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Dr. Mahe Velauthapillai's Diverse Interests Propel Computer Science Research

By LiAnna Davis

The computer science field is one that rapidly changes, but Dr. Mahe Velauthapillai keeps up.

“Computer science was an island when I started. I’ve seen it grow and grow. Now, it’s in every field,” he says, pointing out how computer science is an integral part of the entire academic and professional spectrum. “It’s beautiful. I love my field.”

Dr. Velauthapillai’s research interests reflect the dynamic nature of his chosen discipline. A native of Sri Lanka, he started his academic career as an undergraduate mathematics major, then expanded to work on both mathematics and computer science at the master’s level, before completing his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Maryland at College Park. He focused on theoretical computer science, delving into issues related to learning theory in his early academic career. He has published many papers and is internationally known for his work in this area.

In early 1990, Dr. Velauthapillai started conducting research in network performance. A research collaboration with IBM on performance-related issues for token rings and Ethernets led to published papers for him and two patents for the company. He began looking at wireless performance in early 2000, and worked with both Dr. Bala Kalyanasundaram, a Georgetown Computer Science colleague and frequent collaborator, and Cisco to develop two patents for sharing of cell phone bandwidth between different networks, a technology that benefits both wireless providers and users. Dr. Velauthapillai also works on algorithms for sharing bandwidth to improve performance in an ongoing collaboration with Motorola. Optimizing on-demand broadcasting for television is another network performance area in which Dr. Velauthapillai has worked.

In the last four years, he has turned his attention to the growing field of bioinformatics. Bioinformaticians use computer algorithms on biological data. Dr. Velauthapillai became interested in bioinformatics through his wife, Chrysanthi, who works in medical microbiology for the Department of Defense. Recent advances in medicine such as the Human Genome Project, which mapped the genome sequence (that is, the order of the elements in the genome) for each human chromosome, were possible thanks to computer technology, and Dr. Velauthapillai wanted to assist scientists who are working on such projects.

“We provide some services where biologists can collect and search for information,” he explains. Working with Dr. Kalyanasundaram, Dr. Natarajan Ganesan, and others, Dr. Velauthapillai developed Sequerome, a Web-based search tool for those working on bioinformatic sequencing. Using the power of the Google search engine, the team also developed InstaSeq, in which one pastes part or all of a sequence into a search box to determine what information is available on the sequence. Dr. Velauthapillai has also recently started working with his wife on technology that can aid in the detection of biowarfare agents in blood samples by analyzing data from microarray experiments.

If there’s a common thread in all of his work, it is his goal of providing the technology to meet other people’s needs. Dr. Velauthapillai credits his interactions in and out of the Georgetown community with keeping his work relevant.

“I’m always learning,” he says. “From my research, from the students, from the administrators, from the staff. Computer science is changing so fast, I always have to be learning. It’s been fun.”

His contagious energy and enthusiasm for the subject infects his students as well. Many have majored in computer science as a stepping stone to other fields, including medicine, business, academia, and even law. Yugo Nagashima, one former student of Dr. Vellauthapillai’s, recently graduated from Keio University Law School in Japan.

Nagashima says what Dr. Velauthapillai taught him at Georgetown has helped him persevere in a very different educational environment. In Japan, the bar exam is the most difficult national exam that one can take. Unlike the bar exam in the United States, Japan tries to restrict the number of lawyers for policy purposes. This makes the law school system extremely competitive. For Nagashima, who had no understanding of Japanese law and whose Japanese language skills were at the college freshman level, an already challenging environment was even harder.

“Dr. Mahe’s educational philosophy of ‘thinking and finding something cool in what you are learning’ has helped me overcome a major disadvantage in my Japanese legal education,” he says. “There were days, weeks, and even months when I felt that I should just quit, because I could not fully grasp the content of what I was learning. However, in the hardest of times, I would always remember how I did overcome and persevere difficult times in Dr. Mahe’s classes. I would also remember that I am learning for the sake of learning and not just for grades. I truly believe that without his words, I would have never made it through law school, and I would really like to thank Dr. Mahe for teaching me one of the most important lessons while I was in Georgetown.”

Dr. Velauthapillai explains his philosophy simply: “I’m part of all my students,” he says. “They come here as kids and leave as young adults. They discover their potential and shine. I bring the best out of them when I give them respect and trust them.”

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