Ananda Gunawardena

ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS

EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2006

Associate teaching Professor of Computer Science

Department of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Av.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Office: #5113
Phone: (412) 268-1559
Fax: (412) 268-5573
guna at cs dot cmu dot edu

Assistant : A. Brookins, (412) 268-5483 

• Research Interests:

My early research interest was in computational linear algebra. I studied non-negative matrices and their applications to accelerating iterative methods. Since 1994, I have been involved in projects involving creating the next generation of electronic learning environments. My current research areas include Data Mining and Human Computer Interaction and their application to creating intelligent learning systems. I am also working on ink-based domain specific applications for tablet PC's

• B.Sc (honors) (Math Special), M.S (Computer Science), Ph.D(Applied Mathematics)
• Recent Conferences
• Learning Object Seminar - UC-Irvine
• MAA Meeting - Burlington, VT
• ICTCM - 2002 - Orlando, FL
• IEEE Meeting - Las Vegas, NV
• ITISE - Thessaloniki, Greece July 2003
• ICTCM - November 2003
• Microsoft Faculty Research Summit - August 2004
• HP Tablet PC Conference - September 2004
• ICTCM - 2004
• MAA/AMS - Atlanta February 2005
• Microsoft Faculty Research Summit - Seattle July 2005
• HP Leadership Forum February 2005, Monterry, CA
• Faculty Research Colloquium November 2005, Doha, Qatar
• Microsoft Faculty Research Summit - Seattle July 2006
• Frontiers in Education - San Diego Nov 2006 - Panelist
• TRETC - October 2006 Speaker, Pittsburgh, PA
• Sri Lanka Foundation Exceptional Achievement Award - Los Angeles, CA Nov 2006
• Featured Speaker HP Tablet PC Conference, Montery, California, Feb 2007
• Speaker WIPTE Conference, West Lafayette, Indiana, June 2007
• Speaker 2007: English Literacy for the Global University, Pittsburgh, PA June 2007
• Carnegie Mellon - Doha, Qatar - July 07
• Speaker: Microsoft Faculty Research Summit - July 07, Seattle, Washington
• Panelist: IT and Innovation - Executive CIO forum, Pittsburgh, PA September 2007
• Speaker: Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference, Cranberry, PA November 2007
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• Invited Speaker: Digital Colloquium Series, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2008
• Invited Speaker: Qatar ICT conference Doha, Qatar, April 5, 2008
• Speaker: VT-MENA University, sponsored by Microsoft Cairo, Egypt, April 12-15, 2008
• Speaker: IMCL Conference, Amman, Jordan, April 16-18, 2008
• Speaker: CMU-Qatar Tablet PC Workshop, sponsored by Microsoft Doha, Qatar, April 20-23, 2008
• Presenter: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Madrid, Spain, June 30-July 1, 2008

• Text Books I have Authored
• Interactive Linear Algebra with MapleV (English and Chinese Versions)
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• Linear Algebra - An Interactive Approach (with Matlab) - Published Date: January 2003


• Employment History
• Associate teaching Professor of Computer Science, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 1998 -
• Adjunct faculty in Computer Science, Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2000 -
• Associate Professor/Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, University of Houston, Downtown, Houston, TX 1989-1997
• Consultant Chief Scientist, TextCentric Technologies, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 2002 -
• Consultant Chief Scientist, Laksoft Technologies, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 2001-2002
• Management Trainee, State Bank of India, Colombo, Sri Lanka - 01/1982 - 08/1982
• Assistant Lecturer, Department of Mathematics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka - 04/1980 April - 01/1982

• Research Projects

Adaptive Book Project

Tablet Math Whiz

CLO Project

PRAGMA

Pen Based Computing

Advanced Programming techniques

Mathematical Foundations of CS

Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms

System Skills in C and Unix

Programming Applications in Computational Finance

Computer Algorithms

Computational Linear Algebra

• Affiliations:
• Board of Directors - TextCentric, Inc
• Advisory Board - SC-COSMIC
• Academic Advisory Committee - The University of Colombo School of Computing

 
• My previous courses:
• CS 410  Computer Graphics
• CS 300 Analysis of Algorithms
• CS 415   Applied Linear Algebra
• CS 415   Software Engineering



• Social Activities

I played a major role in establishing the first Theravada Buddhist Temple in Pittsburgh. We focus on meditations, dhamma discusssions, scholarly research on Buddhism etc. You can find more information at Pittsburgh Buddhist Center Website. Pittsburgh Buddhist Center was mentioned in an Associated Press article.
I am also the President of Sri Lankan American Association of Western Pennsylvania. Our members have been able to raise over $650,000 from foundations to rebuild Tsunami damaged schools in Sri Lanka. You can read some of the association activities at pgh-lk website.
Here is a nice documentary about Sri Lanka on You Tube

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  My Life at Ananda College and University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

• I played sports while I was at Ananda College Colombo and University of Colombo. I captained the Ananda College second fifteen rugby team and was a member of the first fifteen rugby team and first eleven hockey team. At University of Colombo, I captained the Field Hockey team that played in Division A club hockey. In addition to that I was awarded university of Colombo Colors in Rugger, Field Hockey, Athletics and Basketball. Click here to see some old pictures. Now I am a member of the Pittsburgh Steelstyx hockey club and regularly play tennis and basketball.

Life Lessons from Randy Pausch

• I was blessed to have known my colleague Randy Pausch. Everytime I am down on life, I listen to his "last lecture". when you think life is tough Click here to listen to Randy

My family:

• My wife Sriya Gunawardena is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a clinical Pediatric hematologist/Oncologist at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh. We have two daughters Naomi and Naoka, ages 15 and 10. Naomi attend Ellis School in Oakland
and Naoka attend Hosack Elementary in North Hills

Last updated September 22, 2007

Please send corrections to Ananda Gunawardena,  Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.