Hello! I'm Shashiwadana Nirmani

PhD Researcher · Software Engineer

I am a PhD researcher in Software Engineering at Software Engineering Innovation Lab, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Australia. My research interests are in Open Source Software (OSS) ecosystems, empirical software engineering, and human-centered software engineering. I investigate how human factors influence participation in OSS projects. By integrating behavioural and social factors into OSS project recommendation systems, I aim to develop more personalized, human-aware approaches that better support software practitioners than traditional recommendation techniques based solely on technical characteristics.

Prior to commencing my PhD, I worked as a Software Engineer, gaining over two years of industry experience developing software solutions in Agile environments.

Alongside my research, I work as a Graduate Researcher Teaching Fellow at Deakin University. I enjoy supporting student learning, sharing practical software engineering knowledge, and contributing to the academic community through both teaching and research.

Education

Education

Oct 2023 – Present

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Deakin University, Australia · School of Information Technology

Supervisors: Dr. Hourieh Khalajzadeh, Prof. Xiao Liu, and Dr. Mojtaba Shahin

Thesis: Recommending Open Source Software Projects Based on Contributors' Motivations and Team Dynamics. Developing a human-centered recommendation system that matches contributors with open source software projects by integrating their motivations and team dynamics alongside technical factors.

Jan 2017 – Jun 2021

BSc (Hons) in Information Technology

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka · Faculty of Information Technology

  • Graduated with First Class Honours.
  • Dean's List Honours for Semester 7 with a GPA of 4.03/4.2.
  • Dean's List Honours for Semester 8 with a GPA of 3.90/4.2.
Experience

Experience

July 2024 – Present

Graduate Researcher Teaching Fellow

Deakin University, Australia

  • Conducted active learning on-campus sessions and online tutorials for undergraduate students.
  • Assessed assignments and examinations in written, presentation-based, and video-based submissions.
  • Units:
    • SIT 217 - Introduction to Software Engineering (Trimester 2 - 2024, Trimester 2 - 2025, Trimester 2 - 2026)
    • SIT 102 - Introduction to Programming (Trimester 1 - 2026)
    • SIT 328 - Communicating Information Technology Projects (Trimester 1 - 2025)
June 2025 – Feb 2026

Research Assistant

Deakin University, Australia

  • Conducted large scale analysis of 7 million+ Google Play app reviews to investigate age-related user concerns and age inclusive mobile application design.
  • Co-Developed machine learning, deep learning, and large language model (LLM) approaches to automatically detect age-related discussions in app reviews.
  • Conducted qualitative thematic analysis and contributed to research findings published in the Journal of Systems and Software. DOI ↗
May 2021 – Sept 2023

Software Engineer

Ascentic, Sri Lanka

  • Developed cross-platform mobile applications using Flutter, delivering high quality solutions for both Android and iOS platforms.
  • Served as the scrum master, facilitating sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives while ensuring effective Agile team collaboration.
  • Contributed to mobile healthcare applications for Scandinavian clients, collaborating with an international development team across Sri Lanka and Sweden.
Aug 2019 – Feb 2020

Software Engineer - Intern

Eyepax IT Consulting, Sri Lanka

  • Worked on full-stack web development using Node.js, Angular, React, and GraphQL.
  • Contributed to the development, testing, and maintenance of modern web applications.
Publications

Publications

2026

Nirmani, S., Sharma, G., Khalajzadeh, H. and Shahin, M., 2026. Age Matters: Analyzing Age-Related Discussions in App Reviews. Journal of Systems and Software, p.112800. DOI ↗

2026

Nirmani, S., Khalajzadeh, H., Shahin, M. and Liu, X., 2026. Beyond Code: Empirical Insights into How Team Dynamics Influence OSS Project Selection. DOI ↗

2026

Nirmani, S., Khalajzadeh, H., Shahin, M. and Liu, X., 2026. What Motivates Whom? A Survey of Newcomers to OSS and Experienced OSS Practitioners. arXiv ↗

2025

Nirmani, S., Shahin, M., Khalajzadeh, H. and Liu, X., 2025. A Systematic Literature Review on Task Recommendation Systems for Crowdsourced Software Engineering. Information and Software Technology, 184, p.107753. DOI ↗

2023

Nirmani, S., and Ranathunga, L., 2023, February. Article Elements Recognition of Old Sinhala Newspapers Using Vision Heuristic Algorithm. In 2023 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Computing (ICARC) (pp. 108-113). IEEE. DOI ↗

2021

Gayashan, P.P.A., Perera, K.A.V.G., Nirmani, S., and Ranathunga, L., 2021, December. Old Sinhala Newspaper Article Segmentation for Content Recognition Using Image Processing. In 2021 From Innovation To Impact (FITI) (Vol. 1, pp. 1-6). IEEE. DOI ↗

2020

Perera, V., Gayashan, P. P. A., and Nirmani, S., 2020. Old Sinhala Newspaper Reader for People with Visual Impairment. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Natural Language Processing (SNLP 2020) (p. 13). National Language Processing Centre, University of Moratuwa. DOI ↗

Recognition

Awards & Scolarships

Academic Awards & Recognitions

  • ACM Distinguished Paper Award Nominee

    Nominated for the ACM Distinguished Paper Award at the 19th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2026), for the paper: “Beyond Code: Empirical Insights into How Team Dynamics Influence OSS Project Selection”.

  • Emerging Research Spotlight – OzSE 2026

    Delivered a spotlight talk at the Australian Summer School in Software Engineering (OzSE 2026), titled “Motivations Matter: Personalizing Open Source Project Recommendations”.

  • Top 3 Poster Award – CS3 Symposium 2025

    Recognised among the Top 3 posters at the CS3 Symposium, organised by the Centre for Software, Systems and Society, Deakin University, for a poster on doctoral research.

Scholarships

  • Deakin University Post Graduate Research Scholarship

    Fully funded scholarship awarded by Deakin University for doctoral research (2023-2026).

Research

Research Projects

Funded Project

Understanding Age-Related Discussions in Mobile App Reviews

Investigates how age-related needs and concerns appear in mobile app reviews. By analysing 4,163 reviews and comparing machine learning, deep learning, and large language models, we developed an approach for detecting age-related discussions and identified key concerns around content, accessibility, age verification, privacy, safety, and social interactions.

PhD Study 1

Task Recommendation Systems for Crowdsourced Software Engineering: A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review of 65 studies examining how software tasks and projects are recommended to contributors. The study identifies commonly used recommendation approaches, data sources, platforms, and limitations, while highlighting the need to better incorporate human factors into future recommendation systems.

PhD Study 2

Understanding What Motivates Contributors to Choose OSS Projects

Investigates how contributors' motivations and demographic backgrounds relate to the types of OSS projects they prefer. A survey of 208 software practitioners compares newcomers and experienced OSS contributors, revealing how motivations such as learning, career advancement, enjoyment, reputation, and financial incentives relate to different project characteristic preferences.

PhD Study 3

Understanding How Team Dynamics Influence OSS Project Selection

Investigates how the social and collaborative environment of OSS projects influences contributors' decisions to join. A survey of 198 OSS practitioners found that responsiveness, clear communication, and respectful interactions are particularly important, while preferences for team dynamics also vary depending on contributors' motivations.

Credentials

Certifications

Recommendations

Testimonials

Hobbies

Beyond Research

I enjoy swimming and landscape photography.

Get in touch

Contact

For research, teaching, collaboration, or academic opportunities, feel free to get in touch.