Biography: Professor of Computer Science Dr Dale Hamilton has been a member of the faculty of Northwest Nazarene University since 2013, becoming department chair in 2023. Courses he has taught include:

Computer Programming 1 (C/C++) Spatial Analysis

Machine Learning Parallel Computation

Artificial Intelligence Event Driven Programming

Big Data Management Algorithms Design and Analysis

Data Structures Systems Analysis and Design

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 2024, he was tasked with launching a Computer Science Graduate program, starting with a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence, which necessitated the adaptation of courses in the Data Science concentration so they would be offered both for undergraduate and graduate credit in addition to developing additional graduate courses that are included in the graduate program.

In addition to his teaching, Dale serves as Principal Investigator on NNU’s NASA, U.S. Forest Service and NSF -funded FireMAP Pyroecoinformatics project, which uses machine learning to map wildland fire severity and fuels from drone and satellite imagery. This work builds on research conducted during his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Idaho, awarded in 2018.

Since 2024, he has led research efforts at NNU focused on the investigation, development, and transfer of wildland fire technologies for the USDA Forest Service, including training land managers to leverage emerging tools to improve wildland stewardship and enhance ecosystem resilience to wildfire. He also leads NNU’s NSF-funded Good Fire collaboration with Boise State University, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Oklahoma, where his research team is developing AI models to predict the effects of low-intensity managed fire on associated hydrologic systems.

Dale has collaborated with Frontier Development Lab (FDL), an AI research incubator, leading teams that apply AI to wildfire mapping from satellite imagery across the United States and Australia. He served as Team Lead for the 2020 FDL Australia Bushfire Data Quest and the 2022 FDL U.S. Wildfire Challenge (funded by the U.S. Department of Energy), and held a Visiting Fellowship at the Australian National University Bushfire Research Centre during the spring and summer of 2023. Dale has also expanded the FireMAP program through a collaborative partnership with the USDA Forest Service, enabling NNU and the Forest Service to map archaeological features across the Boise National Forest.

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.

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