Sampath Jayarathna
Old Dominion University

I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University in 2016, advised by Frank Shipman. Before that, I earned M.S. degree in Computer Science from Texas State University in 2010, advised by Oleg Komogortsev. My undergraduate degree is a B.S in Computer Science (First Class) from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2006. I joined the faculty at Old Dominion University in 2018. Before that, I was a tenure-track faculty at Cal Poly Pomona (2016-2018). I am a recipient of 2021 NSF CAREER award.

My research interests lie in the use and development of data science, information retrieval and machine learning techniques for effective and efficient adaptive information access. I leverage cross-disciplinary approaches to capture user intent dynamically during information-seeking behaviors and contribute to the fundamental understanding of human-information interaction by looking at how people locate and use information. I enjoy connecting the dots between disciplines and explore computational techniques to build user models from large-scale user interaction data. In addition, I apply methods in areas ranging from perception, cognition and psycho-physiological measurements (e.g., EEG, eye tracking, and wearable devices) by probing the thoughts of people conducting searches, simulating presumed cognitive functions with computational algorithms and observing information behavior in everyday tasks.