Details

Published on Tuesday, 18 September 2018 16:00

Dimuthu Upeksha Wannipurage

Programmer Analyst
Science Gateways Research Center, Indiana University

What is your role within SGCI and what do you do?

I work with the Science Gateways Research Center (SGRC) team at Indiana University as a research software engineer, and I'm on the Scientific Software Collaborative team with SGCI. I have over two years of industry experience in system integration and cloud deployment technologies. Before joining the SGRC team, I had been working in middleware development and that helped me to have a better idea of how different distributed systems work and also to identify best practices for building a production ready system.

How did you come to be a part of SGCI, and why were you intrigued by the opportunity?

When I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at the University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka, I participated in the Google Summer of Code Project 2015 and as a result of that, I got the chance to contribute to the Apache Airavata project which is a leading project of SGRC. After graduation and a couple of years working in the industry, I got the chance to join the SGRC team as a full-time employee and in January 2018 I moved to the United States.

One of the driving factors to join this team was that I’m really interested in science gateways and system integration. Apart from that, I really like how the team is structured and the overall contribution made by the team to improve the science.

What is the most challenging part of your work for SGCI?

There is no particular challenging part in my work as I enjoy most of the work I do here at SGCI.

How else are you involved in the technology or gateway community?

Most of my work is focused on improving the core features of the Apache Airavata project and as a Project Management Committee member of the project, I am actively involved in the decision-making process of the roadmap of the project. Apart from that, I mentored 3 students at Google Summer of Code 2018 who were contributing to the Apache Airavata Project. I occasionally contribute to SCGI’s Gateway Catalog development when I find some time.

What do you most like to do in your free time?

I love to travel a lot with my family and if I find some free time after work, I play Tennis and Badminton with my friends here in Bloomington.

If you were a superhero, what superpower would you have?

I would choose to have teleporting capability to go to whatever place I want. There have been lots of trips that I have canceled as the travel expenses and traveling times are not affordable.