Karl Mcdowall
Boulder, Colorado, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKarl Mcdowall is a systems-focused software engineer with over two decades of embedded and low-level systems experience, now based in Boulder, Colorado. He has deep expertise in Rust, C++, C and ARM assembler, and a track record building real-world robotics and OS-level infrastructure—from early work on Symbian and power-management at Qualcomm to leading core infrastructure at Canvas Technology where he helped design a vision-based SLAM stack and patented a preferred-path feature. Karl combines algorithmic rigor (path smoothing, A*/motion planning) with pragmatic engineering: threading libraries, protobuf-based remote visualization, and performance triage across CPU, GPU and RT deadlines. He thrives in startups and high-pressure cross-company integrations, often serving as a technical lead and architect who shapes development processes and delivery. A Cambridge-trained mathematician/astrophysicist, he brings analytical depth to practical system design and optimization.
1 year of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
BA Mathematics Astrophysics, BA Mathematics Astrophysics at University of Cambridge
Github Skills (12)
busybox10
command-line-tool10
coreutils10
linux10
rust10
cross-platform10
rewrite10
gnu10
nim-language10
gnu-coreutils9
ctrl7
signal-handling6
Programming languages (1)
Github contributions (4)
karlmcdowall/coreutils
Dec 2024 - Apr 2025
Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
Contributions:188 pushes, 23 branches in 3 months
karlmcdowall/rust-ctrlc
Jan 2025 - Jan 2025
Easy Ctrl-C handler for Rust projects
Contributions:12 pushes, 1 branch in 2 days
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