Mahesh Ranaweera

Senior Software Developer AI Researcher PhD Candidate
Canada [email protected] Website GitHub LinkedIn ORCID SciProfiles

Summary

Senior software developer working across full-stack applications, scalable backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI-assisted features. PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence at Ontario Tech University, researching Sim2Real reinforcement learning and domain randomization.

Experience

Senior Software Developer, DevOps | July 2018 – present

Vocalmeet

Lead end-to-end technology development across full-stack development, DevOps, mobile, AI/ML, cloud infrastructure, system architecture, data platforms, and enterprise integrations. Build large member-based platforms and developed new Elasticsearch-based techniques for handling large-scale user data. Work on SR&ED (Scientific Research and Experimental Development) projects. Grew from junior developer to technical lead, and now hold senior development and DevOps responsibilities across multiple teams.

Research Assistant | 2020 – 2023

Ontario Tech University

Research assistant to Dr. Qusay H. Mahmoud, P.Eng., on Sim2Real reinforcement learning during master’s studies. Built the vision system for a strawberry-harvesting robot, training a YOLOv5 strawberry detector that runs live on an Intel RealSense depth camera. Designed and delivered hands-on workshops, including an OpenAI API workshop.

Communications and Media Coordinator | June 2017 – 2018

DreBu, Toronto Youth Peer Support

Summer role supporting the youth peer-support network through its website, social media, online surveys, and its first annual networking conference. Afterwards continued as a volunteer, maintaining the TYPS websites and mobile apps until starting full-time at Vocalmeet in 2018.

Website and Graphic Designer | June 2016 – Jan 2017

DreBu, Toronto Youth Peer Support

Summer role designing and building the TYPS Network youth peer-support member site and its Android and iOS apps for the non-profit, along with visual identities and outreach materials. Continued as a volunteer into January 2017, managing and maintaining what we built.

Student Lead, Robot Design & Development | 2013 – 2014

FRC Team 2198 Paradigm Shift, L’Amoreaux C.I.

One of the student leads on the school’s FIRST Robotics team, under the leadership of teacher Grantley Blenman. Designed, built and programmed robots for FIRST and VEX competitions and mentored junior members. The team won the 2014 Greater Toronto East Regional and competed at the FIRST Championship (Archimedes Division) in St. Louis, Missouri. Received the school’s 21st Century Technology Award (2014) for commitment to the team.

Team history About the team

Education

PhD Candidate, Artificial Intelligence | 2024 – present

Ontario Tech University

Sim2Real reinforcement learning, supervised by Dr. Qusay H. Mahmoud, P.Eng. All academic requirements completed; dissertation research in progress.

Master of Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence | 2020 – 2023

Ontario Tech University

Sim2Real reinforcement learning research, supervised by Dr. Qusay H. Mahmoud, P.Eng. Transferred directly into the PhD program after passing the doctoral candidacy examination.

B.Eng. (Honours), Software Engineering | 2014 – 2018

Ontario Tech University

Graduated with distinction.

Technical Skills

Selected Projects

Master’s Research | 2020 – 2023

Master’s research on Sim2Real transfer using the Godot game engine, published in Electronics (MDPI, 2024).

Source

Strawberry Detection for a Harvesting Robot | 2023

Trained a YOLOv5 model to detect strawberries and ran it live on an Intel RealSense depth camera as the vision system for a strawberry-harvesting robot.

Source

Violence and Assault Recognition | 2017 – 2018

As lead programmer, built a real-time platform that detects violent activity in live surveillance feeds and archived video, alerts security staff, and flags the individuals involved for review, using TensorFlow, Keras, Caffe and OpenCV with a Node.js web app on AWS. Second-place capstone at Ontario Tech University, supervised by Dr. Masoud Makrehchi, and selected to compete in the 2018 Pitch to the Chief policing-technology competition at Venture13 in Cobourg.

Publications