Biography: Dr. Dale Hamilton has been a member of the faculty of Northwest Nazarene University since 2013, becoming department chair in 2023. He currently teaches: Computer Programming 1 (C/C++), Spatial Analysis, Machine Learning, Parallel Computation, Artificial Intelligence, Event-Driven Programming, Big Data Management, Algorithms Design and Analysis and Data Structures. In 2018, Dr. Hamilton was tasked with adding a Data Science concentration to NNU’s Computer Science degrees. The addition of that concentration has involved the development of courses in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Parallel Computation, Big Data Management and Spatial Analysis. In addition to teaching, Dale is the Primary Investigator on NNU’s NASA/US Forest Service funded FireMAP Pyroecoinformatics project which is using Machine Learning to map wildland fire severity from imagery acquired with drones and satellites, research which was included in his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Idaho, and was awarded in 2018. Dale has led the expansion of the FireMAP research program to include a collaborative relationship with the USDA Forest Service which has enabled NNU and the Forest Service to map archaeological features across the Boise National Forest. Since 2020, Dale has also collaborated with Frontier Development Lab, an AI research incubator leading research teams who have used AI to map wildfires from satellite imagery across the US and Australia. Dale was a Team Lead for the 2020 FDL Australia Bushfire Data Quest as well as the 2022 FDL US Wildfire Challenge (funded by the US Department of Energy). Prior to coming to Northwest Nazarene University, Dale spent 13 years as a Managing Software Engineer/Project Manager at Systems for Environmental Management, writing software modeling fire behavior and effects, ecological departure and remote sensing under contracts with the USDA Forest Service and US Department of Interior.

Fun Fact: When not leading my wildland fire analytics research team, I enjoy mountain biking, skiing, trail running and whitewater rafting with my wife.

Favorite Thing About Working at NNU: I’m blessed to mentor such amazing students who have made my wildland fire research possible.