Dr. A.G. Hamilton-Taylor is founder of the Web, Animation, Visualization and E-learning (WAVE) research lab and lecturer in the Department of Computing, University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.
Dr. Hamilton-Taylor is a graduate of the UWI, with a B.Sc. in Computer Science. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science with a minor in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a LASPAU-Fulbright scholar, working under the supervision of a founder of the Design Patterns field, Prof Ralph Johnson. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia, where he developed the SKA algorithm animation system.
He designed the SKA (Support Kit for Animation) software visualization system was designed to support the needs of learners and instructors, and his dissertation research included the architectural design of software to conduct evaluation at the perceptual, cognitive and conceptual levels. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation to the tune of over US$600,000 in a collaborative project with the Georgia Institute of Technology (where he did postgraduate research) and the University of Georgia.
Over the past twenty-five years, he has been deeply involved in the development and revision of the curricula of a number of undergraduate and graduate degrees at UWI and other tertiary institutions in Jamaica.
Dr. Hamilton-Taylor served on the Jamaica Computer Society project that designed and established computer laboratories in over 150 Jamaican high schools in the 1990's, in order to facilitate the introduction of the Caribbean Secondary School Examination (CXC/CSEC) Information Technology program. He was consultant-evaluator on the first comprehensive study of educational technology conducted in Jamaica, the UNDP/Government of Jamaica Computer-Assisted Instruction in Secondary Schools Pilot Project.
His consultancy experience includes being a Senior Research Scientist with Isadra International of Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, California, and their subsidiary Isadra Jamaica. At the Planning Institute of Jamaica he worked on the UNDP-funded BACHUE-Jamaica simulation of the effects of government policies and socio-demographic factors on the economy.
Dr. Hamilton-Taylor is the technical director for Queen Omega Communications/Pan African Digest. Since the 1980’s, he has been the technical planning/media coordinator for a number of Pan-African and Rastafari conferences, seminars and events. He is a collector/archivist of Pan African and Rastafari historical/cultural material, and a board member of the Bob Andy Foundation.
The Web, Animation, Visualisation and E-learning (WAVE) Laboratory/research group, spearheaded by Dr. Hamilton-Taylor, facilitates research on the frontiers of cultural computing, encouraging the positive use of indigenous culture in the design of interactive 3D computing software and multimedia/animation, e-learning, new media and games for cultural-social upliftment.
