Dr. Lakmali Weerasena, an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at UTC, spent her professional development leave designing elephant corridors in her native Sri Lanka to help prevent human-animal conflict.
Weerasena utilizes operations research, a subject that led to her thesis on the application of mathematical modeling in conservation biology, to determine which areas of land to create corridors to help elephants travel safely away from human contact.
“Human-elephant conflict is a huge problem because they always come to the residential areas and people also harm elephants,” she said. “The main issue is that there are no proper corridors for them to walk. There are some corridors and the government is introducing new corridors, but it’s an active research problem in Sri Lanka.
“I was thinking whether I can support that by applying the model I developed for providing corridors to reduce this human-elephant conflict.”
A member of the UTC faculty since 2016, Weerasena teaches courses focused on applied mathematics, which is related to operations research and her work in Sri Lanka.
“It’s an applied mathematics course and I always give students an opportunity to work on a project,” she said. “I want them to apply the techniques they learn in class to a certain real-world problem. They are free to select a problem from reality. They can pick the problem from home, workplace or school. But they need to apply the techniques they learned in the classroom to solve that real-world issue.
“Optimization is something we use without knowing the techniques every day. We wake up in the morning and need to do many things: we need to eat, wash and go to work. We have many goals, and we always need to plan the best way to achieve them. That’s a multi-objective optimization problem.”
In addition to her work in Sri Lanka, Weerasena mentors multiple Ph.D. students in conservation biology. For example, one student is currently developing a mathematical model to stop invasive plants from spreading in the Chattanooga area.
Dr. Chris Cox, professor and head of the UTC Department of Mathematics, cited a common real-world problem as an example of the work done in this field.
Cox described a UPS delivery driver and how they hypothetically make 100 stops a day, which he referred to as the “traveling salesperson problem.” The goal is to make the most efficient route possible, utilizing operations research and applied mathematics.
“It really is an integral part of math,” he said. “I’m an applied mathematician. I’m a numerical analyst. Most of my career and research has been taking problems from science and engineering, and figuring out how to do the same predictive modeling with them. That’s what she does in the sense of these optimization problems.”
Instead of door-to-door deliveries, Weerasena is optimizing elephant travel.
She was introduced to the concept during her undergraduate studies in Sri Lanka. The topic piqued her interest due to its practical applications. She further pursued operations research during her master’s and doctoral degrees at Clemson University.
“I took so many courses related to operations research because I saw applications,” she said.
Her thesis, focusing on conservation biology—which relates directly to her current work in Sri Lanka—has led her to some interesting conclusions, including the necessity for water specifically for elephants.
She explained that the water isn’t just for drinking. Elephants are prone to overheating due to their large frames.
“Elephants generate lots of heat and their bigger ear flaps help them to reduce that heat, taking it away from the body,” Weerasena explained. “Based on my experience, elephants need water not just for survival and not for drinking, but they need large water resources to play with to reduce their body heat. With my model, I have the freedom to adjust parameters to include new things.
“After analyzing the geographical region, when I design the corridor, if there’s a large water resource, I’m definitely trying to add that to the corridor. I’m trying to save that for elephants, not for people.”
During her professional development leave, Weerasena said she realized the significance of her goal while visiting an elephant orphanage with her family.
Cox expressed that these opportunities help explain why math is essential.
“It helps remind us why we’re here but it also encourages other folks just to see how important math is and what it can be used for,” he said.
He said seeing students and faculty following their passion for math is the most rewarding part of the job.
Weerasena said she doesn’t know if the elephant corridors will actually be built but feels grateful for the opportunity to share her knowledge with people who may need it in the future.
“I have learned so many things here and now have the opportunity to serve the Sri Lankan community,” she said. “I’m not physically there and I don’t need to be. I’m training people.”