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Dammika Lakmal Walpitage

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Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

Lakmal is currently seeking his PhD in Educational Psychology and Research with a concentration in Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement. Originally from Colombo, Sri Lanka, he received his BSc in Statistics at the University of Colombo and came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2012. We asked him to reflect on some of his past and current experiences. Read his responses below.

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Awards
  • Summer Research Assistantship Award – 2014
    Competitive award offered by the Office of Research and Engagement to carry out the project titled “Cost Analysis of STEMspark Middle School Science Teacher Learning Academies Program: A Preliminary Study”
  • 2nd in ENBIS (European Network for Industrial and Business Statistics) Greenfield Challenge Award – 2013
    Competition was to showcase products that were created to communicate statistics with general public or groups outside the statistical community
Accomplishments
  • Completed the Masters Degree in Statistics through Intercollegiate Graduate Statistics Program while completing the PhD (2014)
  • Co-author of an article published in International Education (2014) journal, and one article is currently under review in International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment (2015)
  • Published work in the proceedings of an international statistics conference (2014)
  • Gave presentations at leading national evaluation (American Evaluation Association annual conference) and statistics education (United States Conference in Teaching Statistics) conferences
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Current Occupation

Statistics Consultant (Graduate Research Associate)
Research Computing Support unit, Office of Information Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

As a consultant, he provides quantitative research design and data analysis support to faculty, staff, and students across the university.

Personal Interests

Traveling to new destinations in the USA. Watching elephants in the wild. Being a father of two kids.

Future/Vocational Goals

Working in a research organization. Taking a leadership role in Sri Lankan statistical associations.

What sold you on this program/department/university?

Close mentorship in the program; diversity of the programs in the department and opportunity to collaborate with faculty and students in other programs; and location of the university in the beautiful Knoxville area.

What do you think has been the most rewarding/challenging about this program?

Having manuscript editing days in the ESM seminar. This was really helpful to develop manuscripts at a publishable level.

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