Sri Lankan scientist appointed to prestigious UK Parliamentary advisory group

The UK Parliament has announced the appointments of the prestigious Thematic Research Leads, a new Parliamentary role of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of UK. 

According to the evidence these prestigious and influential roles have made a positive impact. In 2024, Parliament partnered with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to expand Parliament’s network of Thematic Research Leads across a wider range of academic disciplines and policy areas. Dr Varuna De Silva, a Sri Lankan attached to the Loughborough Universityhas been appointed as the Thematic Lead for AI and Digital Sector.

Quoted from: www.parliament.uk: “Based on the concept of Chief Scientific Advisers, Thematic Research Leads bring their impartial expertise, extensive policy knowledge and strong network of research connections to a variety of teams in and out of Parliament. They work for three days each week in Parliament, while continuing their role in their own academic institution.”

Thematic Research Leads 2024 – 2026 – The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have announced the names of eight researchers who will be forming Parliament’s second-ever cohort of Thematic Research Leads.

The new Thematic Research Leads will join Parliament in September 2024. They are: AI and Digital – Loughborough University Dr. Varuna De Silva, Arts and Humanities – University of Nottingham Dr.  Helen McCabe, Business, Economics and Trade – University of Southampton Dr Jane Parry, Climate and Environment – Queen Mary University London Dr. Andrew Russell, Crime and Justice – University of Manchester Dr. Ruth Lamont, Health – University of Exeter Dr. David Strain, International Affairs and National Security – Paoli, King’s College London Dr. Leslie-Anne Duvic, Transport – University of Birmingham Dr. Louise Reardon. 

Dr. Varuna De Silva  B.Sc. (Hons.), Engineering, First Class Honours University of Moratuwa, obtained his doctoral qualifications – Ph.D., Electronic Engineering, from Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, University of Surrey, Guildford and his Thesis was based on “Improving Perceptual quality of 3DTV systems”

He obtained his Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) from Loughborough University. Presently he is a Reader in Machine Intelligence, Chief Program Director of Institute for Digital Technologies, Loughborough University London and Director of Machine Intelligence Lab. He is also the Principal Investigator on UKRI research; A Trustworthy Robotic Autonomous system to support Casualty Triage (ATRACT) Project and supervisor of Research Fellows and postgraduate students in data driven perception and control of autonomous systems.

Among his many achievements the fundamental work he carried out to quantify 3D video perception by the human visual system, was published in multiple high impact IEEE Transactions (Image processing, Multimedia, and Selected Topics in Signal Processing) and subsequently adapted in the video processing pipelines  of multiple EU funded projects. His work has been recognised by the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and was awarded “IEEE Chester Sall Award” from their IEEE consumer electronics society for contributions to video coding. Varuna was also awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for the best Ph.D. student at University of Surrey.  

His research has been mainly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with a total amount of over £ 1 million to date, won in nationally competitive settings such as New Investigator Award (NIA) Scheme and Sandpit on National Defence and Security. 

His impeccable research track record includes 80 peer reviewed articles in highly regarded outlets, 1 Patent, three Major EPSRC/UKRI funding awards including the New Investigator Award, and seven PhD completions. He currently supervises 10 Ph.D. students at various stages of their research. 

He has also formed multiple industrial collaborations to support and direct his research.  These include the ongoing collaboration on football player training in collaboration with Chelsea F.C. Academy and driverless warehouse robot development with Toyota Manufacturing UK. 

He has been active with the EPSRC National Defence and Security sandpit to interact and form strategic relationships with stakeholders such as the British forces, police, DSTL and Ministry of Defence, to identify unmet challenges that led to the development of the ATRACT Project. 

He designed a new Master’s pathway in the area of AI and Data Analytics, suitable for students from many different backgrounds to make a career change in to AI and Data Analytics at the Loughborough University. In keeping with his role in Digital Marketing, he developed the entire program from the market approvals to the program specification and is currently the Program Director for this pathway. The first cohort has attracted 40 students for 2023/2024.

A synopsis of his research work as the Director of Machine Intelligence lab at Loughborough University; contribution to Driverless vehicle technology/ Autonomous systems, Member of the steering committee of a new research Institute that is developed at the Loughborough university- TRAICE (Transport AI Research innovation Centre) to continue the development of AI technology that will power future transportation systems.

He also led a team to investigate the possibility to evaluating the decision making capabilities of footballers under pressure, working with Chelsea FC, to utilise data streams that relate to player, ball and event tracking in football and other team sports. This is to develop position dependent artificial models of football players, and then to use them as a benchmark to evaluate different players under real match situations. 

Dr. De Silva, a distinguished old boy of St. Peter’s College Colombo was awarded Peterite Honours in 2023 –  for bringing pride to his alma mater by his outstanding contribution to the profession on an internationally recognised field of activity.

Dr. Varuna is the son of Nirmalee De Silva and late Anton De Silva of Ratmalana.