Saminda Balasuriya
Research Fellow, The Hopkins Centre
Saminda is a Research Fellow at The Hopkins Centre with a background in human-computer interaction, accessibility research, and qualitative research. He completed his PhD at Queensland University of Technology and previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the QUT Centre for Robotics. His research has focused on human-robot interaction and the inclusive design of emerging technologies, particularly with and for people with intellectual disability.
Across his research, Saminda has worked closely with community partners, support workers, and people with lived experience to explore how technologies can be designed in ways that are meaningful, practical, and beneficial. His published work has examined social robots, voice interfaces, and other interactive technologies, with a strong emphasis on co-design and accessibility.
Publications
Balasuriya, S. S., & Sitbon, L. (2023, December). Designing gardening applications to engage people with intellectual disability in gardening activities. In Proceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (pp. 415-422).
Guedes, L. S., Balasuriya, S. S., Sitbon, L., & Landoni, M. (2024). Artistic Fusion: Exploring the Potential of AI-Generated Artwork in Enabling Creative Expression with People with Intellectual Disabilities.
Sitbon, L., Balasuriya, S. S., & Percy, L. S. (2023, December). Guiding non-verbal conversation about meal choices with intelligent technologies. In Proceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (pp. 350-359).
Sitbon, L., Balasuriya, S., & Mitchell, A. (2024). Inclusively Designing for People in Human-Robot Collaboration. Interaction Design and Architecture (s), 61(61), 11-41.
Balasuriya S., Sitbon, L., & Mitchell, A. (2024) Attributes of robots co-designed with people with intellectual disabilities to support them in diverse contexts. In OzCHI 2024: Proceedings of the 36th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York.
Saminda Sundeepa Balasuriya, Laurianne Sitbon, and Alicia Mitchell. 2026. Anthropomorphism in Human-Robot Interactions with Adults with Intellectual Disabilities and Robots. J. Hum.-Robot Interact. (March 2026). https://doi.org/10.1145/3800572
Current Projects
Co-designing a Virtual Reality Implementation Framework
Published 27th January 2026
