CV
The PDF above is the authoritative, complete CV. The summary below mirrors its structure for quick reference.
June 2024 – Present
Postdoctoral Researcher
Complex Adaptive Systems Lab (CASL), Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, University of Central Florida
Designed and built the complete software architecture of CASL's high-performance computing research cluster ('Pasteur', 8× NVIDIA H200 GPUs); administer its scheduling and allocation policy and operations. Documentation: https://deamonpog.github.io/pasteur-docs/(opens in a new tab)
2022 – Present
Visiting Scholar
Complexity, Analytics, and Data Science (CADS) Lab, Poole College of Management, North Carolina State University
Aug 2021 – May 2024
Graduate Research Assistant / Ph.D. Candidate
CASL, IEMS Department, University of Central Florida
Aug 2018 – July 2021
Graduate Research Assistant / Ph.D. Student
CASL, IEMS Department, University of Central Florida
December 2016 – August 2018
Lecturer
Department of Communication and Media Technologies, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), University of Colombo
Appointed while holding a bachelor's degree as highest qualification, as one of a small number of people so appointed in the Department of Communication and Media Technologies.
June 2014 – December 2016
Assistant Lecturer
University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC)
February 2014 – June 2014
Instructor
University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC)
April 2012 – September 2012
Software Engineer
SimCentric Technologies
VBS2Fusion development team; C++, DirectX; game-object physics, shadow mapping, and a drag-and-drop system for DirectX UI.
2018 – 2024
Dissertation: Models of Information Diffusion and the Role of Influence(opens in a new tab)
Advisor: Dr. Ivan Garibay (UCF) · Co-Advisor: Dr. William Rand (North Carolina State University)
2009 – 2014
Thesis: Modelling of Group Behaviours within Crowd Simulations: An Agent Based Approach(opens in a new tab)
Advisor: Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne · Co-Advisor: Dr. Asoka Karunananda
2017
2026
Jayalath, C., Champon, X., Rand, W., Jasser, J., Garibay, O., Garibay, I.
Data & Policy (Cambridge University Press), 8, e4
Compares targeted, community-based intervention strategies against population-wide responses for shaping information diffusion outcomes on social media.
2026
Champon, X., Staicu, A., Weishampel, A., Jayalath, C., Rand, W.
Journal of the American Statistical Association
Develops categorical-valued functional data analysis methods for latent-process estimation and clustering of social media users' behavioral trajectories.
2026Accepted
Jayalath, C., Rand, W., Garibay, I.
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSS), Santa Fe, NM
Introduces a conformal-prediction approach to identifying plausible sets of behavioral rules in agent-based models, rather than a single point estimate.
2025
Garibay, I., Barham, C., Abdidizaji, S., Jayalath, C.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence Applications in Industrial and Systems Engineering (eds. G. Salvendy, V. G. Duffy, W. Karwowski), pp. 355–370, Wiley, 2025. ISBN 978-1-394-25706-5
A book chapter surveying future directions and applications of artificial intelligence in industrial and systems engineering contexts.
2024
Abdidizaji, S., Baekey, A., Jayalath, C., Mantzaris, A., Garibay, O., Garibay, I.
International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), pp. 124–138, Springer Nature Switzerland
Uses transfer entropy and multiplex network measures to analyze how credibility and popularity shape news-sharing dynamics on X (Twitter).
2024
Champon, X., Jayalath, C., Rand, W., Jasser, J., Garibay, I., Garibay, O.
57th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science (HICSS)
Applies functional data analysis methods to compare behavioral patterns across different social media communities.
2023
Jayalath, C., Gunaratne, C., Rand, W., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
Advances in Complex Systems, 26(02), 2350005 (World Scientific)
Proposes a unified model generalizing threshold-based and probability-based approaches to information diffusion.
2022
Garibay, O., Yousefi, N., Aslett, K., Baggio, J., Hemberg, E., Jayalath, C., Mantzaris, A., Miller, B., O'Reilly, U., Rand, W., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
2022 IEEE 8th International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC), pp. 38–44, IEEE
Characterizes influence pathways across traditional and social media using entropy-based measures.
2021
Garibay, I., Oghaz, T., Yousefi, N., Mutlu, E., Schiappa, M., Scheinert, S., Anagnastopoulos, G., Bouwens, C., Fiore, S., Mantzaris, A., Murphy, J., Rand, W., Salter, A., Stanfill, M., Sukthankar, G., Baral, N., Fair, G., Gunaratne, C., Hajiakhoond, N., Jasser, J., Jayalath, C., Newton, O., Saadat, S., Seneviratna, C., Winter, R., Zhang, X.
Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference of The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas, pp. 153–169, Springer International Publishing
Presents the Deep Agent framework for studying the dynamics of information spread and evolution in social networks.
2021
Baral, N., Gunaratne, C., Jayalath, C., Rand, W., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference of The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas, pp. 265–275, Springer International Publishing
Shows that negative gradients in influence lower the information-processing capacity of social networks.
2021
Senevirathna, C., Gunaratne, C., Rand, W., Jayalath, C., Garibay, I.
Entropy, 23(2), 160
Characterizes behavioral influence patterns in social media cascades using entropy-based measures.
2020
Gunaratne, C., Baral, N., Rand, W., Garibay, I., Jayalath, C., Senevirathna, C.
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 26, 255–276
Examines how information overload affects the dynamics of online conversations.
2019
Gunaratne, C., Baral, N., Rand, W., Garibay, I., Jayalath, C., Senevirathna, C.
arXiv preprint
Proposes a theory of extended working memory to explain patterns in online conversation dynamics.
2019
Senevirathna, C., Gunaratne, C., Jayalath, C., Baral, N., Garibay, I.
Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSSSA), Santa Fe, NM
Presents evidence of influence hierarchies among participants in GitHub's cryptocurrency community.
2019
Gunaratne, C., Senevirathna, C., Jayalath, C., Baral, N., Rand, W., Garibay, I.
5th International Conference on Computational Social Science
Introduces the Multi-Action Cascade Model (MACM), in which each action type exerts a distinct influence on the receiver — the founding publication behind the DARPA SocialSim simulation work.
2016
Jayalath, C., Wimalaratne, S. P. W., Karunananda, A. S.
International Journal of Simulation Modelling, 15(4), 585–596
Models goal selection for characters in primary groups within agent-based crowd simulations. The work came out of Chathura's undergraduate thesis (B.Sc., University of Colombo, 2014).
—In preparation
Jayalath, C., Rand, W., Garibay, I.
In preparation
Applies conformal prediction to certify plausible behavioral rule sets in agent-based models of residential segregation.
—In preparation
Jayalath, C., Champon, X., Rand, W., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
In preparation
Quantifies how network clustering coefficient affects outcomes of information diffusion models.
—In preparation
Jayalath, C., Champon, X., Dickey, D., Rand, W., Garibay, I.
In preparation
Investigates how the growth patterns of information cascades relate to the stability of an influencer's position over time.
brandpy
Python package
Sole developer
A Python package interfacing with the Brandwatch API, enabling automated data retrieval and preprocessing for social-media research.
View (opens in a new tab)catfda
R package
Co-developed
An R package for categorical-valued functional data analysis, implementing methods for latent-process estimation and clustering of densely observed categorical longitudinal data using GAM-based modeling and functional principal component analysis.
View (opens in a new tab)funviewR
R package
Sole developer
An open-source R package for analyzing and interactively visualizing function-call dependencies in R codebases, helping users understand project structure, identify dependencies, and document complex R projects.
View (opens in a new tab)Influence Network Generator (ING)
Python package
Sole developer
An open-source Python package for generating influence networks from online social-media data, supporting large-scale diffusion modeling. Adopted in DARPA-funded research on information propagation. ING generates the transfer-entropy influence networks that the Transfer Entropy Interactive Dashboard consumes.
View (opens in a new tab)SocialSim / MACM Framework
Simulation framework
Lead developer
A DARPA-funded multi-platform social-media simulation environment. Chathura was sole developer of the simulation framework covering Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, YouTube, and Telegram, and co-originated the Multi-Action Cascade Model (MACM) in a team of two, later extending it from 2021 onward.
Transfer Entropy Interactive Dashboard
Research system
Lead developer
An analytical system implementing transfer-entropy-based methods to identify inter- and intra-community influence pathways in information-diffusion environments. Chathura conceived the methodology and led algorithm design, system architecture, and visualization. Presented as the official final deliverable to the DARPA-MIPS program.
2024–present
M.S. in Data Analytics (MSDA), University of Central Florida
Taught as part of the course Computational Analysis of Social Complexity.
2024–present
University of Central Florida
The first course in the Machine Learning I / II / III sequence.
2024–present
University of Central Florida
2024–present
University of Central Florida
2024–present
University of Central Florida
2014–2018
University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Designed beginning in 2014, the year Chathura became an Assistant Lecturer, and first offered to a later batch of students; taught until 2018; Instructor of Record. The course was introduced in the 2015 undergraduate handbook into both the Computer Science curriculum (SCS 3113, optional in all three streams) and the Information Systems curriculum (IS 3012, optional in both streams), hence the dual code SCS3113/IS3012. It remained in the UCSC undergraduate curriculum through the 2023 intake (SCS 3213 by 2022), eight years after its introduction and five years after Chathura left the institution. The course description Chathura wrote first appears in print in the 2016 handbook (the 2015 handbook contains no course descriptions) and was still in use, substantially unchanged, in the 2023 handbook.
2024–present
University of Central Florida
Developed the curriculum for all three courses in the Machine Learning I / II / III sequence.
2016–2018
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
2014–2018
University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
2014–2018
University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
2014–2016
University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
2014–2016
University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
2022–present
North Carolina State University
Research methods, data analysis, and scientific writing.
2021–2024
Complex Adaptive Systems Lab, UCF
Two computer science, one industrial engineering, one operations research major, under the guidance of co-PI Dr. Ivan Garibay.
2021–2024
DARPA-MIPS project, with NCSU and UCF
With a PhD student in Statistics from NCSU; two business, two statistics, one computer science major, under the guidance of co-PI Dr. William Rand.
2026
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSS), Santa Fe, NM
2025
M.S. in Data Analytics (MSDA) program seminar, University of Central Florida
2024
M.S. in Data Analytics (MSDA) program seminar, University of Central Florida
2023
Opening seminar of the fall 2023 Functional Data Analysis research seminar series, Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, October 2023
2020
Jayalath, C., Gunaratne, C., Rand, W., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
Tenth International Conference on Complex Systems
Poster examining the final states reached by information diffusion processes on directed scale-free networks.
2019
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSS), Santa Fe, NM
2019
5th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2)
2019
Senevirathna, C., Gunaratne, C., Jayalath, C., Baral, N., Garibay, I.
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSS), Santa Fe, NM
Poster examining hidden patterns in influence hierarchies within GitHub's cryptocurrency community.
2019
Jayalath, C., Gunaratne, C., Senevirathna, C., Garibay, I.
5th International Conference on Computational Social Science, Amsterdam, NL
Poster establishing a path-dependent equivalence between the Independent Cascade Model and the Linear Threshold Model of diffusion.
2015
Keynote, Information Technology Day, Isipathana College, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2010
IFO++ public exhibition, University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
2019, 2023
Graduate Presentation Fellowship
University of Central Florida
2014
First Class with Honors
University of Colombo
Chathura was invited by each of these journals and has completed reviews for each.