Summary
Mark Mcdonnell is a Senior Principal Engineer specializing in computer vision and applied AI with 25 years working with data and a particular depth in images, video and audio. He bridges research and production, using MLOps and domain collaboration to deliver AI tools across sports, health, space, agriculture, mining and manufacturing. A former ARC Australian Research Fellow and Associate Professor, he has published over 100 papers and holds a granted patent focused on making learning algorithms more efficient and hardware-aware. As CTO and co-founder of Athlete's AI and current engineering lead at Lunio, he blends startup pragmatism with academic rigour to move prototypes into real-world products. He also continues to mentor and teach via adjunct roles at multiple universities, reflecting a long-term commitment to capacity building in ML. Less obvious: his background spans astrophysics to electronic engineering, giving him a rare mix of theoretical depth and systems-level practicality.
10 years of coding experience
18 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Electronic Engineering and Applied Mathematics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Electronic Engineering and Applied Mathematics at University of Adelaide
Master of Science - MS, Astrophysics, Master of Science - MS, Astrophysics at University of Southern Queensland