Cluster.
• Organised biannual mentoring programs for HDR students to monitor research progress, and support students achieve key milestones and timely degree completion.

CSIRO – ON Prime 19 Programme | Private Insights team

Apr 2026 – Jul 2026

The Australian National University, Canberra

• Attended the CSIRO ON Prime 19 programme, gaining exposure to innovation and commercialisation aspects of our Solid PODs research.
• Engaged directly with more than 60 potential customers and industry stakeholders to validate market needs, refine value propositions, and explore pathways for translating PODs technology into commercially viable products and services.
• Awarded a performance bonus from CSIRO for reaching all the required targets during the programme.

PhD Researcher

August 2017 – March 2022

School of Computing, the Australian National University, Canberra

• Developed privacy attacks on techniques utilised in privacy-preserving record linkage to validate the effectiveness of privacy protection mechanisms.
• Built a scalable vulnerability assessment framework to identify, quantify, and prioritise security risks across plaintext and encoded datasets for real-world linkage projects.
• Designed a comprehensive attack taxonomy to standardise the analysis and classification of cryptanalysis methods in privacy-preserving record linkage.

Research Engineer and Advisor

May 2019 – Present

Research School of Social Sciences, the Australian National University, Canberra

• Designed, enhanced, and maintained a web-based decision support platform for cost-benefit analysis
• Implemented machine learning-based data imputation approaches to improve the quality, completeness, and reliability of large-scale crime datasets.
• Currently acting as an advisor to stakeholders to translate research requirements into technical solutions.

Co-investigator — Security and Privacy Assessment Consultancy

2018

Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian National University, Canberra

Delivered advisory support evaluating the privacy risks of privacy-preserving record linkage technologies.

Evaluated hashing, encoding, hardening, and cryptanalysis attacks on Bloom filter-based privacy-preserving record linkage approaches to identify potential risks.

Produced a technical assessment report outlining findings, risk considerations, and recommendations to guide improvements in secure data linkage practices.

Worked closely with ABS stakeholders to understand operational requirements, communicate technical findings, and provide evidence-based recommendations to support secure data linkage decisions.

Convenor / Lecturer

July 2021 – Dec 2023

School of Computing, the Australian National University, Canberra

Data Wrangling, delivered to undergraduate and Master of Applied Data Analytics (MADA) cohorts.

Tutor (Casual Sessional Academic)

July 2018 – June 2021

School of Computing, the Australian National University, Canberra

• Data Wrangling, delivered to undergraduate, MADA, and Graduate Certificate of Data Engineering cohorts.
• Completed the ANU Principles of Tutoring and Demonstrating course in 2018.

Teaching Instructor

February 2016 – March 2017

University of Colombo School of Computing, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Coursed involved: Robotics, embedded systems, programming with C and C++, mathematical methods, middleware architecture, advanced concepts in software design and development, and the Linux application laboratory.