Sachith Muthukumarana

Biography

Sachith is a PhD candidate at the Augmented Human Lab (AHLab) in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, the University of Auckland (UoA). Before joining UoA, Sachith worked as a Research Assistant at the SUTD-MIT International Design Center in Singapore and a Corporate Application Engineer at Synopsys Inc. Once he completed his honours degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, he enrolled at the UoA to pursue his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction. His research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Assistive Augmentation and Haptic Interfaces. 

Research | Current

Muthukumarana, S., Messerschmidt, M. A., Matthies, D. J., Steimle, J., Scholl, P. M., & Nanayakkara, S. (2021, May). Clothtiles: A prototyping platform to fabricate customized actuators on clothing using 3D printing and shape-memory alloys. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-12). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445613

 

Muthukumarana, S., Elvitigala, D. S., Forero Cortes, J. P., Matthies, D. J., & Nanayakkara, S. (2020, April). Touch me gently: Recreating the perception of touch using a shape-memory alloy matrix. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-12). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376491

 

Messerschmidt, M. A., Muthukumarana, S., Hamdan, N. A. H., Wagner, A., Zhang, H., Borchers, J., & Nanayakkara, S. C. (2022). ANISMA: A Prototyping Toolkit to Explore Haptic Skin Deformation Applications Using Shape-Memory Alloys. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 29(3), 1-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3490497

 

Gallego Cascón, P., Matthies, D. J., Muthukumarana, S., & Nanayakkara, S. (2019, May). Chewit. An intraoral interface for discreet interactions. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300556

 

Muthukumarana, S., Elvitigala, D. S., Wu, Q., Pai, Y. S., & Nanayakkara, S. (2021, August). Jammify: Interactive Multi-sensory System for Digital Art Jamming. In IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 23-41). Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85607-6_2

 

Muthukumarana, S., Elvitigala, D. S., Cortes, J. P. F., Matthies, D. J., & Nanayakkara, S. (2019). PhantomTouch: Creating an extended reality by the illusion of touch using a shape-memory alloy matrix. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 XR (pp. 29-30). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3355355.3361877

 

Muthukumarana, S., Matthies, D. J., Weerasinghe, C., Elvitigala, D. S., & Nanayakkara, S. (2019, March). CricketCoach: Towards Creating a Better Awareness of Gripping Forces for Cricketers. In Proceedings of the 10th Augmented Human International Conference 2019 (pp. 1-2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3311823.3311833

 

Matthies, D. J., Elvitigala, D. S., Muthukumarana, S., Huber, J., & Nanayakkara, S. (2019, March). CapMat: a smart foot mat for user authentication. In Proceedings of the 10th Augmented Human International Conference 2019 (pp. 1-2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3311823.3311874

 

Boldu, R., Zhang, H., Cortés, J. P. F., Muthukumarana, S., & Nanayakkara, S. (2017, March). Insight: a systematic approach to create dynamic human-controller-interactions. In Proceedings of the 8th Augmented Human International Conference (pp. 1-5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3041164.3041195

Teaching | Current

Graduate Teaching Assistant ENGSCI 313 Mathematical Modelling (Apr 2020 to Apr 2021)

Graduate Teaching Assistant ENGSCI 211: Mathematical Modelling (Apr 2021 to July 2021)

Distinctions/Honours

PhD scholarship at the University of Auckland: Received a full-time PhD student scholarship in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland. The scholarship is funded through the Entrepreneurial Universities grant in New Zealand.

Global Grad Show 2020: The project "Touch me Gently" was selected to feature in the Global Grad Show 2020 edition in Dubai, as one of the top 100 graduate research projects across the world (top 6% of submissions). Global Grad Show 2020 received 1,600 applications from graduates in 270 universities from all over the world [Link].

Honorable Mention Award: Received the Honorable Mention Award in recognition of the research paper "ChewIt. An Intraoral Interface for Discreet Interactions" presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), Glasgow, Scotland, UK (top 5% of submissions)

Best Short Paper Award: Received the Best Short Paper Award in recognition of the research paper "InSight: a systematic approach to create dynamic human controller interactions" presented
at the 8th Augmented Human International Conference [Link].

Gold Award at the Best Design Awards: The project "Pride in Lights" has been awarded a gold award in the Best Design Awards under the Exhibition and Temporary Structures category [Link].

Gold Award at the Best Design Awards: The project "Pride in Lights" has been awarded a gold award in the Best Design Awards ceremony under the Lighting Design category [Link].

Silver Award at the Best Design Awards: The project "Jammify" has been awarded a silver award in the Best Design Awards ceremony under the Student Digital category [Link].

Bronze Award at the Best Design Awards: The project "Jammify" has been awarded a bronze award in the Best Design Awards ceremony under the Student Spatial category [Link].

Finalist at the Best Design Awards: The project "Touch me Gently" has been selected as a finalist in the Best Design Awards ceremony under the Student Digital category [Link].

Areas of expertise

Human-Computer Interaction, Assistive Augmentation and Haptic Interfaces