DrAnuradha Madugalla

Dr Anuradha Madugalla is a Lecturer in the School of Information Technology at Deakin University and an emerging global expert in human-centric software engineering, with a specialisation in inclusive technologies. Her work spans accessibility, digital health, and disaster resilience—addressing the needs of vulnerable and underrepresented communities through innovative design and evidence-based research.

With over a decade of experience across academia, industry, and not-for-profit sectors, Anuradha has collaborated with government and non-government organisations (including several disability organisations) in the areas of health and disaster management to co-design impactful digital tools. Her research has been recognised through nine competitive grants—including a $1.5 million Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant—and over 40 peer-reviewed publications across top-tier venues.

In recognition of her contributions to education and research, Anuradha was selected as the Deakin Ambassador to attend `Science Meets Parliament 2026', where she will meet Australian Parliament representatives and talk about her work. She has also received the 2024 Asian-Australian Leadership Award in the Education, Science & Medicine category (earlier known as ‘40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards’). She is also a past winner of the Google WomenTechMakers Award and co-founder of Sri Lanka's first Forensic Facial Reconstruction Centre.

Anuradha plays a leading role in international research communities, serving as the Finance Chair for IEEE VL/HCC 2024, and has contributed to program committees for premier conferences such as ICSE, CHASE and OzCHI. She is also acting as a reviewer for top journals in Software Engineering, such as ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology Journal (TOSEM), Springer Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), Journal of Software Systems (JSS) and Springer Requirements Engineering Journal (REEN)