After completing his high school education at Nalanda College, Colombo, Vilathgamuwa entered the University of Moratuwa; graduating with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering (Honours) in 1984.
[citation needed] In 1985 Vilathgamuwa started his academic career as assistant lecturer at University of Moratuwa.
[citation needed] Later after obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Electrical Engineering from University of Cambridge, England he became a senior lecturer at Moratuwa.
[citation needed] His doctoral thesis was entitled Control of voltage-sourced reversible rectifiers [1] From 1993 to 2013 Vilathgamuwa served as an academic in the capacities of lecturer, assistant professor and associate professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
[2] Professor Vilathgamuwa is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).