PI: Nisansa de Silva
We propose to advance aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) by developing enhanced models, datasets, and evaluation methods that improve the accuracy and applicability of sentiment classification across multiple domains.
PI: Nisansa de Silva
We propose to advance natural language processing for low-resource settings by leveraging data augmentation, transfer learning, and model adaptation techniques to overcome the scarcity of annotated data and linguistic resources.
PI: Nisansa de Silva
This project delves into the synergy between Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the legal domain, presenting novel solutions to enduring challenges.
PI: Nisansa de Silva
We propose to build and analyze Sinhala language resources, datasets, and models to strengthen NLP research for this low-resource language, while connecting it to English and Tamil through bilingual lexicons, embeddings, and cross-lingual methods.
PI: Nisansa de Silva
We propose to advance social media text analysis by combining linguistic study, preprocessing, and deep learning models to better capture sentiment, structure, and meaning in informal, large-scale user-generated text.
Theses: MSc Major Component Research
Gathika Ratnayaka, "Minimizing domain bias when adapting sentiment analysis techniques to the legal domain", University of Moratuwa, 2022
Journal Papers
W M Yomal De Mel and Nisansa de Silva, "Linguistic Analysis of Sinhala YouTube Comments on Sinhala Music Videos: A Dataset Study", ICTer, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 121-130, 2025. doi: 10.4038/icter.v18i2.7299
Dineth Jayakody, A V A Malkith, Koshila Isuranda, Vishal Thenuwara, Nisansa de Silva, Sachintha Rajith Ponnamperuma, G G N Sandamali, and K L K Sudheera, "Instruct-DeBERTa: A Hybrid Approach for Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis on Textual Reviews", ICTer, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 39-50, 2025. doi: 10.4038/icter.v18i2.7290
Vihanga Jayawickrama, Gihan Weeraprameshwara, Nisansa de Silva, and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, "Facebook for Sentiment Analysis: Baseline Models to Predict Facebook Reactions of Sinhala Posts", The International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, vol. 15, no. 2, 2022. doi: 10.4038/icter.v15i2.7248
Sahan Jayasinghe, Lakith Ransika Rambukkanage, Ashan Silva, Nisansa de Silva, and Amal Shehan Perera, "Unified Legal Party Based Sentiment Analysis Pipeline", The International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions, vol. 15, no. 2, 2022. doi: 10.4038/icter.v15i2.7247
Conference Papers
Gihan Weeraprameshwara, Vihanga Jayawickrama, Nisansa de Silva, and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, "Sentiment Analysis with Deep Learning Models: A Comparative Study on a Decade of Sinhala Language Facebook Data", in 2022 The 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Electronics Engineering, Association for Computing Machinery, 2022, pp. 16-22. doi: 10.1145/3512826.3512829
Vihanga Jayawickrama, Gihan Weeraprameshwara, Nisansa de Silva, and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, "Seeking Sinhala Sentiment: Predicting Facebook Reactions of Sinhala Posts", in 2021 21st International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICter), 2021, pp. 177-182. doi: 10.1109/ICter53630.2021.9774796 
Isanka Rajapaksha, Chanika Ruchini Mudalige, Dilini Karunarathna, Nisansa de Silva, Gathika Rathnayaka, and Amal Shehan Perera, "Rule-Based Approach for Party-Based Sentiment Analysis in Legal Opinion Texts", in 2020 20th International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer), 2020, pp. 284--285. doi: 10.1109/ICTer51097.2020.9325435
N. H. N. D. de Silva, "SAFS3 Algorithm: Frequency Statistic and Semantic Similarity Based Semantic Classification Use Case", in Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer), 2015 Fifteenth International Conference on, August. 2015, pp. 77--83. doi: 10.1109/ICTER.2015.7377670
Workshop Papers
Dineth Jayakody, Koshila Isuranda, A V A Malkith, Nisansa de Silva, G G N Sandamali, K L K Sudheera, and Sachintha Rajith, "Instruct-DeBERTa: A Hybrid Approach for Enhanced Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis with Category Extraction", in Eighth Widening NLP Workshop (WiNLP 2024) Phase II, 2024.
Gathika Ratnayaka, Thejan Rupasinghe, Nisansa de Silva, Viraj Gamage, Menuka Warushavithana, and Amal Shehan Perera, "Shift-of-Perspective Identification Within Legal Cases", in Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Automated Detection, Extraction and Analysis of Semantic Information in Legal Texts, 2019.
