Jacob Mcdonnell
R&D Engineer at The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University
State College, Pennsylvania, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJacob Mcdonnell is an R&D Engineer with nine years of hands-on experience exploring the boundaries between hardware and software, currently based at the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State. His curiosity-driven path—from switching to Linux to mastering C and Assembly—reflects a deep interest in how complex systems fit together and perform in real environments. At Penn State he progressed from intern to full-time R&D engineer, applying low-level systems knowledge to research problems and prototyping solutions. Known for learning by doing, he blends academic computer science foundations with practical engineering to uncover subtle interactions between OS, firmware, and hardware. Passionate about reverse engineering and system internals, he brings a pragmatic, investigative mindset to multidisciplinary teams in State College.
9 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree Computer Science, Bachelor's degree Computer Science at Penn State University
Github Skills (17)
operating-system8
kernel8
unix8
browser7
steam7
proton7
git-mirror6
windows6
linux6
macos5
chromium5
ios4
android4
pulseaudio3
brave3
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
JacobMcDonnell/ProjectMustang
Oct 2021 - Mar 2024
A UNIX-like operating system with the graphical environment of a 90s operating system
Contributions:1 PR, 8 pushes, 2 branches in 2 years 5 months
kernelunixoperating-systemlinux90s
mcd223/mcd223.github.io
Feb 2017 - Jul 2017
Contributions:1 PR, 156 pushes, 2 branches in 4 months
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