Rate My Professor Prasanna Haddela Kankanamalage

Dr. Prasanna Haddela Kankanamalage serves as a Lecturer in Global Curtin at Curtin University, Australia, a position he has held since June 2022. Concurrently, he is a Senior Lecturer G1 in the Department of Information Technology within the Faculty of Computing at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), where he also acts as Dean/Academic at the Matara Centre and Program Coordinator for Data Science since 2018. His distinguished career includes roles such as Academic Coordinator for the Metro Campus Faculty of Computing at SLIIT from 2014 to 2020, Link Tutor for the Department of Computing at Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, from 2014 to 2018, Visiting Academic at the Faculty of Engineering Technology, Open University of Sri Lanka, since 2010, and Visiting Academic at the Department of Computing, Curtin University, in 2011. Earlier positions encompass IT Instructor, Assistant Lecturer, and Lecturer from February 2002 to 2011.

Dr. Haddela Kankanamalage obtained his PhD from Sheffield Hallam University in 2023, with a thesis titled 'An analysis of search query evolution in document classification and clustering,' under the supervision of Laurence Hirsch. This work developed evolved search query methods for enhanced explainability in document classification and clustering, particularly effective for overlapping categories and low-resource languages like Sinhala. He holds an MSc in Computer Science and a BSc in Computer Science, both from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. His research focuses on Explainable AI, Text Analytics, Evolutionary Computing, and Neuro Computing, extending to machine learning applications in healthcare risk prediction, predictive policing with neural networks and big data, Sinhala natural language processing, EEG-based neuromarketing recommender systems, convolutional neural networks for plant stress detection, and agricultural decision support. Key publications include 'Document Clustering with Evolved Single Word Search Queries' (IEEE CEC 2021, co-authored with Laurence Hirsch and Alessandro Di Nuovo), 'Use of LIME for Human Interpretability in Sinhala Document Classification' (IEEE SCSE 2019), 'Predictive Policing with Neural Networks: A Big Data Approach to Crime Forecasting in Sri Lanka' (2025), 'Development and validation of a cardiovascular risk prediction model for Sri Lankans using machine learning' (2024), and over 50 conference proceedings. He received a Research Scholarship for doctoral studies at Sheffield Hallam University and holds memberships in AFHEA (UK), MACM (US), MIET (UK), and MCS (SL). Additionally, he chaired the Technical Program Committee for the 6th International Conference on Advancements in Computing (ICAC 2024).