About
I am a PhD candidate and an avid enthusiast of Software Engineering (SE) who firmly believes the profound value of SE research not only in enhancing the quality of developers' job role, but also in enriching the very fabric of humanity.
PhD student & Intern researcher at Ubisoft.
- Website: www.nimmiw.com
- City: Wasterloo, Ontario
- Affiliation: University of Waterloo
- E-mail: nrweeraddana@uwaterloo.ca
- Personal E-mail: nimmirashinika@gmail.com
Research Interests. Diversity in Software Engineering, Continuous Integration, and Crash report prioritization
News
ICSE 2025 Doctoral Symposim Paper Acceptance
The paper delves into tacitly accrued waste in Continuous Integration (CI)—a silent yet significant drain on shared compute resources in modern software development. 💻📈 By exploring inefficiencies in the CI environment, CI configurations, and dependency configurations, my research seeks to quantify, characterize, and provide actionable solutions to mitigate this waste. 🌟🛠️ I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to share insights from my work and, more importantly, to gather valuable feedback from the amazing software engineering community. 🙌💡 Engaging in discussions with experts and peers will undoubtedly shape the next steps of this research and open new avenues to explore. 🌍💬 Looking forward to connecting with everyone at ICSE 2025! 👩💻👨💻
CSER 2024 Fall - Dependency-Induced Waste in CI
We had the pleasure of presenting insights from our FSE paper at the Consortium for Software Engineering Research (CSER) Fall 2024: "Dependency-Induced Waste in Continuous Integration," co-authored with Mahmoud Alfadel and Shane McIntosh. 🖋️ Our research dives deep into how unused npm dependencies unnecessarily extend the usage of Continuous Integration (CI) build time. 🚀 Did you know? 55% of the CI build time spent on dependency updates is wasted on unused dependencies! These findings highlight significant opportunities for improving efficiency in software development pipelines. Thanks Maleknaz Nayebi and Mehrdad (Mike) Sabetzadeh for organizing such a great event! 🙌
MSR 2025 Junior PC
I am honored to have been selected as a Junior Program Committee Member for the Technical Research Track of the 22nd International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2025)! 🖥️ The conference will take place in Ottawa, Canada 📍, on April 28-29, 2025, and I’m incredibly excited to contribute to this premier venue for advancing research in mining software repositories. A heartfelt thanks 🙏 to Kla Tantithamthavorn, Nicole Novielli, Olga Baysal, and Ayushi Rastogi for this amazing opportunity and for trusting me with this responsibility. I’m looking forward to collaborating 🤝 with an incredible group of researchers and reviewers to make MSR 2025 a success.
FSE 2024 - Dependency-Induced Waste in CI
We are thrilled 🎉 to share that our paper, titled "Dependency-Induced Waste in Continuous Integration: An Empirical Study on NPM Dependencies", was successfully presented at FSE 2024! The conference was held in the beautiful Porto de Galinhas, Brazil 🌴🌊, a perfect setting for exchanging innovative ideas in software engineering. This work delves into how unused dependencies impact the efficiency of Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines, shedding light on ways to reduce waste and optimize CI systems 🖥️. A big thank you 🙏 to all the collaborators (Mahmoud Alfadel and Shane Macintosh) and reviewers who made this possible! We hope our findings will spark 💡meaningful discussions and inspire new advancements in CI research. Looking forward to engaging with the community and exploring new ideas together!
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FSE 2024 - Volunteering
I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at FSE 2024 this year! ✨ 📍 The conference was held in the stunning Porto de Galinhas, Brazil, and it was truly inspiring to see so many innovative ideas and groundbreaking research in the field of software engineering. As a volunteer, I had the chance to, 🤝 connect with brilliant researchers and practitioners from around the globe, 🎙️ assist in organizing sessions and supporting speakers, and 📚 learn from thought-provoking talks and discussions. A heartfelt thanks to the FSE 2024 organizing committee and all the incredible attendees for making this an unforgettable experience. Looking forward to future opportunities to grow and give back! 🌟
ICSE 2024 - DevOps Diversity
We had the privilege of presenting our EMSE paper at the Journal-First Track of ICSE 2024, held in the vibrant city of Lisbon, Portugal! 🇵🇹✨ 📄 The paper, titled "An Empirical Comparison of Ethnic and Gender Diversity of DevOps and non-DevOps Contributions to Open-Source Projects", explores critical insights into diversity within open-source contributions. 💡 In this study, we find that diversity among DevOps contributors is significantly lower than that of non-DevOps contributors. The gap is even more pronounced at the intersection of minority classes. For instance, 34% of projects lack perceptibly Black women among DevOps contributors, while only 4% of projects lack Black women among non-DevOps contributors. This study sheds light on the need for actionable efforts to promote equity and inclusion in open-source communities, particularly in DevOps roles. 🙏 A big thank you to my incredible collaborators—Xiaoyan Xu, Mahmoud Alfadel, Shane McIntosh, and Meiyappan Nagappan—for their contributions, support, and dedication to this work.
MSR 2024 - Code Ownership of DevOps Artefacts
I had the privilege of presenting our paper, "The Impact of Code Ownership of DevOps Artefacts on the Outcome of DevOps CI Builds", on behalf of Ajiromola Kola-Olawuyi, at MSR 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal! 🇵🇹✨ 📄 This research explores two prevailing approaches to managing DevOps artifacts: 1️⃣ Equal Contribution: All developers contribute equally, resulting in low code ownership. 2️⃣ Dedicated Ownership: A dedicated group of developers takes responsibility, leading to higher code ownership for certain individuals. 💡 This research shows that projects with dedicated DevOps developers tend to achieve higher CI build success rates. ✅ However, in smaller projects or during the early stages of development, encouraging contributions from all developers to DevOps artifacts can improve outcomes. This work highlights the nuanced trade-offs in code ownership strategies for DevOps artifacts and provides valuable insights for optimizing CI build outcomes in open-source software (OSS) projects. A big thank you to my co-authors Ajiromola Kola-Olawuyi and Meiyappan Nagappan. 👏👏
FSE 2024 Paper Acceptance
Our paper, "Dependency-Induced Waste in Continuous Integration: An Empirical Study of Unused Dependencies in the npm Ecosystem", has been accepted at FSE 2024! 🖥️✨ 💡 This research shows that 55.88% of CI build time for dependency updates is triggered by unused dependencies. Automated bots like Dependabot contribute to 92.93% of this waste. For projects exceeding free CI budgets, 85.50% of billable CI time is wasted. ⚡ To tackle this, we introduce Dep-sCImitar 🔪, which reduces 68.34% of wasted CI build time with 94% precision by skipping wasteful builds. 🙌 Hats off to my amazing collaborators Mahmoud Alfadel and Shane McIntosh for making this work possible. I’m excited to present this research at FSE 2024 in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil! See you there!
TSE Paper Acceptance
I am thrilled to share that our paper, titled "Characterizing Timeout Builds in Continuous Integration", has been accepted for publication in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE) journal! 🖥️✨ This paper delves into the intricacies of timeout builds in Continuous Integration (CI) systems, providing valuable insights into their characteristics and offering actionable recommendations to enhance the efficiency and reliability of CI pipelines. 💡 Key findings of this are as follows: Build history and timeout tendency features are strong indicators of timeout builds. The timeout status of the most recent build accounts for the largest proportion of explanatory power. A longitudinal analysis of timeout builds shows that 64.03% of timeout builds occur consecutively, highlighting patterns that can guide improvements in CI systems. 🙏 A heartfelt thank you to my collaborators, Mahmoud Alfadel and Shane McIntosh for their support, and to the reviewers for their constructive feedback throughout this journey. I am excited about the impact this work could have on advancing software engineering research and improving real-world CI practices. Looking forward to meaningful discussions and further collaborations!
MSR 2024 Paper Acceptance
We are delighted to share that our paper, titled "The Impact of Code Ownership of DevOps Artefacts on the Outcome of DevOps CI Builds", has been accepted for publication at MSR 2024! 🖥️✨ 📍 The conference will take place in the beautiful Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹, and I’m thrilled to meet the incredible research community there to discuss our work! 👏👏 A big congratulations to my amazing co-authors Ajiromola Kola-Olawuyi and Meiyappan Nagappan for their contributions and collaboration on this exciting project. Looking forward to insightful discussions about the role of code ownership in improving DevOps CI outcomes. See you at MSR 2024!
EMSE Paper Acceptance
Our paper, titled "An Empirical Comparison of Ethnic and Gender Diversity of DevOps and non-DevOps Contributions to Open-Source Projects", has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) journal! ✨✨ This study explores the ethnic and gender diversity of contributors in open-source projects, comparing DevOps and non-DevOps roles. Our findings reveal notable gaps: Diversity among DevOps contributors is significantly lower than non-DevOps contributors. The disparities are even more pronounced at the intersection of minority identities, highlighting the need for actionable efforts to improve inclusivity. 🙏 A heartfelt thank you to my incredible co-authors Xiaoyan Xu, Mahmoud Alfadel, Shane McIntosh, and Meiyappan Nagappan for their collaboration and support in bringing this work to life. I am excited to see how this research sparks meaningful discussions and drives initiatives to promote diversity and equity in software engineering communities!
Upper Bound AI Conference 2023
I had the incredible opportunity to attend the Upper Bound AI Conference 2023, hosted by AMII (Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute) at the University of Alberta. The conference was a fantastic platform to learn about cutting-edge advancements in Artificial Intelligence, connect with brilliant minds in the field, and gain insights into how AI is shaping the future. 💡✨ A huge thanks to the organizers, Talent Bursary, and speakers for putting together such an inspiring event! Looking forward to applying the knowledge and connections gained to future endeavors.
Ubisoft - R&D Intern
I am excited to begin my journey as an R&D Intern with the incredible Ubisoft Toronto La Forge team! 🕹️✨ In this role, I’ll be collaborating with the Software Engineering team to explore innovative ways to mitigate prevalent game crashes and enhance the gaming experience for players. A big thank you to my supervisor Prof. Shane McIntosh at the University of Waterloo and La Forge team at Ubisoft for this amazing opportunity. I’m looking forward to contributing to cutting-edge research and learning from some of the brightest minds in the gaming industry! Let the adventure begin! 🚀🎮
Resume
Sumary
PhD Candidate
🌟 Proven Track Record of Research Publications: Throughout my PhD, I have consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to research, with numerous publications in premier software engineering journals and conferences, including FSE 2024, TSE, and EMSE. 📚✨
👩🎓 Proven Track Record of Student Mentorship: Over the past two years, I have mentored two MSc students and an Undergraduate Research Assistant, resulting in one of our papers being published (MSR 2024 📖, with two other exciting projects currently ongoing! 🚀💡
🏢 Proven Track Record of Industry Research: Over the past year, I have actively contributed to industry research with Ubisoft Toronto, making significant contributions to ongoing publication work. 🎮📊
Education
Doctor of Philosophy & Computer Science
May 2022 - Present
University of Wasterloo, Ontario, Canada
My research interests include Diversity in SE, Continuous Integration, and Crash report analysis. My research group is Software REBELS.
Master of Science & Computer Science
January 2020 - April 2022
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
My research work includes analysis of Stack Overflow datasets. My thesis is available here.
Bachelor of Science & Information Technology
2014 March - 2018 June
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Core modules include Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition, Big data Analytics, Artificial Neural Networks, Artificial In- telligence, Data mining and Warehousing, and Database Management Systems. My final year research is building an an Advanced Backtesting Tool for Forex Traders Using Machine Learning.
Professional Experience
Research & Development Intern
May 2023 - Present
Ubisoft Toronto
- Work as an Intern in the La Forge team.
- Analysis of large datasets on Hadoop eco-system, and several other data sources.
Data Science Engineer
March 2019 - December 2019
BooleanLabs (PVT) LTD, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Develop a near-realtime Intelligent Log Analysis and Risk Prediction System designed for a telecommunication company.
- Implement a Hidden Markov Model to predict server breakdowns.
- Design the modular structure of the backend server using Django, a python framework.
- Work with PostgreSQL databases and several python libraries such as PyTorch, Statsmodels, Scikit-learn, etc.
Software Engineer
July 2018 - February 2019
99X Technology (PVT) LTD, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Work as a software developer in Compello Connect, an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and eInvoice Approval System, which was implemented using C# .NET.
- Develop a desktop application using C#.NET to anonymize XML log files.
Trainee Software Engineer
December 2016 - June 2017
99X Technology (PVT) LTD, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Work as a full stack developer in a payment platform. The technologies used were AngularJS for the front-end and NodeJS and AWS for the backend.
Publications
Please checkout my Google Scholar page for more updates.
Service
Contact me
Email:
nimmirashinika@gmail.com and nrweeraddana@uwaterloo.ca
Gallery
Before you leave, enjoy some of my favourite photos in the gallery.
