Upul obtained a BSc (Eng) (Hons 1) from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 1990, MSEE and PhD from Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly the University of Missouri-Rolla), USA in 1993 and 1999 respectively. Before joining Western Sydney University, he was with Philips Personal Communications as a member of their Technical Staff in 1998 and then with Motorola Personal Communication Systems Research Labs in New Jersey as a Staff Engineer from 1998 to January 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he was with Bell Laboratories of Lucent Technologies.