Browsing by Author "Munasinghe, L."

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Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Faculty Information System
(University of Kelaniya, 2006) Kumara, K.H.; Munasinghe, L.; Jayasuriya, K.D.; Dias, N.G.J.; de Silva, C.H.; Kalingamudali, S.R.D.
Although Information Systems (IS) are valuable elements for organizations, the private and public sectors in Sri Lanka are reluctant to use IS for decision making, organizing and classifying data, processing transactions, and for many other activities. This is caused by the lack of computer literacy and conventional attitudes of the majority of the Sri Lankan community. Even in the higher education institutions in Sri Lanka, majority of both staff and students who are well aware of information technology, rely on conventional ways of handling information. One major reason for the above issue is lack of availability of application software well suited for their needs. On one hand, such types of software are rarely used by institutes because of their high cost; on the other hand, they are highly organization dependent. Hence steps have been taken to build a Faculty Information System (FIS) for the Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya. The FIS was developed in a network environment, with the active participation of all those involved by means of continuous dialogues with the aim of both promoting and demonstrating its benefits and by catering to the different needs arising from the faculty community. The FIS consists of three major subsystems, namely FIS Web Based Subsystem (FISW), FIS Intranet Sub System (FISI) and FIS Examination Sub System (FISE). FISW provides www access to FIS users at any time from anywhere. FISI enables the capability of access to FIS via the Faculty office local area network with security restrictions. FISE processes the examination data in a highly secured environment which is separated from both FISW and FISI. FISI and FISW eventually connect with FISE under security restrictions as required. It is clear that development of this type of tool has social, cultural and technological dimensions. What we planned is one thing, what happened in reality and how the stake holders respond to the tool is another. An evidence of the neediness of this type of tool to the faculty is the number of accesses, 41784, in two years. The above figure is not a complete measure of acceptance of FIS. To detect its defects and limitations, in addition it is necessary to take into account the number of pages requested by each registered user in the FIS. These statistics can be used to enhance the features of FIS.
Factors Influencing Mobile App User Experience: An Analysis of Education App User Reviews
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2024) Arambepola, N.; Munasinghe, L.; Warnajith, N.
In the competitive digital world, user reviews considered as the most vital source of user feedback, provide valuable insights that reflect the success of software applications in terms of user experience (UX). As user-generated content grows exponentially, extracting meaningful information from user reviews has become an immensely challenging task. Though existing approaches can identify UX factors from mobile app reviews with a certain accuracy, prioritizing these factors poses a significant challenge. This research proposes a method to identify influential UX factors for mobile app reviews. Specifically, we did an in-depth analysis on educational app reviews of the Google Play Store. Notably, it was revealed that, although short reviews are pivotal for sentiment analysis, short reviews (word count < 3) do not significantly contribute to the generation of well-defined and meaningful topics in topic modeling. The quality of the generated topics for UX factor identification was quantitatively evaluated using coherence scores. Scores of 0.56 and 0.49 were obtained for positive and negative topics, respectively, indicating the effectiveness of the topic generation process. In addition, word embedding was utilized to prioritize the topics generated from topic modeling. There, the thumbs-up count of the reviews playsa significant role in identifying the most influencing UX factorsof educational mobile apps. The proposed method serves as a guide for researchers and practitioners to extract and prioritize UX factors from mobile app reviews in various domains.
Harnessing Information Technology for national development: A policy framework for Sri Lanka
(Journal of Science of the University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2003) Munasinghe, L.; Jayawardena, D.P.W.
Unprecedented advancements in Information Technology have made mankind very much dependant on it for a wide array of activities. IT also has paved a path for developing countries like Sri Lanka to overcome the severe challenges imposed by the globalisation of economic and financial activities. Therefore, the time is opportune for Sri Lanka to embrace IT and harness its capabilities for national development. Sri Lanka possesses the necessary prerequisites like a literate population and a liberalised economy, which would make this a relatively easy task. This paper discusses the measures needed to strengthen the key enabling factors for proliferation of IT including IT manpower and IT literacy, information infrastructure and legislation, measures needed to promote application of IT for activities falling under the major potential areas including education, access to information, governance, public services, business & commerce, industry, agriculture and home & leisure activities. The paper also presents measures to reap the maximum benefits of the two sectors related to IT having the greatest potential for success i.e., software industry and IT education & training. The paper argues the importance of incorporating the measures discussed under the above categories if Sri Lanka is to successfully harness the opportunities made available by IT for its development.
Human in the loop design for intelligent interactive systems: A systematic review
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2021) Arambepola, N.; Munasinghe, L.
It is undeniable that modern computers are incredibly fast and accurate. However, computers cannot ‘think’ (act intelligently) as humans unless it is trained to learn from the past knowledge. Despite their intelligence, humans are comparatively slow in computational tasks. However, the combination of the computational capacity of computers and human intelligence could produce powerful systems beyond the imagination. This concept is called Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) where both human and machine intelligence support the creation of Machine Learning (ML) models. HITL design is an emerging technology which is used in many domains such as autonomous vehicle technology, health systems and interactive system implementations. In this research, we systematically reviewed past research of HITL systems with the objectives of identifying key benefits and limitations of the HITL design. This systematic review was conducted by analyzing 68 research papers published in top-ranked journals and conferences during the past decade. Moreover, the papers were selected using keyword-based searching and references of the most cited HITL research papers. The PRISMA model was used to exclude irrelevant papers, and keyword-based clustering was used to identify the frequent keywords in the selected papers. Although the HITL design often improves the performance of intelligent interactive systems, there are certain drawbacks of this concept when compared to fully manual or fully automated systems such as making decisions with emotional bias and being unable to take actions when demanded. Thus, we comprehensively discuss the approaches proposed by the recent researchers to overcome some of the issues of the existing HITL designs.
Impact of ISO 9000 Certification on Sri Lankan Industry and Need for a Total Quality Approach
(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Munasinghe, L.; Prabodanie, R.A.R.
ISO 9000 is the world’s most renowned quality management system and it has been used extensively as a basis for independent (third party) quality system certifications. Many Sri Lankan organizations have obtained ISO 9000 certification as a means of providing some assurance for quality. However quality of an organization has different aspects like quality of people, quality of work and quality of products. Does ISO 9000 Quality Management System have a significant positive influence on all the aspects of quality? The answer of course, varies from country to country depending on the country’s economy, industrial capabilities, working habits of people etc. The survey was focused on the quality approach, activities and achievements of a sample of ISO 9000 certified companies in Sri Lanka. The main objective of the survey was to identify the impact of ISO 9000 certification on quality of workforce, quality of processes, quality of products/services and quality of environment. Findings of this research provide evidence that ISO 9000 certification has significantly improved the quality of organizational processes but it has failed to make a significant impact on quality of people, quality of products/services and also the quality of the environment. Therefore the certification has been of limited importance. The certification does not help in the long run unless the quality culture and Total Quality Management philosophy is well established and maintained under the care and nurture of all employees. So we suggest that all organizations should apply the new ISO 9001:2000 as part of a Total Quality Approach to the implementation of socially and economically accountable management systems. The government and the national certification body; Sri Lanka Standards Institution, should identify how the standard can be implemented to match the country’s specific requirements and ensure reliable and consistent third party audits on which the local and international community can rely.
Predicting the execution time complexity of a computer program using Machine Learning
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2022) De Ranasinghe, I. M. M. P.; Munasinghe, L.
Performance enhancement of a computer program is an important aspect of today's world. The developers produce programs and there is a lack of accurate methods for predicting the execution time of a computer program prior to its execution in an executable environment. Predicting the execution time of a particular program before execution would be great to develop the program with the highest performance efficiency and the lowest execution latency. Theoretically, there are a lot of ways of calculating the complexity of a computer program. Mathematically it is impractical to find a universal method to compute the complexity of all types of programs. Therefore, this research introduces a Machine Learning based solution to predict an execution-time-based label for a given computer program. There are three main types of parameters in a computer program that affect the execution time, such as Static Code Features, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Calls, and the Hardware Performance of the execution environment. In this research, the Machine Learning (ML) model was trained for the parameters of the above types (Programs with Static Code & HTTP calls) by executing them on a fixed hardware infrastructure execution condition. We analysed the number of if conditions, methods, breaks, switches, loops, nested-loop-depth, frequencies, and the behaviour of HTTP calls, kind of features of a computer program in order to generate an accurate execution time complexity prediction label of a computer program. The label is forecasted based on five pre-defined complexity classes by considering the minimum and the maximum overall execution time of the considered dataset, such as Execution Time is Higher, Execution Time is High, Execution Time is Medium, Execution Time is Low, Execution Time is Lower. Further, in the collected dataset, the most prominent features which affect the complexity among the features that we considered are the number of HTTP calls and nested loop depth, followed by loops. Accuracy Score, Precision, Recall, and F1 Score values of the ML model were generated for the traditional classification algorithms such as Decision Tree Classifier, K Nearest Neighbour Classifier, Random Forest Classifier, Naive Bayes Classifier, Support Vector Classifier, and MLP Classifiers in order to verify the effectiveness of the model. The best accuracy score was achieved with an overall 88% by using the approach of Random Forest. The findings of this research can be optimized for implementing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) plugin or a developer tool that can forecast the exact execution time of a given computer program live by integrating the specifications of the execution device. It will help developers to optimize a particular computer program and develop it for a minimum execution latency and enhance the performance of the program.
Sign language generator for video platforms
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2022) Mohamed, Z. Y. J.; Munasinghe, L.
Over 5% of the world population (430 million people) suffer from hearing loss and deafness. Therefore, communication with them is a challenging task. One of the popular communication methods with deaf people is sign language. It is achieved by simultaneously combining hand gestures, body language, and facial expressions. Even though it is possible to communicate in written format, deaf people still find difficulties in reading natural language texts. Therefore, formal sign languages have been introduced to fill this gap. There are different standards for sign languages. For example, the USA has American Sign Language (ASL), UK has British Sign Language (BSL), and Sri Lanka has Sri Lanka Sign Language (SSL). However, modern video platforms do not have sign language support. This research introduces and evaluates the user experience of a customizable sign language converting extension for video platforms. The proposed machine translation model translates English sentences in videos into equivalent Sri Lanka Sign Language. Moreover, the position, size, and background colour of the 3D human animator are customizable. This system was evaluated with deaf people from different demographics. The user test was conducted as a questionnaire survey. The participants were deaf or hard-of-hearing under three categories (deaf, hard-of-hearing, and severely deaf) and belonged to different age groups (0-10 years,11-20 years, 21-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-50 years, 51-60 years, and above 60). Personal health information and accessibility barriers faced by each participant was questioned in the questionnaire. The user test was conducted by providing participants with three videos with the proposed extension, where participants should complete a series of tasks according to the provided guidelines. The video platform considered for the evaluation was YouTube. The usability issues of the proposed extension were recorded. In addition, new requirements requested by the participants were also recorded. According to the results, 88% of participants identified the correct and incorrect Sinhala sign language generators based on the accuracy of Sinhala sign language, 96% of participants identified the sign language generator as user-friendly. Participants found that the most critical features of this extension were adjusting background colour according to the video and the human animator.
Success factors in Information Technology applications in small and medium scale industries - the Sri Lankan experience
(Journal of Science of the University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2003) Munasinghe, L.; Jayawardena, D.P.W.
This paper argues that the industrialist in developing countries should make use of the opportunities made available by the rapid advancement of information technology to enhance the competitiveness. Most of the enterprises that have made an attempt towards this have not realized the expected benefits of implementing Management Information Systems (MISs). The main reason for this being the lack of understanding of the factors which influences the success of MISs. The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors having a positive influence on success of MISs. The present levels of application for each of the potential areas were assessed.The impact of several factors, which are likely to influence the success of the MISs were analysed. This paper identifies the importance of high commitment of management, efficient manual procedures, high level company wide computer literacy, adequate knowledge of management techniques of the systems analysts and a number of other factors for the success of MISs argues the need for a shift of the policy of IT and management education to strengthen the success factors.
The role of Information Technology trends in planning an Information Technology led development strategy for Sri Lanka
(Journal of Science of the University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2003) Munasinghe, L.; Jayawardena, D.P.W.
It is important to accurately identify the trends of a technology to formulate realistic policies relevant to it. Number of examples related to IT industry proves that this is no exception to IT. This article discusses the global trends of IT applications in areas like education, acces to information, governance, public services, business & commerce, industry , agriculture, home & leisure and their relevance to Sri Lanka . The potential key impediments and trends with respect to the two main investment opportunities namely the software and IT education & training are also highlighted. Sri Lanka has the potential to take advantage of the emerging trend s in many areas. This paper stresses the need to formulate a national policy on IT that would actively promote its application in as many spheres as possible and eliminate the obstacles stifling their implementation.
A way forward for Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2022) Arambepola, S. N. M. N. D. K.; Munasinghe, L.
Sustainability has become a buzzword in the modern world. In fact, the United Nations (UN) has proposed seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to achieve by 2030. SDG can be achieved through different approaches. As modern society is moving forward with a digital world through novel technologies, one promising way of achieving SDG is Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction (SHCI). SHCI is a relatively new research area that is trying to address sustainability issues mainly through sustainable social transformation. Thus, we conducted this research with two main objectives. 1) To analyse how Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers have contributed to this evolving research area 2) To find further opportunities to address sustainability issues using HCI designs. Then finally, we suggested novel approaches to address sustainable energy goals through technological device usage. At the initial stage, research articles were collected through mainly five (05) databases: Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, ACM Digital Library, and ResearchGate. There, keywords such as "Sustainable HCI", "Sustainable Human-Computer-Interaction", "Sustainable interaction design" and "SHCI" were used for collecting research papers through keyword-based filtering. In addition, other research papers were collected through the references of the selected most cited papers. We considered research papers published in top-ranked HCI research conferences and journals for this review. The total collected number of 56 research articles was filtered through the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. Out of 30 papers, most of the articles were published in 2014 and 2015. The bibliographic results show a decrease in SHCI research publications after 2015. According to the findings, SHCI can be achieved mainly through Sustainable Interaction Design (SID). There are two main categorizations of SID. 1) Sustainability in design 2) Sustainability through design. "Sustainability in design" aims to find solutions to social, economic, and environmental issues in our own design, implementation, and evaluation practices. For example, "Affordable and Clean Energy" can be achieved by reducing the energy consumption of the computerized machines used in our daily routines. For instance, introducing lightweight mobile apps can be a successful move for reducing data usage and energy consumption in daily-using mobile apps as a suggestion aligned with the identified opportunities for future development. "Sustainability Through Design" means designing interactive products that promote the sustainable behaviour of its users. For instance, we can consider designing mobile applications as a tool for awareness and encouraging behavioural changes favouring sustainability. One of the key findings of this study is that “sustainable energy” is the specific area that most researchers have addressed through SHCI. The results of this study are beneficial for researchers in different disciplines, such as HCI, sustainability, digital technology, and interaction designs, to contribute to sustainability by reducing energy consumption.