Nayomi Kankanamge is a lecturer and researcher specialised in urban analytics, disaster management, and digital technologies in urban planning. Currently a Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Moreton Bay campus, Nayomi previously held a lecturer position at the University of Moratuwa (2021-2024) and worked as a Sessional Academic at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) from 2018 to 2021.
Nayomi’s academic journey includes a PhD in Built Environment from QUT, where she received both the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in 2021 and the High Achiever Award in 2020, honoring her significant research contributions. Her PhD thesis, “Opportunities and Challenges of and Perceptions on Digital Technology-Driven Innovative Disaster Management Approaches”, examines themes such as crowdsourcing, gamification, sentiment analysis, and resilience to natural disasters.
In addition to her teaching roles, Nayomi has held various research positions, including serving as a research assistant at QUT, a lead research assistant for the Asian Development Bank, and an intern with UN Habitat. Her work has earned multiple accolades, including the Best Individually Supervised Undergraduate Research Project and the Superior Academic Performance Award from the Institute of Town Planners in Sri Lanka.
Her research emphasizes the integration of digital technology in urban disaster management and sustainable city planning. She co-authored “Urban Analytics with Social Media Data: Foundations, Applications and Platforms”, published by CRC Press in 2022 with Professor Tan Yigitcanlar. She also contributed to the report “Smart Cities Down Under: Performance of Australian Local Government Areas”, which evaluates the smart city performance of local governments in Australia.
Through her research and teaching, Nayomi aims to drive sustainable urban development and resilient city planning practices globally. She invites HDR students interested in topics such as Smart Technologies in Communities, Cities, and Urban Big Data, as well as Smart Technologies for Sustainability and Resilient Cities, to join her research endeavors.
Awards and Fellowships
- Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award – 2021: Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- High Achiever Award – 2020: Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- Best Individually Supervised Undergraduate Research Project 2013/2014 Academic Year: University of Moratuwa
- Award for the Superior Academic Performance in all Semesters Awarded by the Institute of Town Planners’ Sri Lanka – 2015
Professional Social Media
Potential research projects for HDR and honours students
Smart Technologies: Communities, Cities and Urban Big Data
Nayomi is interested in exploring the potential of applying smart technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Mobile GPS, Machine Learning to enhance the quality of the urban environment and improve the user experience of urban spaces.
Smart technologies: Sustainability and Resilient Cities
Nayomi's research interests focus on leveraging novel technology to improve disaster preparedness, response, and recovery through urban big data analytics. She is particularly interested in exploring the use of gamified crowdsourced data and analysis to identify areas of high risk and vulnerability to natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes.
Teaching areas
Nayomi Kankanamge's specialist areas of knowledge include Urban Studies, Social Media Data Analytics, Crowdsourcing, Gamification, Disaster Management