About our team

A husband–wife statistics team in North Carolina.

Data in. Clarity out.

Sinhara Analytics is led by Dr. Hasthika Rupasinghe and Dr. Lasanthi Watagoda, two PhD statisticians and long-time collaborators based in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Appalachian State University.

We bring academic expertise in modern statistical methods into practical, decision-focused consulting work—supporting clients in pharmaceutical and life sciences, actuarial and risk-focused organizations, and data-rich small businesses who need clear, defensible answers from complex data.

We specialize in turning messy, high-dimensional, or hard-to-interpret datasets into analyses that directly support decisions.

Team

Who you’ll be working with.

Together, we provide end-to-end support: from clarifying questions and requirements, through modeling and sensitivity analysis, to final summaries that can be shared with scientific, actuarial, and business stakeholders.

Principal Statistician

Dr. Hasthika Rupasinghe

Hasthika is an Associate Professor of Statistics at Appalachian State University with a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Statistics) from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His research and applied work center on multivariate and robust statistics, regression analysis, bootstrapping, and statistical learning.

He has developed new variable selection and regularization methods, published on topics such as HRLR and OLSAVS, and has experience with simulation studies, assay analysis, and probability problems aligned with SOA-style exam material (Exams P and SRM).

At Sinhara Analytics, he focuses on building and validating models in R, designing studies, and creating prediction and decision frameworks that stand up to technical and regulatory scrutiny.

  • Associate Professor of Statistics, Appalachian State University
  • Ph.D. in Mathematics (Statistics), Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  • Passed SOA Exams P and SRM
  • Research in regression, variable selection, bootstrapping, and statistical learning
Principal Statistician

Dr. Lasanthi Watagoda

Lasanthi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Appalachian State University, with a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Statistics) from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Her research and consulting interests include statistical learning, regression and variable selection, bootstrapping, prediction, and actuarial applications. She has published on shrinkage estimators, inference after variable selection, bootstrap prediction intervals, and applied projects ranging from environmental data to biomechanics.

At Sinhara Analytics, she often leads the design and interpretation side of projects, helping clients frame questions clearly, choose appropriate methods, and communicate technical results to non-statistical audiences.

  • Associate Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Appalachian State
  • Ph.D. in Mathematics (Statistics), Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  • Passed SOA Exams P, FM, and SRM
  • Experience across environmental, actuarial, and biomechanical applications
Process

How we typically work with clients.

We aim for projects that are scoped clearly, methodologically careful, and communicative at every step—so results are both technically defensible and practically useful.

From questions to decisions

We typically begin with a short conversation to understand your questions, data, and constraints. From there, we propose a scoped project—often a fixed-fee engagement—that includes the methods we expect to use, timelines, and deliverables.

Throughout the project, we schedule check-ins so you can react to interim results and refine the questions if needed.

Deliverables & communication

We close with written summaries, supporting tables and figures, and (when appropriate) R code or scripts. Our goal is that the final outputs are suitable to share with scientific, actuarial, or leadership teams—and that they clearly connect the data analysis to the decisions you need to make.