Anthony Wylde

I have always been fascinated by the intersection of data, technology and insight, and by the idea that those skills can be used for social good. As a teenager, fuelled by Patricia Cornwell novels and too much CSI and NCIS, I imagined a career solving crimes and cracking codes with science. Reality was somewhat less dramatic, but after studying Computer Science and Mathematics, and completing postgraduate studies, I spent 14 years in Government and Law Enforcement, working alongside remarkable people helping to keep Australia safe.

I've also loved animals and nature since I was young, with a particular soft spot for sharks. After spending much of my childhood in Jakarta, where I mostly encountered birds in cages, a keen birdwatcher taught me to appreciate Australia's birdlife and see not just a bird, but a Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo or White-faced Heron.

The COVID-19 lockdowns became an unexpected turning point. Spending hours walking in bushland made me realise I wanted nature to be a greater part of my life, without giving up the analytical work I loved.

I now work as a Research Engineer in a Monash University AI lab, applying AI to community safety. As my interest in birds grew, I trained a model to differentiate between 128 Australian bird species and experimented with using it to deter invasive species from my local park.

More recently, I joined BirdLife Australia as a volunteer shorebird counter and, despite having trained a bird recognition model, discovered I was considerably less capable of doing it myself. That experience sparked my interest in how AI could support shorebird conservation in practice.

Through my Churchill Fellowship, I hope to learn from wildlife and AI-assisted conservation programs overseas and help Australia use these technologies to better protect our shorebirds from threats such as climate change and disease.