Bio

Hiruni Niwunhella is a Ph.D. student in industrial engineering at NC State with a minor in Operations Research. She also serves as a graduate research assistant at the university. Previously, she earned her master’s degree in industrial engineering from NC State as a Fulbright Scholar. Her master’s research used deep learning to predict incident hotspots across North Carolina.

Before coming to NC State, Niwunhella built experience in teaching, research and industry. She serves as a lecturer at the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka while on study leave. There, she taught courses in operations management, optimization, simulation, industrial and systems engineering and Lean Six Sigma. Additionally, she supervised undergraduate research and coordinated internship placements for approximately 100 students each year.

Niwunhella also worked at MAS Holdings, where she applied data analytics to support business decisions. Her experience included business intelligence, talent analytics and process improvement. Moreover, she earned a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification, strengthening her expertise in data-driven improvement and operational excellence.

Advisor

Leila Hajibabai

Concentration

System Analytics and Optimization