Hi! My name is Rukmal Weerawarana. I have worn many hats during my career, from Data Scientist, to Business Management Lead, to Research Fellow. I love working on hard problems, and applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to business challenges across domains. I have worked in, helped grow, and led teams across the Finance, Computer Science, Hardware Engineering, and Business Development spaces. I’ve built skills in taking products and features from research & development through to production, and love building magical user experiences.
I am extremely passionate about AI research, the advent of consumer-grade BCIs, and the increasing level of interconnectedness on the planet; I can’t wait to see how it will change society in the decades to come.
Currently, I’m a Strategy and Technology Consultant at the Avinya Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is creating and delivering programs to empower a generation of students left behind by the system in Sri Lanka. I am working with the CTO to define the core technology platform enabling our mission of scaling to 320 schools across Sri Lanka. I also interface with the rest of the Leadership Team to guide the overall strategy of the foundation. In addition, I am an external Research Collaborator at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I conduct research on applied AI for bioinformatics with Prof. Oshani Seneviratne.
Before that, I was a Data Science Software Engineer at ExtraHop Networks. There, I designed and developed high-throughput data pipelines and applied machine learning algorithms to detect unusual network behavior at the petabyte scale. I left ExtraHop Networks 6 months after it was acquired by Bain Capital for almost $1 Billion.
In the past, I have worked on developing signal processing software for neuroprosthetics, designing improved heuristics for indexing markets, computing trust in biomedical publications by ranking citation graphs, and building a Hyperloop.
I have a BBA in Finance from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, and a MS in Financial Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. I was born in West Lafayette, IN, but I spent my late childhood and K-12 years in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since then, I have lived in Seattle and New York City.
I’m not all work though! During my free time, I enjoy playing sports, traveling, watching things, and taking pictures. I’m currently learning Chinese and getting my Private Pilot’s License.