Dr. (Ms.) Nirthika Rajendran

• PhD in Computer Science (Jaffna, Sri Lanka) [2022]
• B.Sc. Special in Computer Science, First Class (Jaffna, Sri Lanka) [2017]

Research

• PhD in Computer Science. Title: “Deep Learning Based Fine-Grained Diabetic Retinopathy Image Grading” at the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Jaffna with, degree awarded at 14^th March 2022.
• “Web-based Dengue Detection and Prevention System” – Final year research project carried out to fully automate the reporting and detection process of dengue disease in the Northern regional health services division through an elegant and user friendly web-based and mobile-based system that can also efficiently assist in controlling the disease.

Undergraduate Teaching

• CSC202S2, CSC202G2: Computer Programming II (2022 – date)
• CSC203S2, CSC203G2: Operating Systems (2022 – date)
• CSC212S2: Professional Practice (2022 – date)
• CSC107S2, CSC103G2: Multimedia Technologies (2022 – date)
• CSC207S3: Computer Architecture (2022 – date)
• CSC301S3, CSC301G3: Rapid Application Development (2022 – date)

• Representative of the Lecturers (Probationary), Faculty Board of Science, University of Jaffna, February 2023 – date.
• Secretary, Section-B(Applied Science), Jaffna Science Association (JSA), February 2022 – March 2023.
• Interim Chair, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, February 2022 – March 2022.

Member

• IEEE Computational Intelligence Society member from January 2022 to date.
• IEEE Women in Engineering member from March 2019 to date.
• IEEE Young Professionals member from October 2018 to date.
• IEEE Graduate Student member from January 2016 to date.

International Journals 

• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “Siamese Network based Fine Grained Classification for Diabetic Retinopathy Grading”, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, vol. 78, Elsevier, September 2022. doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2022.103874 (Q1, Impact Factor: 5.1).
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S., Ramanan, A. and Wang, R.: “Pooling in convolutional neural networks for medical image analysis: A survey and an empirical study”, Neural Computing and Applications, Springer, pp.1-27, 2022. doi: 10.1007/s00521-022-06953-8 (Q1, Impact Factor: 5.1).

International Conference Papers

• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “An Experimental Study on Convolutional Neural Network-Based Pooling Techniques for the Classification of HEp-2 Cell Images”, In proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS), Negombo, Sri Lanka, pp. 281-286, August 2021. doi: 10.1109/ICIAfS52090.2021.9606157
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “Look at Both Eyes: Deep Learning Based Feature Fusion Strategies for the Classification of Diabetic Retinopathy Lesions”, In proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS), Negombo, Sri Lanka, pp. 263-268, August 2021. doi: 10.1109/ICIAfS52090.2021.9605991.
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S., and Ramanan, A.: “Loss functions for optimizing Kappa as the evaluation measure for classifying diabetic retinopathy and prostate cancer images”, In IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), IIT Ropar, India, pp. 144-149, doi: 10.1109/ICIIS51140.2020.9342711, 26-28 November 2020.

PhD Thesis

• Deep Learning Based Fine-Grained Diabetic Retinopathy Image Grading

Articles

• “An Introduction to the Role of Loss Functions in Deep Learning”, in IEEE Sri Lanka Section Newsletter, Second Edition, 2022, July-2022.
• “Diabetic Retinopathy Fundus Image Grading Using Deep Learning: Research Directions”, in ComSpective – the ICT Technical Magazine, volume 2, issue 1, Department of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, April-2022. https://bit.ly/3c6pOsV

Workshop Posters 

• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “Deep Learning for Diabetic Retinopathy Grading” in SL-SWCS’21, University of Jaffna, 4th of December 2021.
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “Is Soft Pooling better than Max and Average Pooling? A comparative study on HEp-2 Cells and Retinal image classification tasks”, SL-SWCS’19, University of Jaffna, 7th of December 2019.
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “A Web-Based Dengue Monitoring and Warning System” in SL-SWCS’19, University of Jaffna, 7th of December 2019.
• Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.:“A Web-Based Dengue Monitoring and Control System”,  National Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science (SL-SWCS’17), University of Jaffna, 9th of December 2017.

• Best Presentation Award for the poster “Deep Learning for Diabetic Retinopathy Grading” presented in the 6th National Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science (SL-SWCS’21) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, December 2021.
• Best Paper Award for “Loss functions for optimizing Kappa as the evaluation measure for classifying diabetic retinopathy and prostate cancer images”, in IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), IIT Ropar, India, 26-28 November 2020.
• Best Presentation Award for the poster “Is Soft Pooling better than Max and Average Pooling? A comparative study on HEp-2 Cells and Retinal image classification tasks” presented in the 5th National Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science 2019 (SL-SWCS’19) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 2019.
• Sabalingam Memorial Prize for the Best Performance in the Special Degree examination in Science, University of Jaffna, 2017.

Summer School & Certifications

• The 11th Lisbon Machine Learning School – LxMLS 2021, jointly organized by Instituto Superior Técnico, Instituto de Telecomunicações, INESC-ID and Unbabel, in Lisbon, Portugal, on 7-15 July 2021.

Participation and Achievement

• Presented the following papers
  1. Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “An Experimental Study on Convolutional Neural Network-Based Pooling Techniques for the Classification of HEp-2 Cell Images”, In proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS), Negombo, Sri Lanka, 11-13 August 2021.
  2. Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S. and Ramanan, A.: “Look at Both Eyes: Deep Learning Based Feature Fusion Strategies for the Classification of Diabetic Retinopathy Lesions”, In proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Information and
     Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS), Negombo, Sri Lanka, 11-13 August 2021.
  3. Nirthika, R., Manivannan, S., and Ramanan, A.: “Loss functions for optimizing Kappa as the evaluation measure for classifying diabetic retinopathy and prostate cancer images”, In IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), IIT Ropar, India, 26-28 November 2020.
• Presented a poster entitled on “Deep Learning for Diabetic Retinopathy Grading” in SL-SWCS’21 organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 4th of December 2021.
• Presented two posters entitled on “Is Soft Pooling better than Max and Average Pooling? A comparative study on HEp-2 Cells and Retinal image classification tasks” and “A Web-Based Dengue Monitoring and Warning System” in SL-SWCS’19 organised by the
  Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 7th of December 2019.
• Participated in the tutorial session on “Recent Developments in Machine Learning” at 14th IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS) 2019, held in Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, 19th December 2019.
• Presented a posters entitled on “Is Soft Pooling better than Max and Average Pooling? A comparative study on HEp-2 Cells and Retinal image classification tasks”  in the Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science 2019 (SL-SWCS’19) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 07th of December 2019.
• Presented a poster entitled on “A Web-Based Dengue Monitoring and Control System” in SL-SWCS’17 organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 9th of December 2017.
• Participated in aces Coders v6.0 held at Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, 2016.
• Second Runner Up in the Hackathon organised by the IEEE Student Branch of the Informatics Institute of Technology, Sri Lanka in collaboration with ideamart, 2015.
• Participated in TADHACK by Telecom Application Developer Hackathon, 2015.
• Participated in Senior Level Yarl IT Hub competition, 2015.

Attended Conference & workshops

1. Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science (SL-SWCS’21), organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, December 2021.
2. Attended the special sessions, workshops and tutorials at 16th IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), held in Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, 9 & 11 December 2021.
3. Tenth IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS), Negombo, Sri Lanka, 11-13 August 2021.
4. Month of CodeGeniX – AdaGrad’21 Workshop on “Introduction to Machine Learning”, by the IEEE Computer Society Student Branch Chapter of Sri Lanka Technological Campus, 7 June 2021.
5. Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), IIT Ropar, India, 26-28 November 2020.
6. International Conference on Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications (DICTA) – Post Conference Workshop, Australia, 3rd December 2020.
7. Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science 2019 (SL-SWCS’19) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 2019.
8. Ninth IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS’18), Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21-22 December 2018.
9. Workshop on Statistics for Research–organised by Young Science Forum, National Science and Technology Commission and University of Jaffna, 2018.
10. Vingnanam International Research Conference (VIRC) organised by the Faculty of Science, University of Jaffna, 2018.
11. Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science 2017 (SL-SWCS’17) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 2017.
12. Workshops conducted by WSO2 for WSO2-ESB, WSO2-IS, Security & Java 8, 2016.
13. Sri Lanka Student Workshop on Computer Science 2015 (SL-SWCS’15) organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 2015.
14. Jaffna IT Conference–organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna and Supported by SLASSCOM, 2014.
15. Workshops on “Setting up Career Goal” held at University of Jaffna under the HETC project, 2014.
16. Workshops on “Guidance to Prepare Effective Resumes and Filling out Application Forms for Jobs” held at University of Jaffna under the HETC project, 2014.
17. Workshops conducted by hSenid Mobile–organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna, 2014.
18. Workshops conducted by Zone24/7–organised by University of Jaffna, 2014.