Madara Premawardhana Wins Third Prize in OpenWeather Challenge 2025
9 January 2026
Madara Premawardhana, a PhD student in the School of Computing, has won third prize in the OpenWeather Challenge 2025, an international competition that attracted over 400 applications.
The OpenWeather Challenge brings together students, early-career researchers, and professionals from around the world to develop creative, data-driven solutions using open meteorological data. Entries are judged on originality, technical quality, and potential real-world impact.
The winners were announced at an awards ceremony held on 16 December 2025 at Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, where finalists from around the world presented their work and received recognition from OpenWeather and academic and industry experts.
Madara received the third-prize award for “WeatherSim”, a project focused on real-time weather simulation using Unreal Engine, demonstrating an innovative approach to the visualisation and interaction with meteorological data. WeatherSim is derived from Madara’s PhD research, conducted under the supervision of Professor Harin Sellahewa.
Speaking of her win, Madara said:
“It was an incredible experience presenting my project, learning from the other participants, and connecting with so many passionate and inspiring people. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn, share, and be part of such an inspiring community.”
This achievement reflects the strength of doctoral research in Computing at Buckingham and highlights the University’s growing profile in data-driven computational research focusing on environmental sustainability.