Hi, I'm Kalana Hewapathirana ๐
Software Engineer & Computer Science Educator ยท Colombo, Sri Lanka ๐ฑ๐ฐ
BSc (Hons) Computer Science graduate working at the intersection of applied machine learning and education. I build end-to-end ML systems โ data pipelines, model training, APIs, and dashboards โ with a focus on NLP, computer vision, and document AI. Currently teaching Computer Science (Pearson Edexcel iLowerSecondary & IGCSE) while continuing to build and share ML work here.
๐ฌ What I work on
- NLP & Text Classification โ Sentence Transformers and BERT-based classifiers for app review and complaint analytics
- Computer Vision โ CNNs for diabetic retinopathy detection, transfer learning with DenseNet121
- OCR & Document AI โ EasyOCR pipelines for digitizing handwritten records
- ML Engineering โ FastAPI, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Streamlit dashboards, embedding storage and retraining pipelines
๐ Featured Projects
| Project | Stack | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Diabetic Retinopathy Detection | TensorFlow, custom CNN | 98% accuracy lightweight model; benchmarked against DenseNet121 with test-time augmentation |
| SLT Selfcare Bug Analytics | BERT, Streamlit | Classifies Play Store reviews into bug categories, cutting manual triage time |
| Review Analytics Engine | Sentence Transformers, Logistic Regression, SQLite | End-to-end complaint classification with a retraining pipeline |
| WiFi Router Localization | Particle & Kalman Filters, FastAPI, Leaflet.js | Real-time RSSI/GPS positioning with live map visualization |
| Fiber Length OCR | EasyOCR, Python | Automated extraction of handwritten fiber data into a queryable database |
๐ ๏ธ Tech Stack
Python ยท TensorFlow ยท PyTorch ยท Scikit-learn ยท Transformers ยท FastAPI ยท PostgreSQL ยท SQLite ยท Streamlit ยท EasyOCR ยท Git
๐ Background
- BSc (Hons) Computer Science โ South Eastern University of Sri Lanka
- Computer Science Teacher โ IES College International (Pearson Edexcel)
- Software Engineer (Intern) โ Sri Lanka Telecom, Digital Platforms
๐ซ Connect
