Curriculum Vitae

[Tim Taylor's home page] [About Me]

PERSONAL DETAILS

Full Name Timothy John Taylor
Address This information is available upon request
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Date of Birth
Nationality
Marital Status
Email
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PARTICULAR INTERESTS AND STRENGTHS

My primary research interest lies in the synthetic modelling of evolutionary processes, for the purpose both of developing a better understanding of biological evolution, and of creating artificial systems with great evolutionary potential.  Technically, I have particular expertise in C++ programming, object-oriented design, and the use of middleware physics engines.

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EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

October 1995 -
March 1999 		 Edinburgh University, Department of Artificial Intelligence.
PhD. Thesis title: "From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life" (awarded in July 1999).
Supervised by Dr John Hallam and Professor Peter Ross.
Examined by Dr Inman Harvey and Mr Chris Malcolm.
October 1992 -
September 1993		 Edinburgh University, Department of Artificial Intelligence.
MSc in Artificial Intelligence. Passed with distinction.
Took courses in Intelligent Sensing and Control, Connectionist Computing, Knowledge Representation and Inference, Expert Systems, Machine Vision, Lisp and Prolog.
October 1989 -
June 1992		 Cambridge University, Trinity College.
BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences. Class 2.1.
Specialised in Experimental Psychology. Also took courses in Biology of Cells, Geology, History and Philosophy of Science, Maths and Physics.
September 1981 -
June 1988		 Churcher's College, Petersfield, Hampshire.
A-Levels in Physics, Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry. All A grades. Also `S' Levels (special papers) in Physics (passed with merit) and Maths (passed with distinction).
O-Levels in English Language, English Literature, French, German, Latin, Maths, Additional Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology (9 A's and 1 B grade).

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RELEVANT EMPLOYMENT

May 2005 - present Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, Timberpost Ltd. Developing AI-based software for hedge fund management.
December 2004 - May 2005 Research Fellow/Programmer at the Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems (part of the School of Informatics) at the University of Edinburgh. Working on the EC-funded JAST (Joint Action Science and Technology) Project, programming an experimental platform involving eye trackers and a virtual environment.
January 2002 - November 2004 Research Fellow in the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (part of the School of Informatics) at the University of Edinburgh. Working on the Hydra project, which is an EU-funded effort to develop radically new, biologically-inspired technologies for building robust, reconfigurable, self-repairing robots.
March 2000 -
January 2002		 Postdoctoral Research Associate in the International Centre for Computer Games and Virtual Entertainment (IC-CAVE) at the University of Abertay Dundee. Research and development in artificial life technologies for the computer games and entertainment industries.
June 1999 -
March 2000		 Artificial Intelligence Researcher for MathEngine PLC (www.mathengine.com). Developing evolutionary techniques to generate autonomous 3D characters in virtual environments, with particular emphasis on creating evolutionary toolkits for computer games developers. 
October 1996 -
June 1998		 Tutor in Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh (part-time). Tutoring MSc course in Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming, and undergraduate courses in Artificial Intelligence.
October 1993 -
September 1995		 Analyst/Programmer for Quantec Ltd, London. Member of a four-man programming team developing object-oriented financial systems using Visual C++ and MFC. 
October 1988 -
September 1989		 Programmer for IBM United Kingdom Ltd, North Harbour, Portsmouth. Writing internal applications using mostly REXX, A.S. and SQL. 

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INVITED VISITS TO OTHER RESEARCH GROUPS

Date Host Group Duration Purpose
May 1999 Dr Alvaro Moreno Philosophy of Biology Group, University of the Basque Country 1 week To exchange ideas on models of origin of life, artificial chemistries, and self-reproduction.
March 2000 Professor Tom Ray Department of Zoology, Oklahoma University 1 week To help integrate MathEngine's physics system into Tom's VirtuaLife software.
October 2000 Dr Barry McMullin Artificial Life Lab, Dublin City University 4 weeks To develop ideas on evolvability and genotype-phenotype mappings.

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A full list of my publications is available at here.

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RELEVANT SKILLS

I have experience of a wide variety of programming languages (including C, C++, Perl, LISP, PROLOG, FORTRAN, BASIC and Assembler), operating systems (including UNIX, MS-DOS and Windows), applications and computer hardware (PCs and Sun workstations). I have also attended courses at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, and have experience of developing parallel programs using MPI. I have substantial experience with using both the MathEngine and Havok physics engines.

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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

August 2000 Organised (with help from Tom Ray, Hod Lipson and John Hallam) a workshop on the Coevolution of Brains and Bodies at the Seventh International Conference on Artificial Life in Portland, Oregon USA. The event was a great success, with over 40 attendees, and has triggered the creation of a special interest group and mailing list (which I also organise). 
October 1995 -
March 1999		 Working on PhD at Edinburgh University on improving the methodology of Artificial Life approaches to modelling biological evolution. Co-organiser of the department's Evolutionary Algorithms Group, and of the Lothian Evolutionary Algorithms Research Network (LEARN). Attended many conferences, including the Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, the Philosophy of Artificial Life Conference, the Sixth International Conference on Artificial Life, and Digital Biota 2. A six-page account of my work appears in Virtual Organisms, a new popular science book by Mark Ward (Macmillan, 1999). 
October 1993 -
September 1995		 Applications analyst and programmer for Quantec Ltd, London. Developing object-oriented PC applications using Visual C++/MFC, for quantitative investment analysis.
October 1992 -
September 1993		 MSc in Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University. Specialised in neural networks, genetic algorithms and intelligent robotics. Five month research project developing a decentralised learning algorithm for a four-legged robot, and designing the physical robot. 
July 1992 -
August 1992		 Received a grant from the Grindley Fund of the Department of Experimental Psychology in Cambridge to extend my final year project on psycholinguistics. 
October 1989 -
June 1992		 Undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge University studying Natural Sciences. Publicity officer of the Cambridge University Cognitive Science Society. Co-editor of the 1991 Trinity Review magazine. Final year dissertation, Twin Studies of Homosexuality, placed in Psychology library as an example for future students. 
October 1988 -
September 1989		 Employed at IBM UK headquarters, Portsmouth to work on developing and maintaining internal applications within the personnel division. 

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RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

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OTHER INTERESTS & SKILLS

I am keen on various sports, and regularly play squash and tennis, as well as swimming and using a gym. I am also enthusiastic about Formula One motor racing. Some of the more unusual and/or bizarre things I have done include making a parachute jump, crewing the Malcolm Miller schooner from Copenhagen to Southampton, making a solo flight in a glider, being auditioned for a boy band, and driving a Formula Ford car around Brands Hatch racing circuit. I occasionally dabble in lesbian and gay politics. I also enjoy travelling, and have visited Japan and the USA, as well as exploring much of Europe on two Inter-Rail expeditions and other trips. My driver's licence is clean, which is not particularly surprising as I haven't owned a car since 1989.

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REFERENCES

Available on request

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Document last updated: Tim Taylor, Monday, 27 March 2006