Dr Dilani Kaveendri

Senior Lecturer

  • Bio
  • Research Interest
  • Research
  • Teaching

  • Dr Dilani Kaveendri is a dedicated academic specialising in data science and statistics. She has extensive experience student-centred teaching statistics, business analytics, and quantitative methods. Dr Kaveendri is skilled at supporting diverse and international cohorts through clear instruction, structured learning design, and ongoing academic mentoring. Her research focuses on Bayesian variable selection, quantile regression, Bayesian inference, and environmental data analysis. Through her PhD, Dr Kaveendri developed predictive models for climate-informed rainfall forecasting, combining spatial statistics with real-world applications in environmental science.

    Qualifications
    Doctor of Philosophy in data science and statistics, University of Sydney, 2025
    Bachelor of Science (Honours) in statistics and operations research, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2017

    Professional Certificates
    Diploma in Management Accounting, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 2014
    Certificate in Business Accounting, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 2013
    Staff Development Program – Teaching Methodology in Higher Education, 2021

    Memberships
    Life Member – Institute of Applied Statistics Sri Lanka

    Awards

    • Best Poster Presentation – Bayes on the Beach 2024: Won the prize for presenting innovative Bayesian variable selection methods in spatial quantile regression, applied to rainfall distributions in NSW.
    • Conference Recognition – Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society 2024: Presented an abstract on Bayesian variable selection for spatial quantile regression at the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society conference.
    • Research Contribution – AASC 2022: Delivered a comparative study on priors in Bayesian variable selection for quantile regression at the Australasian Applied Statistics Conference.
    • Academic Excellence – University of Peradeniya: Received the University Prize for Academic Excellence (2016/2017) for outstanding performance in the B.Sc. Statistics and Operations Research program.

  • Data science and statistics

  • CONFERENCE PAPERS

    • Kaveendri, D. (2024). Bayesian variable selection for spatial quantile regression: A case study for NSW in Australia using global climate indices. Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
    • Kaveendri, D., (2024). Bayesian variable selection in spatial quantile regression: An application to assess global indices’ influence on rainfall distributions in NSW. Bayes on the Beach, Bayesian Statistical Conference.
    • Kaveendri, D., Ramesh, N., & Cripps S. (2022). A comparative study of the priors used in Bayesian Variable Selection for quantile regression. Australasian Applied Statistics Conference, Melbourne.
    • Athukorala, R., Kaveendri, D., Ramesh, N., Chin, V., Vervoort, R. W., & Cripps S. (2021). A Bayesian framework for rainfall estimation and uncertainty quantification using reanalysis data: A case study for the Sydney region using ERA5 climate data. 24th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, Sydney.
    • Reyal, S., Piyawardana, V., & Kaveendri, D. (2020). A story of two surveys: For the advancement of Sinhalese mobile text entry research. International Conference on Advancements in Computing, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe, Sri Lanka, IEEE, 10-11 December.
    • Tennakoon, A., Gamlath, N., Kirindage, G., Ranatunga, J., Haddela, P., & Kaveendri, D. (2020). Hybrid recommender for condensed Sinhala News with Grey Sheep user identification. 2nd International Conference on Advancements in Computing, Malabe, Sri Lanka, 228-233, doi: 10.1109/ICAC51239.2020.9357158
    • Kaveendri, D. H. D., & Tharaka, V. K. (2019). Reducing the efficiency gap by optimal allocation using modified assignment problem for apparel industry in Sri Lanka. International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
    • Kaveendri D. H. D., Chandrasekara N. V., & Arunashantha H. A. S. (2019). Spatial analysis on monthly and seasonal rainfall in Sri Lanka. International Postgraduate Research Conference, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.