2023-10-06: Kumushini Thennakoon (Computer Science PhD Student)

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Hi WS-DL blog readers! I’m Kumushini Thennakoon, an international student from Sri Lanka. I joined the Web Science and Digital Libraries (WS-DL) research group at Old Dominion University (ODU) as a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Michael Nelson. Fall 2023 is my first semester and I’m very excited to work with the WS-DL research group. I’m happily willing to face challenges that might come across in the very first semester. I’m also working as a Teaching Assistant (TA) this semester for the class CS463/563 Cryptography for Cyber Security which is an interesting subject to work with.

During the first semester as a graduate student, I’m taking:



The web security course will start from an introduction to Document Object Model, Javascript, HTTP, security fundamentals and will cover many interesting topics concluding with rehosting and web archiving. During the web programming course, I have to build a website which is a search engine for digital libraries including a chatbot with the help of HTML, CSS, and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). This is a step-by-step project consisting of a few milestones. I will work on a data project which includes data exploring, preparing, modeling, and testing in the Data Science and Analytics course.


I earned my bachelor's degree  in Statistics and Operations Research with a first class and an award for academic excellence from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2021. My undergraduate degree program always stimulated me to explore new knowledge in the three main subjects: Statistics, Computer Science, and Operations Research. Computer Science itself plays a major role in solving mathematical problems, and it inspired me to pursue a doctoral degree in Computer Science.


As a part of my undergraduate degree I completed a six months training program as a Business Analyst intern at Hsenid Mobile Solutions, an IT company in Sri Lanka. During my internship, I handled the front end in the business process by documenting the requirements of  the customers from the Philippines and Myanmar. I got hands-on experience in client handling and bridging the gap between client requirements and developer team. I learned about business processes, software development life cycle, Agile framework, and also improved my soft skills too. 


After successfully completing my undergraduate degree, I joined the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science in University of Peradeniya as a Temporary Demonstrator in July 2021 and got promoted to Temporary Lecturer (TL) in the second year. I enjoyed my second year as a TL more while teaching two classes for undergraduate students. I resigned from the Department in July 2023 to move to the US and pursue my graduate studies and life goals. 


Apart from the academic schedule I enjoy my time playing badminton, practicing karate, doing exercises, hiking etc.


Coming to the USA for graduate studies is a major milestone in my life. ODU and specifically  WS-DL is a great place to meet great people. I know this won’t be an easy journey for me but I will make sure to enjoy it and make it a memorable one.


-Kumushini Thennakoon

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