Profile
Senior AI & Data Science Leader, Researcher, and Entrepreneur with 9+ years delivering Machine Learning, Generative AI, and AIoT solutions at enterprise scale across government, banking, financial crime, and AgTech. Proven track record in GenAI platforms (RAG, agentic systems), advanced ML (CORAL, LightGBM, ordinal classification), NLP, computer vision, and responsible AI governance — translating complex analytics into measurable business outcomes.
Currently Lead Data Scientist at NDIA, building 200+ target classification systems and LLM-powered decision support on AWS. Concurrently conducting AIoT research at University of Adelaide — designing hardware sensors, AI agents, and smart irrigation systems for AgTech. Former Co-Founder & CEO of Clever Mushroom, Australia's first smart mushroom farm startup with $400K angel investment. Known for bridging deep technical expertise with leadership, entrepreneurship, and real-world impact.
Currently Lead Data Scientist at NDIA, building 200+ target classification systems and LLM-powered decision support on AWS. Concurrently conducting AIoT research at University of Adelaide — designing hardware sensors, AI agents, and smart irrigation systems for AgTech. Former Co-Founder & CEO of Clever Mushroom, Australia's first smart mushroom farm startup with $400K angel investment. Known for bridging deep technical expertise with leadership, entrepreneurship, and real-world impact.
Career Timeline
Aug 2025 — Present
Lead Data Scientist (Contractor)
National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) · Australia
GenAILLMsAWS BedrockStreamlitLlamaIndexPosit Workbench
- Contributed to 'Holly' — internal chatbot prototype built on AWS (Streamlit, LlamaIndex, Bedrock)
- Built & deployed internal Python NLP package for multiclass classification
- Designed classification & regression pipelines for assessment outcome prediction and budget forecasting
- Led budget planning for automated assessment monitoring & drift management framework
- Led and built a multiclass classification system covering 200+ targets, each with 5+ categories, across thousands of features spanning numerical, text, embedding, and mixed data types
- Applied the CORAL framework combined with LightGBM to solve complex ordinal classification challenges at scale
- Developed fine-tuning techniques combined with a customised hybrid scoring system to significantly improve the performance of Assessment Estimation models
- Received formal acknowledgement from the branch for significant contributions to model improvement and pipeline development
- Achieved 97% accuracy in budget prediction models, with predicted budgets closely aligned to actual allocated budgets
2023 — Present
AIoT Researcher (Collaboration)
University of Adelaide · Australia
AI AgentsAIoTSensingHardware DesignPlant Monitoring
- Conducting research on sensing waves emitted by mushrooms, with findings extended to other plant species
- Designing hardware systems to capture plant wave signals and convert them into meaningful, actionable data
- Building AI agents for individual plants to autonomously monitor and support their growth and health in controlled environments
- Utilising micro cameras and computer vision techniques to analyse plant health and identify plant species, enabling better suggestions for optimal growing environments
- Designing and deploying a smart irrigation system for a grape farm in Victoria, helping farmers control and optimise water usage
- Developing a social network for AI agents of plants, enabling them to communicate with each other and share their thoughts on environmental data and health signals to collectively optimise growth conditions
Jul 2021 — Present
Honorary Research Fellow
Macquarie University · School of Computing
Research GrantsIndustry CollaborationConferences
- Nominated by Head of School in recognition of research contributions & industrial problem-solving
May 2021 — Aug 2025
Senior Data Scientist / Acting Director (EL1 → EL2)
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) · SFCT & NLP/CV Team
NLPComputer VisionSparkGPU ComputingNEREntity Resolution
- Led NER, Entity Resolution & Document Classification models for financial crime investigations
- Designed pipeline processing 30+ TB of unstructured data for fraud detection
- Improved model accuracy & efficiency 4× using Spark & GPU-accelerated computing
- Achieved 90%+ accuracy on bank cheque detection using computer vision within one month
- Acting Director (EL2): managed projects, teams, stakeholder alignment & funding proposals
Jan 2021 — May 2021
Senior Analyst, Analytics & Insights
Westpac · Australia
SQLPython AutomationData Warehouse Migration
- Developed SQL queries to extract and analyse data for financial reporting purposes
- Transformed manual Excel-based workflows into automated Python scripts, enhancing efficiency and maintainability
- Supported the migration from a legacy data warehouse to a modernised system, ensuring data integrity and continuity
Jul 2019 — May 2024
Co-Founder & CEO
Clever Mushroom · Startup, NSW, Australia
StartupIoTSmart FarmingHardware DesignControlled EnvironmentAngel Investment
- Designed and built the first smart mushroom farm in NSW to cultivate exotic mushrooms, including various oyster mushrooms and lion's mane
- Secured $400K investment from an angel investor to scale operations
- Built modular smart mushroom containers within 40ft shipping containers, featuring a fully controlled environment to monitor and maintain optimal conditions for different mushroom species
- Pioneered a vision to grow mushrooms anywhere in the world, independent of local climate conditions
- Exited the venture due to diverging visions and strategic directions among co-founders
Feb 2019 — Feb 2020
Data Scientist
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) · Australia
SpotfireSparkOpenCVTrading Analytics
- Built a dashboard for trading data analytics based on Spotfire software and Cloudera platform
- Designed interactive trading market dashboard for real-time data visualisation using Spotfire
- Analysed large-scale trading datasets using Spark to uncover market trends and insights
- Utilised OpenCV to extract key information from documents, automating workflows based on business requirements
Oct 2020 — Jan 2021
NLP Researcher — COVID-19 Knowledge Graph
University of Adelaide · Dept. of Defence Funded
Knowledge GraphNeo4jNLP
- Conducted research and developed a comprehensive knowledge graph to model COVID-19-related data
- Leveraged Neo4j to effectively visualise and present complex relationships within the data
- Project funded by the Australian Department of Defence
Oct 2018 — Dec 2019
Research Engineer
Macquarie University · Smart Energy Research
Deep LearningIoTAnomaly DetectionMobile App Dev
- Researched and developed a smart socket system for real-time tracking of household energy consumption
- Created a user-friendly mobile application to enable users to monitor and control their energy usage
- Applied deep learning and machine learning models to detect anomalies and automatically categorise electrical appliances
- Classified appliances based on energy consumption patterns, user behaviour, and usage trends
Feb 2017 — Jan 2018
Data Scientist
Mojo Power · Australia
Energy OptimisationForecastingCustomer Analytics
- Developed an intelligent model to recommend optimal switching between solar, grid power, and battery storage for efficient energy usage
- Built a predictive model to forecast peak energy consumption periods, enabling proactive load management
- Analysed historical energy data to identify and understand individual customer usage patterns and behaviours