Doctor Liwan Liyanage

Doctor Liwan Liyanage

Senior Lecturer,
Data Science

Biography

Dr Liwan Liyanage joined Western Sydney University in 1989 as a Lecturer and has been a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics since 1995.

She is an experienced full time academic who commenced university level teaching and research in1976 completing 44+ years in academia. Prior appointments include University of Wollongong, Macquarie University, Australia; University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; University of California Berkeley, USA and King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

She has held numerous leadership roles throughout her career including elected member Board of Studies (2001-2003), Faculty Board (1995-2000) head of program for B.Sc. majors in, Biology, Chemistry, Computing, Mathematics and Physics (1995- 2001) and B. Maths & IT (1999- 2009) at Western Sydney University.  Founder and coordinator mathematics bridging program (1990-2006) in addition to academic supervisor and Campbelltown campus coordinator (2000-2006).

Through these key roles she has pioneered the teaching of data analytics at Western Sydney University, through the  introduction of 200036 Data Mining and Visualisation in 1999 ahead of most other Australian universities. She has driven a number of new, cutting edge courses and programs in the areas of medical science, information technology, mathematical science, chemistry and biology. She developed integrated courses in mathematics and finance, and a cutting edge course in mathematics and information technology integrating, through data mining, leading to what we identify as data analytics or data science today.

Liwan played a central role in developing an international partnership between  Western Sydney University and University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Established in 1999, and further extended and expanded in 2019 after 20 years of successful academic, research and cultural cooperation has provided numerous collaborative opportunities for academics and students  . Examples of success that have arisen from this interaction include collaborative research grants, Asian Development Board funded PhD scholarships, collaborative projects and publications.

Liwan’s research centres on optimising and applying data driven models to guide informed decision making in both academic and commercial settings. She is the founding author of Operational Statistics, published in Operations Research Letters (2005), which proposed a new way to use real time distributions for real time decision making pioneering a new research methodology. Liwan's current research interests span the areas of public health, environmental impact studies including climate change, electricity consumption modelling, behavioural finance and cell biology promoting collaborative impact research.

This information has been contributed by Doctor Liyanage.

Qualifications

  • PhD University of Wollongong
  • MSc University of Wollongong
  • BSc University of Colombo

Professional Memberships

  • American Statistical Society (2020)
  • Sri Lankan Association for Advancement of Science (2018)
  • Australian Mathematical Society (2020)

Awards

  • University of Wollongong Postgraduate Research Award 1979-02-01
  • Institute of Applied Statistical Association of Sri Lanka Supervisor Award for Gold Medal Awarded Best Research Project 2019-10-20

Interests

  • Applied AI for Social Good
  • Behavioral Finance
  • Cell Biology
  • Electricity Consumption Modelling
  • Environmental Impacts of Climate Change
  • Public Health

Organisational Unit (School / Division)

  • Data Science

Committees

  • Board of Studies - College of Law and Business
  • Faculty Board - Faculty of Business and Technology
  • Promotions Committee - Faculty of Business and Technology
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Committee
  • Head of Program Steering Committee
  • Cooperate Program Steering Committee
  • Courses Committee Faculty of Business and Technology
  • Quantitative Methods and Mathematical Sciences Executive Committee
  • Quantitative Methods and Mathematical Sciences Education Committee
  • Our People Securing Success
  • Teaching Square - Multidisciplinary Project Based Learning
  • Teaching Square - Transdisciplinary Learning
  • Global Citizens Curriculum Challenge Working Party
  • Sustainability Advocates Curriculum Challenge Working Party
  • Equity and Diversity Working Party

Contact

Email: L.Liyanage@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone: (02) 4620 3467
Mobile:
Location: 26.1.16
Campbelltown

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Teaching

Previous Teaching Areas

  • 200036 Data Mining and Visualisation, 2013
  • 300606 Foundations of Statistical Modelling and Decision Making, 2013
  • 300700 Statistical Decision Making, 2013
  • 301044 Data Science, 2015

Publications

Chapters in Books

  • Nanthakumaran, P. and Liyanage, L. (2024), 'Comparison of interpolation techniques for prolonged exposure estimation : a case study on seven years of daily nitrogen oxide in Greater Sydney', Data Science and Machine Learning: 21st Australasian Conference, AusDM 2023 Auckland, New Zealand, December 11-13, 2023 Proceedings, Springer 9789819986958.
  • Wijesekara, L., Nanthakumaran, P. and Liyanage, L. (2023), 'Space and time data exploration of air quality based on PM10 sensor data in Greater Sydney 2015-2021', Sensing Technology: Proceedings of ICST'15, Springer 9783031298707.

Journal Articles

  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2023), 'Mind the large gap : novel algorithm using seasonal decomposition and elastic net regression to impute large intervals of missing data in air quality data', Atmosphere, vol 14, no 2 .
  • Foong, D., Liyanage, L., Zhou, J., Zarrouk, A., Ho, V. and O'Connor, M. (2022), 'Single-cell RNA sequencing predicts motility networks in purified human gastric interstitial cells of Cajal', Neurogastroenterology and Motility, vol 34, no 7 .
  • Kankanige, D., Liyanage, L. and O'Connor, M. (2022), 'Application of transcriptomics for predicting protein interaction networks, drug targets and drug candidates', Frontiers in Medical Technology, vol 4 .
  • Shparberg, R., Umala Dewi, C., Gnanasambandapillai, V., Liyanage, L. and O'Connor, M. (2021), 'Single cell RNA-sequencing data generated from human pluripotent stem cell-derived lens epithelial cells', Data in Brief, vol 34 .
  • Umala Dewi, C., Mason, M., Cohen-Hyams, T., Killingsworth, M., Harman, D., Gnanasambandapillai, V., Liyanage, L. and O'Connor, M. (2021), 'A simplified method for producing human lens epithelial cells and light-focusing micro-lenses from pluripotent stem cells', Experimental Eye Research, vol 202 .
  • Deshani, K., Liyanage, L. and Attygalle, D. (2019), 'Artificial neural network for dynamic iterative forecasting : forecasting hourly electricity demand', American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, vol 7, no 1 , pp 9 - 17.
  • Basnayake, W., Attygalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Nandalal, K. (2019), 'Modified 1D multilevel DWT Segmented ANN Algorithm to reduce edge distortion', American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, vol 7, no 1 , pp 25 - 31.
  • O'Connor, M., Monks, J., Kabir, M., Ho, W. and Liyanage, L. (2019), 'Lens-PaTrNing : an interactive web resource for interrogating signal pathways and transcriptional networking during lens and cataract formation', Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, vol 60, no 9 .
  • Deshani, K., Attygalle, D. and Liyanage, L. (2016), 'Incorporating influential factors in diurnal temperature estimation with sparse data', GSTF Journal of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, vol 3, no 2 , pp 63 - 67.
  • Chamikara, M., Galappaththi, A., Yapa, R., Nawarathna, R., Kodituwakku, S., Gunatilake, J., Jayathilake, A. and Liyanage, L. (2016), 'Fuzzy based binary feature profiling for modus operandi analysis', Peer J Computer Science, vol 2 .
  • Deshani, K., Attygalle, M., Liyanage, L. and Karunaratne, A. (2014), 'An exploratory analysis on half-hourly electricity load patterns leading to higher performances in neural network predictions', International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Applications, vol 5, no 3 , pp 37 - 51.
  • Aouf, M. and Liyanage, L. (2012), 'Analysis of high dimensionality yeast gene expression data using data mining', Applied Mechanics and Materials, vol 197 , pp 515 - 522.
  • Fonseka, C. and Liyanage, L. (2009), 'Estimating privately held information using trading volume : predicting the future price movements to reduce investor risks', Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics, vol 10 , pp 237 - 250.
  • Liyanage, L. (2008), 'Operational statistics for improved decision making policies', Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics, vol 9 , pp 1 - 15.
  • Liyanage, L., Patching, C., Bensoussan, A. and Shah, S. (2007), 'Women's health during mid-life survey: the use of complementary and alternative medicine by symptomatic women transitioning through menopause in Sydney', Menopause, vol 14, no 3 , pp 397 - 403.
  • Liyanage, L. and Shanthikumar, J. (2005), 'A practical inventory control policy using operational statistics', Operations Research Letters, vol 33, no 4 , pp 341 - 348.

Conference Papers

  • Samarakoon, I. and Liyanage, L. (2023), 'Changing characteristics of migrants under skilled visa category to Australia : a case of Sri Lankan migrants', International Conference on Labour Migration and Sustainable Development in Asia, Mumbai, India.
  • Dadich, A., Hugman, S., Belkina, M., Yevenes, K., Jefferies, D., Hellany, A., Kumar, J., Liyanage, L., Zhang, Z. and Dong, K. (2022), 'Multidisciplinary project-based learning and teaching in universities : does it work?', Australasian Association for Engineering Education. Conference, Parramatta, N.S.W..
  • Andradige, H. and Liyanage, L. (2022), 'Understanding the spatial distribution of non-communicable diseases for better preparedness and community resilience', UK Alliance for Disaster Research, Edinburgh, U.K..
  • Nanthakumaran, P. and Liyanage, L. (2021), 'Tree-based models using random grid search optimization for disease classification based on environmental factors : a case study on asthma hospitalizations', International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Chengu, China.
  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2021), 'Air quality data pre-processing : a novel algorithm to impute missing values in univariate time series', International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, Virtual.
  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2021), 'Imputing large gaps of high-resolution environment temperature', International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), Kandy, Sri Lanka.
  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2020), 'Data exploration and pre-processing techniques on air pollution and meteorological data in Sydney region', International Conference on Environmental and Medical Statistics, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2020), 'Comparison of imputation methods for missing values in air pollution data : case study on Sydney air quality index', Future of Information and Communication Conference, San Francisco, Calif..
  • Wijesekara, L. and Liyanage, L. (2020), 'Modelling environmental impact on public health using machine learning : case study on asthma', IEEE Conference on Innovative Technologies in Intelligent Systems and Industrial Applications, Sydney, N.S.W..
  • Tilakaratne, C. and Liyanage, L. (2019), 'A review of strengths and weaknesses of spatio-temporal data analysis techniques', International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Engineering, Sydney, N.S.W..
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C. and Liyanage, L. (2018), 'An intelligent system for Forex trading : hybrid ANN with GARCH and intrinsic mode functions', Intelligent Systems Conference, London, U.K..
  • Rana, M., Rahman, A., Liyanage, L. and Uddin, M. (2018), 'Comparison and sensitivity analysis of methods for solar PV power prediction', Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Melbourne, Vic..
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C. and Liyanage, L. (2017), 'Dynamic environment based clustering and hybrid modeling for financial markets', SLAYS Open Forum, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C. and Liyanage, L. (2017), 'Expert system to forecast exchange rate behaviour towards news surprises : an application to EUR/USD exchange rates', International Conference on Computational Modeling and Simulation, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Prodan, A., Liyanage, L. and Ginige, J. (2017), 'Exploring cannulation process in chemotherapy through a computer simulation', International Conference on Computational Modeling and Simulation, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Basnayake, W., Attyalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Nandalal, K. (2017), 'Cluster based modular nonlinear autoregressive neural network to predict daily reservoir inflow', International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Basnayake, W., Attygalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Nandalal, K. (2017), 'Grid search based parameter tuning of dynamic neural network to forecast daily reservoir inflow', International Conference on Computational Modelling and Simulation, Sri Lanka.
  • Deshani, K., Attygalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Lakraj, G. (2017), 'Dynamic short term load forecasting using functional principal component regression', International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Engineering, Western Sydney University (Parramatta Campus).
  • Basnayake, W., Attygalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Nandalal, K. (2017), 'Wavelet based nonlinear autoregressive neural network to predict daily reservoir inflow', International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Engineering, Western Sydney University (Parramatta Campus).
  • Liyanage, L. and Pathirage, G. (2016), 'Data integration and big data mining framework to discover impacts of climate change on complex systems', International Conference on Operations Research and Statistics, Singapore.
  • Deshani, K., Attygalle, M. and Liyanage, L. (2016), 'Diurnal temperature modelling with sparse data and data integration', International Conference on Operations Research and Statistics, Singapore.
  • Pathberiya, H., Liyanage, L., Tilakaratne, C. and Lokupitiya, R. (2016), 'A comparison of clustering algorithms in categorizing economic events based on the behavior of exchange rates', International Conference on Operations Research and Statistics, Singapore.
  • Dilini, W., Attygalle, D., Liyanage, L. and Nandalal, K. (2016), 'Ensemble forecast for monthly reservoir inflow : a dynamic neural network approach', International Conference on Operations Research and Statistics, Singapore.
  • El Rifai, D., Maeder, A. and Liyanage, L. (2015), 'A content-based-image-retrieval approach for medical image repositories', Australasian Workshop on Health Informatics and Knowledge Management, Parramatta, N.S.W..
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C. and Liyanage, L. (2014), 'Modeling the EUR/USD return volatility on the days of simultaneous releases of economic indicators : unemployment rate and non-farm payroll', International Forum for Mathematical Modeling, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Dilini, W., Liyanage, L., Attygalle, M. and Nandalal, K. (2014), 'Effective water management in the Mahaweli reservoir system : analyzing the inflow of the upmost reservoir', International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure, Wollongong, N.S.W..
  • Deshani, K., Liyanage, L., Attygalle, M. and Karunaratne, A. (2014), 'A study of the dynamic behaviour of daily load curve for short term predictions', International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure, Wollongong, N.S.W..
  • Deshani, K., Liyanage, L., Attygalle, M. and Karunaratne, A. (2014), 'Improved neural network prediction performances of electricity demand : modifying inputs through clustering', International Conference of Data Base and Data Mining (DBDM-2014), Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C., Liyanage, L. and Lokupitiya, R. (2014), 'Modeling EUR/USD return volatility incorporating long run co-movements in exchange rates and US economic indicators', International Statistics Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Pathberiya, H., Tilakaratne, C., Liyanage, L. and Lokupitiya, R. (2013), 'Model free evaluation of intraday periodicities of exchange rate return volatility', Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science. Session , Sri Lanka.
  • Liyanage, L. and Liyanage, S. (2010), 'Data Integration and Data mining Framework to Discover Health Impacts of Climate Change', Annual International Conference on Data Analysis, Data Quality & Metadata Management (DAMD 2010, Singapore.
  • Griffith, S., Liyanage, L. and Hansen, S. (2008), 'Virtual Worlds: Membership Structures Of Internet Social Networks', Iadis International Conference Web Based Communities 2008, Amsterdam.
  • Aouf, M., Hansen, S. and Liyanage, L. (2008), 'Review of Data Mining Clustering Techniques to Analyze Data with High Dimensionality as Applied in Gene Expression DATA', International Conference on Service Support and Serive Managament 2008 (ICSSM'08), Melbourne.
  • Griffith, S. and Liyanage, L. (2008), 'An introduction to the potential of social networking sites in education', Emerging Technologies Conference: Supporting a Learning Community, University of Wollongong.
  • Aouf, M., Liyanage, L. and Hansen, S. (2008), 'Critical Review of Data Mining Techniques for Gene Expression Analysis', 2008 Fourth International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS'08), Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  • Fonseka, C. and Liyanage, L. (2008), 'A Data mining algorithm to analyse stock market data using lagged correlation', 2008 Fourth International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS?08), Sri-Lanka.
  • Liyanage, L. (2004), 'Operational Statistics and IT Solutions: Adding to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems'', International Srilankan Statistical Conference: Visions of Futuristic Methodologies, Kandy SriLanka.
  • Liyanage, L., Fonseka, C., Broomhall, S., Nicolopoulos, N. and Shanthikikumar, G. (2004), 'Optimising Service Quality of NSW Fire Brigades and Campbelltown Hospital Emergency Service Facility using Operational Statistics'', International Sri Lankan Statistical Conference: Visions of Futuristic Methodologies, Kandy SriLanka.
  • Liyanage, L., Shanthikumar, G. and Fonseka, C. (2004), 'Service Quality Improvements in Hospitals by Reducing Response Time: Operational Statistics and IT Solutions', 2004 Information Resources Management Association International Conference, New Orleans, USA.

Research themes focus on impact and on optimising and applying data driven models for informed decision making. These are international collaborative grants not listed under WSU portal:

- electricity consumption and distribution:

  • University of Colombo Collaborative Research Grant - AP/3/2011/CG/04 – Title of Research Project:Developing an Economical Strategy for the Future Electricity Generation Procedure in Sri Lanka (Project with a national significance with Ceylon Electricity Board) - (2012 - 2019)

Funds Received: Rs. 2,899,500.00

- behavioural finance:

  • University Grants Commission Research Grant - Forecasting the EUR/USD Exchange Rate Exploring Impact from News Based on Economic Indicators and Co-integration - (2015 - 2016)

Funds Received: Rs 785,500.00

National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka Research Grant - A Comparison of Clustering Algorithms in Categorising economic events based on the behaviour of Exchange Rates - (2016 - 2017)

Funds Received: Rs 200,000.00

National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka Research Grant: Dynamic Environment Based Clustering and Hybrid Forecasting (DEC-HyF) Model: An Application to Forex Market - (2016 -2017)

Funds Received: USD 3791

-  disaster rescilince: Novel Spatiotemporal Data Mining Ensemble Techniques for Developing a Dynamic System for Short Term Flood Forecasting in Ratnapura Area - (2019 - 2022)

Funds Received: Rs 3, 000,000.00

 

PhD Completions at University of Colombo: Co-Supervisor/International Collaborator 

  • Dr Hasanthi Pathberiya 2018

Supervised jointly by Dr. Chandima Tilakeratne (UoC) and Dr. Liwan Hansen Liyanage (WSU),

Title -: "Forecasting the EUR/USD Exchange Rate Exploring Impact from News Based on Economic Indicators and Co-integration".

  • Dr Deshani Kariyawasam 2019 (Won the Gold Medal for her Research Project Island wide)

Supervised jointly by Dr. Dilhari Attygalle (UoC) and Dr. Liwan Hansen Liyanage (WSU)

Title-: Data Driven Demand Response Modelling for Electricity Consumption in Sri Lanka

  • Dr K A D Dilini (PhD) 2019

Supervised jointly by Dr. Dilhari Attygalle, Prof. K.D.W. Nandalal (UoC) and Dr. Liwan Hansen Liyanage (WSU

Title-: Nonlinear Autoregressive Neural Networks for Short Term Forecasting

This information has been contributed by Doctor Liyanage.

Previous Projects

Title: Combining Disparate Data Sources to Demonstrate Disease/Pest Status [via Dept of Agriculture & Food WA]
Funder:
  • Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (non ACRG)
Western Researchers: Samsul Huda, Robert Spooner-Hart and Liwan Liyanage
Years: 2007-10-09 - 2008-04-30
ID: P0015624
Title: Biosecurity information sharing and data mining for building a biosecurity intelligence and decision making framework [via Uni Melb]
Funder:
  • Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis
Western Researchers: Liwan Liyanage and Samsul Huda
Years: 2008-07-01 - 2009-06-30
ID: P00016184
Title: OPENAIR (Operational Network of Air Quality Impact Resources) [via University of Technology Sydney]
Funder:
  • NSW Department of Planning and Environment
Western Researchers: Liwan Liyanage
Years: 2022-01-01 - 2023-06-30
ID: P00028358
Title: Novel Spatiotemporal Data Mining Ensemble Techniques for Developing a Dynamic System for Short-term Flood Forecasting in Ratnapura Area
Funder:
  • University of Colombo
Western Researchers: Liwan Liyanage
Years: 2019-03-01 - 2022-03-01
ID: P00025355

Supervision

Doctor Liyanage is available to be a principal supervisor for doctoral projects

Current Supervision

Thesis Title: Characterising the role of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in human stem cell-derived gut organoids
Field of Research:
Thesis Title: limatic Change and Health: A comprehensive study on identifying environmental risk factors causing Cataract
Field of Research:
Thesis Title: Spatio-temporal Data Analysis to Identify Environmental Risk Factors Associated with Diabetes Prevalence and Severity by Data Integration and Data Mining: Results to Be Explored Using Gene Expression Data
Field of Research:

Previous Supervision

Thesis Title: Predicting the Stock Market to Reduce the Investment Risk for the Small Investor
Field of Research: Mathematical Sciences
Thesis Title: Symmetry-Enhancing for a Thin Film Equation
Field of Research: Mathematical Sciences
Thesis Title: A Framework for an Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS), Including a Data Mining Methodology, for Fetal-Maternal Clinical Practice and Research.
Field of Research: Mathematical Sciences
Thesis Title: Complementary and Alternative Medicine use and the Menopausal Transition: The Effect of a Chinese Herbal Formula on Vasomotor Symptoms and Bone Turnover
Field of Research: Complementary Therapies, N.e.c.
Thesis Title: Analysis of High Dimensionality Yeast Gene Expression Data using Data Mining
Field of Research: Computer Science
Thesis Title: An Analysis of Propagation of Thermal Interface in Tumour Tissue Subject to Hyperthermal Necrosis
Field of Research: Engineering And Related Technologies

Media

Title: 20 Years of Collaborative Work between Western Sydney University
Description: Western Sydney and University of Colombo Collaboration
Title: Inauguration Ceremony of the Center for Data Science, Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science
Description: Conducted one day workshop and a panel member

Western Sydney University

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