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Chanuki Illushka Seresinhe

Chanuki Illushka Seresinhe

Tech leader passionate about pushing the boundaries of technology to create a positive global impact.

chanuki
London, United Kingdom
Joined May 2025
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Academic AI Research
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Alan Turing Institute
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Summary

Product and organisational data science leader who has moved from hands‑on research into senior commercial roles (e.g., Head of Data Science at Zoopla, Chief Data & Technology Officer at Boon), with experience scaling teams, operationalising ML for product and valuation models, and aligning data science to business outcomes. realworlddatascience+1
Founder and civic-minded builder: co-founded Beautiful Places AI to turn PhD research into an applied, open dataset and community effort to map beauty globally; frames research as actionable for urban planning, public wellbeing and policy. beautifulplaces+1
Multidisciplinary background in digital design and consultancy before transitioning into economics and data science—this blend of design, product sensibility and rigorous research shows in work that straddles academic publication, public communication, product delivery and civic initiatives. theconversation+1
Academic researcher who bridged computer vision, large‑scale online datasets and behavioural science to quantify 'beauty' in outdoor places and to link environmental aesthetics with health and subjective wellbeing. This research produced multiple peer‑reviewed papers and the datasets/methods that later seeded Beautiful Places AI. orcid+2

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Happiness is greater in more scenic locations

January 1, 2019

Analyses relationships between scenic beauty of locations and measures of subjective wellbeing, demonstrating population-level links between environment aesthetics and happiness.

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Using deep learning to quantify the beauty of outdoor places

January 1, 2017

Introduces a deep learning approach trained on crowdsourced beauty ratings to predict scenic beauty from images at large scale; one of the foundational papers linking computer vision and environmental aesthetics.

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Quantifying the impact of scenic environments on health

January 1, 2015

Examines associations between scenic environments and health outcomes using large datasets; contributes evidence that living in more scenic areas correlates with better reported health.

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Hobbies

Public speaking and outreach on AI, urban design, and wellbeing (podcasts, conference talks, interviews). youtube+2

Notes

PGPatryk Grzelaksaid they've seen
CIChanuki Illushka Seresinhe, PhD
drive meaningful innovation or change in travel tech.

Nov 18, 2025

DSDavid Spindlersaid they've seen
CIChanuki Illushka Seresinhe, PhD
make a significant positive impact on technology initiatives at their university.

Nov 11, 2025