Madhawa Perera

About me

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Hi, I’m Madhawa (/'mæ.də.wə/). I’m a research engineer at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). I work in applied research, where I use computer vision techniques in spatial computing applications like Augmented Reality. My work spans both optical see-through AR, (with devices like Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap), and video see-through AR, (in mobile devices and XR headsets like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest).

I also explore how humans behave and interact within these spatial computing environments. With the growing integration of computer vision and natural language processing (like vision-language models), I’m curious about how humans and AI models can collaborate more naturally in the physical world, just like how we interact with each other. I strongly believe that wearable spatial computing, combined with AI (especially CV and VLMs), is already paving the way for more natural human-AI interactions. Recently, I’ve been working on using spatial computing and CV to enhance human-robot interaction (Yes, I work with ROS2 too—I love learning!). Imagine you could simply gesture and tell a robot, "Hey Muffin, can you bring me that?" while both your hands are busy conducting an experiment in the lab. The idea is to assist with humans tasks like a copilot (or a buddy) in various application scenarios

What else I do? Well, I like to bake (check here @myfoodepisodes), play Ukulele, blog (medium), volunteer, or I enjoy a long distance run.

My interests

AR/VR/XR

Applied AI - Computer Vision

Human-Computer Interaction

My Experiences

2023 Jul - Present

Research Engineer

CSIRO

Research areas - Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR), Gesture Interactions, Human Computer Interaction, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics

2019 Jul - 2023 Nov

Sessional Academic

Australian National University

Deliver lectures and/or tutorials/labs. Conduct classes to an appropriate standard of teaching and professionalism.
Courses taught: Human-Computer Interaction and Design (COMP3900/6390), Data Mining (COMP3425/8410), Programming for Scientists (COMP1730/6730) and (COMP7230), Software Engineering (COMP2120/6120), Web Development and Design (COMP1710/6780), Game Development (COMP3540/6540)

2018 Jan - 2018 Dec

Senior Software Engineer

WSO2

As a senior software engineer I was involved in software engineering consultations, product feature designs and training junior engineers. Consultations include on-site and off-site customer engagements , e.g. Arizona of Department of Administration (ADOA) - State of Arizona, USA, and Transport for London (TfL) - UK.

2016 Jan - 2017 Dec

Software Engineer

WSO2

I was a member of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) research engineering team and lately joined client engagement (services) team. As a software engineer I worked on developing and integrating features to WSO2 product suite and providing customer support as a part of the role in services team. Some features that I developed include Android for Work and Apple Device Enrolment Program (DEP) with WSO2 EMM. As a services team member, I served in off-site customer engagements in Japan and USA clients.