Dr. Rasika Ranaweera
Senior Lecturer
Contact
- ranaweera.r@nsbm.ac.lk
- +94 11 544 5000 (ext 1225)
- Department of Software Engineering
- Faculty of Computing
- Google Scholar
- ResearchGate
- Academia
Profile
Dr. Rasika Ranaweera received his bachelor’s degree (B.Sc in Information Technology) from University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Sri Lanka in 2006. Upon completion of his first degree, he joined Redgecrest Financial Inc. Colombo, Sri Lanka as a Software Engineer for two years, before moving to Japan in 2008.
While enrolled in both masters and doctoral programs at the University of Aizu, Japan, he worked at NST Laboratory, Japan, as a Research Assistant and a Part-time Programmer. He later joined Aizu Laboratory Inc. (former NST Laboratory) as a full-time Engineer. During his tenure as a Programmer/Engineer he has involved in various R&D projects that ranges from image processing, 3D printing, web security, and syntax analysis. Dr. Ranaweera has over twenty publications in various competitive journals such as MIT Presence and reputed international conferences such as CYBERWORLDS, CASA, and AES and many others.
Dr. Ranaweera’s research interests include narrowcasting, multipresence, multimodal interfaces, gestural interfaces, immersive virtual environments, and abstract syntax trees. He has received SAISUA Scholarship (Support Association for International Students of the University of Aizu) in 2008, Rotary Scholarship in 2009, JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) in 2010, 2011, & 2012, and he was also selected as a Research Assistant to have preferential treatment by the University of Aizu in 2012. During leisure time he enjoys cycling, movies, and music.
After joining NSBM Green University as a senior lecturer, he engaged in various teaching, administrative work, as well as research where he contributed the international conferences and journals in capacity of chair, editor, and reviewer.
Research Interests
- Narrowcasting and Multipresence
- Virtual Reality
- Computer Vision
- Static and Dynamic Analysis
Memberships
- CSSL: Professional Member (M2168)
- IEEE: 99353548
Journal Publications
- Rasika Ranaweera and Michael Cohen. (2016). Gestural Interface for Conducting Virtual Concerts. IEEJ Transactions on Electronics, Information and Systems 136(11):1567–1573.
10.1541/ieejeiss.136.1567 - Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, Michael Frishkopf; Narrowcasting and Multipresence for Music Auditioning and Conferencing in Social Cyberworlds. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 2015; 24 (3): 220–242. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/PRES_a_00232
- Shemeen Fernando and Rasika Ranaweera. Enhanced Stock Price Forcasting: Integrating Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Sentiment Analysis of Stock News Headlines. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (JMR) 2023; 3(1): 163–183. ISSN 2815-0023
- Michael Frishkopf , Michael Cohen and Rasika Ranaweera, Curating Ethnomusicology in Cyberworlds for Ethnomusicological Research: World Music in Wonderland, Ethnologies, 2015 37:1 https://doi.org/10.7202/1039658ar
- Prabath Weerasinge, Ashu Marasinghe, Rasika Ranaweera, Senaka Amarakeerthi, Michael Cohen, Emotion Expression for Affective Social Communication, International Journal of Affective Engineering 13(4):148-153
DOI:10.1109/ICBAKE.2013.31 - Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Hayato Ito, Shun Endo, Sascha Holesch, and Juli´an Villegas. “Twin Spin”: steering karaoke (or anything else) with smartphone wands deployable as spinnable affordances. SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Review, 16(4):4 – 5
10.1145/2436196.2436199 - Raymond Wu, Masayuki Hisada, and Rasika Ranaweera, Static and Dynamic Analysis for Web Security in Generic Format. Global Security, Safety, and Sustainability. ICGS3 2009. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 45. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04062-7_25
Conference (Full Paper) Publications
- Dakshini Ganepola and Rasika Ranaweera. Exploring the impact of perceived digital infrastructure on the work satisfaction of digital nomads in Sri Lanka. (2026) Applied Research in Business and Education, pp. 29 – 38 DOI: . 10.4324/9781003739920-4
- Bhagya Deepachandi and Rasika Ranaweera (Eds.). (2026). Transformative Applied Research: Breakthrough Research in a Changing World (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003774105
- Shemeen Fernando and Rasika Ranaweera. Multimodal Stock Price Prediction—Integrating Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Sentiment Analysis of News Headlines. Transformative Applied Research in Computing, Engineering, Science and Technology. CRC Press, 2025. 328-334.
- Shemeen Fernando and Rasika Ranaweera. Enhanced Stock Price Forcasting: Integrating Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Sentiment Analysis of Stock News Headlines. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (JMR) 2023; 3(1): 163–183. ISSN 2815-0023
- Thalalle Gamage Shavindu Avishka and Rasika Ranaweera, An Over-The-Top Video Streaming Platform Enhanced with Artificial Intelligence, In 5th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 445-455, Colombo, November 2022, issn: 2651-0111
- Lihini Nisansala and Rasika Ranaweera, Criminal Vehicle Identification using Computer Vision and Deep Learning, In 5th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 455-462, Colombo, November 2022, issn: 2651-0111
- Pasan A. Silva and Rasika Ranaweera, AI-Based Vocal Judging Application, In 5th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 619-628, Colombo, November 2022, issn: 2651-0111
- K Rukmaldeniya and Rasika Ranaweera, Traffic COP: Smart Spot Fine Management System for Sri Lanka Police, In 4th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 178-184, Colombo, November 2021, issn: 2651-0111
- M Kasun and Rasika Ranaweera, Living with COVID: Smart Blood Finder System, In 4th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 91-98, Colombo, November 2021, issn: 2651-0111
- S A Samarasinghe and Rasika Ranaweera, A Web-Based Early Risk Prediction Tool for Cardiovascular Disease, In 4th International Conference on Business Innovations, page 288, Colombo, November 2021, issn: 2651-0111
- Shamal Manawadu and Rasika Ranaweera, Lottery Numbers Identification System, In 2nd International Conference on Business Innovations, page 263-263, Colombo, November 2019, issn: 2651-0111
- Bopitiya Gamage Akila Udara and Rasika Ranaweera, An Innovative Video Game for Learning History, In 2nd International Conference on Business Innovations, page 264-264, Colombo, November 2019, issn: 2651-0111
- Tharindu Amarasingha and Rasika Ranaweera, PseudoJ: A Pseudo-code interpreter for transforming Pseudo-code into JAVA, In 1st International Conference on Business Innovations, page 7-12, Colombo, August 2018, issn: 2651-0111
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Bektur Ryskeldiev, Tomohiro Oyama, and Aya Hashimoto. “Twhirleds”: Spun and whirled affordances controlling multimodal mobile-ambient environments with reality distortion and synchronized lighting to preserve intuitive alignment. Sci Phone Appl Mob Devices 3, 5 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41070-017-0017-x
- Ryuichi Oka and Rasika Ranaweera, Region-wise 3D Image Reconstruction from Video Based on Accumulated Motion Parallax, MIRU2017, PS1-5, August 2017.
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Kensuke Nishimura, Yuya Sasamoto, Shun Endo, Tomohiro Oyama, Tetsunobu Ohashi, Yukihiro Nishikawa, Ryo Kanno, Anzu Nakada, Julián Villegas, Yong Ping Chen, Sascha Holesch, Jun Yamadera, Hayato Ito, Yasuhiko Saito, and Akira Sasaki. 2013. “Tworlds”: twirled worlds for multimodal ‘padiddle’ spinning & tethered ‘poi’ whirling. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2013 Posters (SIGGRAPH ’13). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 67, 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/2503385.2503459
- Anzu Nakada, Michael Cohen, and Rasika Ranaweera. Integrating the Collaborative Virtual Environment protocol with Mathematica. 2013 International Joint Conference on Awareness Science and Technology and Ubi-Media Computing: Can We Realize Awareness via Ubi-Media?, iCAST 2013 and UMEDIA 2013. pp. 778 – 783 DOI: 10.1109/ICAwST.2013.6765542
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Hayato Ito, Shun Endo, Sascha Holesch, and Juli´an Villegas. Whirled worlds: Pointing and spinning smartphones and tablets to control multimodal augmented reality displays.International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, February 2012.
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Bektur Ryskeldiev, Tomohiro Oyama, Aya Hashimoto, Naoki Tsukida, and Miyaji Toshimune. Multimodal mobile-ambient transmedial twirling with environmental lighting to complement fluid perspective with phase-perturbed an affordance projection. In SIGGRAPH Asia Symp. on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications, Shenzhen, China, December 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2669062.2669080.
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Kensuke Nishimura, Yuya Sasamoto, Tomohiro Oyama, Tetsunobu Ohashi, Anzu Nakada, Julián Villegas, Yong Ping Chen, Sascha Holesch, Jun Yamadera, Hayato Ito, Yasuhiko Saito, and Akira Sasaki. Twirled affordances, self-conscious avatars, & inspection gestures. In SIGGRAPH Asia Symp. on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications, 2013 DOI: 10.1145/2543651.2543691
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Bektur Ryskeldiev, Tomohiro Oyama, Aya Hashimoto, Naoki Tsukida, and Toshimune Miyaji. Mixed virtuality transducer: Virtual camera relative location displayed as ambient light. In SIGGRAPH Asia Symp. on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications, Shenzhen, China, December 2014. DOI: 10.1145/2669062.2684185
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, and Michael Frishkopf. Narrowcasting Enabled Immersive Music Browser for Folkways World Music Collection. In 26th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents. May 2013, Istanbul, Turkey. http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~casa2013
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, Kensuke Nishimura, Yuya Sasamoto, Yukihiro Nishikawa, Tetunobu Ohashi, Ryo Kanno, Anzu Nakada, & Julian Villegas. Whirled Sequencing of Spatial Music. AES: Audio Engineering Society Conv. (Japan Section Conf.), Sendai, Oct. 2012.
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, and Shun Endo. iBaton: Conducting virtual concerts using smartphones. In V. Klyuev, and A. Vazhenin, editors, Proc. HCCE: Int. Conf. on Human-Centered Computer Environments, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Mar. 2012. isbn 978-1-4503-1191-5.10.1145/2160749.2160786
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Kensuke Nishimura, Yuya Sasamoto, Tomohiro Oyama, Yukihiro Nishikawa, Tetunobu Ohashi, Ryo Kanno, Anzu Nakada, Jun Yamadera, Sascha Holesch, Yong Ping Chen, Akira Sasaki, and Hayato Ito. “”Whirled Worlds”: twirling interface for “mobile ambient,” “practically panoramic” whole-body entertainment”. In: DCE: Digital Contents Expo. Digital Content Association of Japan. Tokyo, Oct. 2012.
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, and Shun Endo. Smartphone as Conductor’s Baton for Virtual Concerts. In Proc. ACMP: Int. Conf. on Asia Computer Music Project, Tokyo, Dec. 16-18, 2011.
- Michael Cohen, Rasika Ranaweera, Hayato Ito, Shun Endo, Sascha Holesch and Julian Villegas. Whirling interfaces: Smartphones & tablets as spinnable affordances. ICAT: Int. Conf. on Artificial Reality and Telexistence, page 155, Osaka, November 2011. www.ic-at.org/2011, issn 1345-1278
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Frishkopf and Michael Cohen. Folkways in Wonderland: a cyberworld laboratory for ethnomusicology. In 2011 International Conference on CYBERWORLDS. Oct. 2011, Canada. http://cw2011.cpsc.ucalgary.ca. 10.1109/CW.2011.33
- Prabath Weerasinghe, Rasika Ranaweera, Senaka Amarakeerthi and Michael Cohen. “Emo Sim”: Expressing Voice-Based Emotions in Mobile Interfaces. In 13th International Conference on Humans and Computers. Dec. 2010, Aizu Wakamatsu. https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.5555/1994486
- Senaka Amarakeerthi, Rasika Ranaweera, and Michael Cohen. Speech-based Emotion Characterization using Postures and Gestures in CVEs. In 2010 International Conference on CYBERWORLDS. Oct. 2010, Sigapore. http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/SCE/cw2010/cw2010.htm. 10.1109/CW.2010.75
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, Michael Frishkopf and Nick Nagel, Music Browser in Wonderland. In Boston Summit, Apr. 2010, Boston. http://mediagrid.org/summit
- Rasika Ranaweera, Nick Nagel, and Michael Cohen. Wonderland–CVE bridge. In HC-2009: 12th Int. Conf. on Humans and Computers, Dec. 2009, Hamamatsu. http://ktm11.eng.shizuoka.ac.jp/HC2009
- Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, Nick Nagel, and Michael Frishkopf. (virtual [world) music]: Virtual world, world music Folkways in Wonderland. In Int. Workshop on the Principles and Applications of Spatial Hearing, Nov. 2009, Zao. www.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/IWPASH/Home.html. DOI:10.1142/9789814299312_0045
- Senaka Amarakeerthi, Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, and Nicholas Nagel. Mapping Selected Emotions to Avatar Gestures. In IWAC: 1st Int. Workshop on Aware Computing, Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics. Sep. 2009, Aizu-Wakamatsu. www.u-aizu.ac.jp/misc/fan09/iwac09.html
- Rasika Ranaweera and Michael Cohen. Path generator for script interpreter for multimodal displays including sound spatialization and dynamic maps. In: Proc. IPSJ Tohoku Branch Wkshp. Ed. by Hiroshi Saito. Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, Feb. 2008.
- Rasika Ranaweera, Ishara Jayasingha, Senaka Amarakeerthi, Chamila Karunatilake, and Michael Cohen. Event Script Interpreter for Synchronized “Roller-Cam” Graphical Display and Rotary Motion Platform. In HC 2008: 11th Int. Conf. on Humans and Computers, Nov. 2008, Nagaoka. https://www.academia.edu/58138672/Event_Script_Interpreter_for_Synchronized_Roller_Cam_Graphical_Display_and_Rotary_Motion_Platform
- Raymond Wu, Masayuki Hisada, and Rasika Ranaweera, Static Analysis for Web Security in Abstract Syntax Format. In Int. Conf. on Internet Computing, Jul. 2009, Las Vegas.
Books and Book Chapters
- Dakshini Ganepola and Rasika Ranaweera. Exploring the impact of perceived digital infrastructure on the work satisfaction of digital nomads in Sri Lanka. (2026) Applied Research in Business and Education, pp. 29 – 38
DOI: 10.4324/9781003739920-4 - Bhagya Deepachandi and Rasika Ranaweera (Eds.). (2026). Transformative Applied Research: Breakthrough Research in a Changing World (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003774105
Ongoing Research Projects
- AI-Assisted colposcopic image interpretation for early detection of cervical precancerous lesions
Research and Project Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
His research and other project contributions are aligned with the following SDG(s):