Ms. Deshani Poddenige is a PhD candidate in the AI, Optimization and Pattern Recognition research group at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne (UoM) and an academic tutor at UoM. Deshani received her B.Sc. (First class Honours) in Engineering  degree from the University of Moratuwa. Before embarking on her PhD journey, she worked over three years as both a Software Engineer and a Senior Software Engineer at Sysco LABS Technologies Sri Lanka, which is the innovation arm of the world’s largest food service company, Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY).