Vinesha Peiris 

Swinburne

Interview for WIMSIG News. (PDF)

1. When did you first become interested in mathematics?
I have always been interested in numbers since I was a small kid. When I was about 10 years old, that is, when I was in grade 5 in Sri Lanka, I won the grade 5 prize for Mathematics at the school prize giving ceremony. This moment surely made me realise how passionate I am about Mathematics. Since then, I made sure to take home the grade award for Mathematics at the school’s annual prize giving ceremony.

2. Could you tell us about your life and career path so far?
I was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a somewhat different educational system than Australia. Although it is free, it is extremely competitive. When you graduate from high school, the government informs you if you have been selected for admission to a state university based on your grades. Less than 16% of those who qualify get admission to state universities, the entrance is that tough. I was lucky enough to get accepted into the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. After the first two years, based on your results, a very limited number of students will be selected to pursue one subject majorly for the last two years of the honours degree. I was chosen to major in mathematics, and I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2017.

Soon after the completion of my bachelor’s, I was employed by the same university as a demonstrator for the department of Mathematics, and later, I was promoted to the post of temporary lecturer. I already knew I wanted to work in academics at that point. I moved to Australia in 2019 to do my PhD, and it was only recently completed. I am now working as a research fellow at Deakin University, Burwood campus.

3. What does your current research involves?

My research focuses on optimisation, approximation and their applications in different areas, mostly in the fast-growing area of Deep Learning. During my PhD, I studied rational and generalised rational Chebyshev approximation problems including multivariate settings and their applications. We investigated the theoretical aspects of this problem from the point of view of quasiconvexity. Apart from the theoretical side, my PhD study includes many applications of rational and generalised rational approximations in different fields including data analysis, Deep Learning and engineering.

While I was doing my PhD, I was able to publish a solo author paper which discusses the use of rational functions as activation functions in a neural network with loss functions in the form of uniform approximation. However, in that study, I was only focusing on a neural network with no hidden layers. Currently, I’m working to extend these results to an artificial neural network with hidden layers.

My PhD study laid the foundation for the research that I am currently doing. My main research focus now is to incorporate modern optimisation techniques to optimise a neural network with special features.

4. How do you achieve a balance between your work and life?
I consider myself to be someone who prefers to live in the present. We must enjoy the present moment since we have no idea what the future holds for us. When I work, I very much enjoy everything about it. I do a variety of things that I love while I’m not working, usually on weekends. With my family and friends, I enjoy travelling to new places to experience new cultures and, more generally, different cuisines. I also love to recreate traditional Sri Lankan dishes which is difficult, but it is a fun way for me to spend my leisure time. Sometimes, I just stay home and watch movies all day long. So, there is not one particular thing that I do to balance my work and life, but I always try to keep work and life separate.

5. What do you think are mathematician’s duties and responsibilities towards the society?

Mathematicians play an important role in this society. Many of the challenges we face are multi-disciplinary: overcoming them requires mathematicians to collaborate with scientists and engineers in different fields. The skill set of mathematicians are much needed to communicate the science, data and forecasts, and ensure that this information is meaningful to the people who need it. Mathematics is the binding glue of all the other disciplines, in fact, it is known as the queen of science. Therefore, mathematicians are responsible for providing the necessary background and knowledge for everyone, so that their skills can be used to make this society and the world a better place.

6. How has your experience doing mathematics in Australia been so far?
It has been great so far and I very much enjoy working with mathematicians in Australia. Everyone here is friendly, supportive, easy going and most importantly, you can call your supervisor by their first name. This was a culture shock for me when I first moved to Australia. But I believe that is how it should be. This friendly environment is much more encouraging, especially for the early career researchers to bring the best out of them. It is also surprising to see how much support we receive from some related organisations such as AustMS, AMSI, etc.. This support plays a crucial role in the development of mathematics here in Australia.

7. Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
In 10 years, I want to establish myself as a recognised mathematician in Australia and internationally for the research I am conducting in optimisation and its real-world applications. I believe I am on the right path to accomplish my goals, and I am making an effort to do so. At the same time, I wish to hold a more senior academic position, so that I may continue educating students in mathematics and helping them to shape their future. 

8. What advice would you offer to young women who are just starting their careers in the mathematical sciences?

Just believe in yourself, have confidence in your own abilities. There will be many ups and downs along the way, but always have faith in your ability to go through them. Keep striving towards your goals. Learning mathematics and conducting research in mathematics might be challenging at times, but I can assure one thing. The delight that comes when an answer to a challenging math issue is found, cannot be felt by anything else.

9. Any last words?
‘What goes around, comes around’ is a saying I wholeheartedly concur with. Be good, do good, and most of all, show kindness to one another. It will ultimately find its way back to you and do wonders to your life.