Thushari Atapattu

Dr. Thushari Atapattu is a Grant-Funded Researcher (A) and Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. She leads the Learning Technology for Social Good (LT4SG) research group and contributes to the Computer Science Education Research Group. Her research focuses on text mining, natural language processing (NLP), and discourse analysis, with applications in educational technology and social good initiatives.

Her work addresses challenges such as combating cyberbullying via linguistic fingerprints, modeling mental health through social media data, and analyzing discourse patterns in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Key projects include:

• Developing computational models to improve communication processes in education and healthcare.
• Exploring teachers' academic discourse impact on MOOC video engagement.
• Creating emotion-annotated mental health corpora and frameworks for detecting learner confusion in online platforms.

Dr. Atapattu is eligible to supervise Masters and PhD candidates, focusing on interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of NLP, education, and social impact. Her research group, LT4SG, emphasizes leveraging technology for community-driven solutions.