Yasith Samaradivakara

Research Engineer

National University of Singapore

Hey! I am a Research Engineer at the Augmented Human Lab at NUS, where I build intelligent assistive wearables and digital interfaces that unlock and augment human capabilities. My research sits at the crossroads of Assistive Augmentations, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. When I’m not geeking out over tech, you’ll find me playing Cricket.

Vision

I envision a future where humans and AI co-create adaptive interfaces that evolve with users, fostering a dynamic, symbiotic relationship that augments human capabilities and enables seamless human-AI collaboration.

Research Interests:

Human-Computer Interaction Artificial Intelligence Assistive Augmentations

Current Work: Creating Smart Headphones Embodied with Multimodal AI Agents for Augmenting the Capabilities of People with Partiall Visual Impairments.

Education and Experience

Research Engineer (Previously Intern)

Augmented Human Lab, NUS

Nov 2022 - Present

Internship

Huawei, Thailand

Sep 2022

Teaching Assistant

University of Colombo School of Computing

Jun 2023 - Dec 2023

Undergraduate, B.Sc (Hons) in Computer Science

University of Colombo School of Computing

GPA : 3.97/4.0

Remote Research Collaborator

Cardiff University

July 2023

Software Engineer (Part-time)

PeachIT

Oct 2020 - Sep 2021

Software Engineer

StredgeTech Solutions

May 2018 - Aug 2020

Projects

Enhancing Educational Experience of DHH Students (Yasith Samaradivakara Project)

SeEar

A low-cost AR device with localized real-time captions tailored to enhance the educational experience of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Students.

Contribution - Lead, Ideation, Research, Design and Development

AiSee

AI Powered Companion for People with Visual Impairments (PVI) to independently access visual information.

Contribution - Research, Design and Development of Software

Hatthini

Conversational Companion for Emotional Regulation

Contribution - Research, Design and Development

Kavy

Conversational AI agent to foster language speaking skills and self-confidence.

Contribution - Research, Design and Development

GutFeel Hatthini

Wearable technology for sensing and influencing gut feelings through real-time monitoring and feedback.

Contribution - Research, Design and Development

SpeechAssist

Mobile app designed to support advanced stammering treatments such as Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) and Frequency Altered Feedback (FAF).

Contribution - Lead, Ideation, Research, Design and Development

ICOAE

The project, ICOAE (In Case of an Emergency), involves developing a Wristband and a Mobile app for health monitoring and emergency handling specifically designed for elderly individuals.

Contribution - Lead, Ideation, Research, Design and Development

Affective Sign Language Translator

A sign language-to-voice translator that incorporates emotional context and affective states.

Contribution - Ideation, Research, Design and Development

Teacher Transfer

First official Sri Lankan mobile e-government initiative to automate college teacher transfer process.

Contribution - Lead, Design and Development

Hith

A telemedicine platform enhancing therapist-patient interactions for more effective remote consultations.

Contribution - Design and Development

IBiZ

Comprehensive ERP system integrating finance, HR, SCM, and CRM for seamless end-to-end business management.

Contribution - Design and Development

Bright REDD

A cyber threat and risk assessment tool designed to enhance security for companies in Brisbane, Australia.

Contribution - Design and Development

NOI Sri Lanka

Official website of National Olympiad in Informatics, Sri Lanka

Contribution - Lead, Design and Development

Tangible Metric Interface

Colloborated with Cardiff UK HCC Lab, we built a physical tool that visually and interactively represents food, electricity, and waste consumption data.

Contribution - Ideation, Research, Design and Development

Publications

SeEar: Tailoring Real-time AR Caption Interfaces for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Students in Specialized Educational Settings

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2024
Yasith Samaradivakara, Thavindu Ushan, Asela Pathirage, Prasanth Sasikumar, Kasun Karunanayaka, Chamath Keppitiyagama, Suranga Nanayakkara

View PDF Video

EMO-KNOW: A Large Scale Dataset on Emotion-Cause

Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP, 2023
Mia Nguyen, Yasith Samaradivakara, Prasanth Sasikumar, Chitralekha Gupta, Suranga Nanayakkara

View PDF

Kavy: Fostering Language Speaking Skills and Self-Confidence Through Conversational AI

Proceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference, 2024
Sankha Cooray, Chathuranga Hettiarachchi, Vishaka Nanayakkara, Denys Matthies, Yasith Samaradivakara, Suranga Nanayakkara

View PDF

Catch that Butterfly: Detecting and Simulating Gut Feelings with Gut-Brain Interface

Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 2024
Mia Huong Nguyen, Kian Peen Yeo, Yasith Samaradivakara, Suranga Nanayakkara

View PDF

ARTeacher: Tailored Real-time AR Captioning Interface for Enhancing Learning Experience of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Students

International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, 2024
Yasith Samaradivakara, Thavindu Ushan, Asela Pathirage, Prasanth Sasikumar, Kasun Karunanayaka, Chamath Keppitiyagama, Suranga Nanayakkara

In Review

News and Achievements

Prototypes for Humanity 2024: Selected from over 3,000 applicants to present the project AiSee at PFH 2024 in Dubai, from November 16–22.
Meta’s Llama Impact Innovation Award: Project AiSee got selected for use of Meta’s open source AI model, Llama, to address critical challenges in our community.
First Undergraduate CHI Paper from Sri Lanka: First Sri Lankan undergraduate to publish a paper as the first author at CHI.
NUS Summer Research Internship: Chosen from over 900 applicants for a competitive research internship.
Highest GPA, Director's List and Best Performing Student: Awarded for outstanding academic and extracurricular performance.
Huawei Seeds for the Future, 2022: Selected as a team leader from Sri Lankan undergraduates for a prestigious program.
Best University Project of the Year (2022): Silver award for the best university project at the National ICT Awards, representing all universities in Sri Lanka.
TADHack 2021 Winners: Won the Telco Open Hackathon and secured the Global 2nd Prize against industry and university teams.
Selected to National U19 Cricket Squad: Cricket is the 2nd most famous sport in the world and most competitive sport in Sri Lanka. I was fortunate to be selected to the national U19 team.
Most Outstanding Student of the School (2018): Recognized for exceptional performance in cricket and academic achievements at Advanced Level.

Sam.

Education and Experience

Projects

Publications

SeEar: Tailoring Real-time AR Caption Interfaces for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Students in Specialized Educational Settings

EMO-KNOW: A Large Scale Dataset on Emotion-Cause

Kavy: Fostering Language Speaking Skills and Self-Confidence Through Conversational AI

Catch that Butterfly: Detecting and Simulating Gut Feelings with Gut-Brain Interface

ARTeacher: Tailored Real-time AR Captioning Interface for Enhancing Learning Experience of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Students

News and Achievements

Community Work

Contact