The extensive experiences and expertise of Professor
Stewart Marshall in higher education, Professor Wal Taylor in regional
governance and Professor Xinghuo Yu in information technology would
bring a unique mix of disciplines/areas to this project with an
integrated multidisciplinary approach.
Professor Stewart Marshall
Professor Stewart Marshall is the Director of the Distance Education Centre at the University of the West Indies, based at the Barbados campus but serving all the English speaking islands in the Caribbean. He moved there in March 2004 from Central Queensland University in Australia, where he was the foundation Dean and a Professor of the Faculty of Informatics and Communication. Although originally an electrical engineer with the Central Electricity Generating Board in the UK, Professor
Marshall has worked in higher education since 1973 in England, Papua
New Guinea, Australia, Southern Africa and the Caribbean. He was the foundation
Professor of Communication at the Papua New Guinea University of
Technology, foundation Professor of Communication Studies in the
Faculty of Arts at Monash University, and foundation Coordinator
of Academic Studies and Professor of Distance Education at the Institute
of Distance Education at the University of Swaziland in Southern
Africa.
Professor Marshall's research interests are in the
role of communication and information technologies in distance education,
especially in developing countries. He has published several books
and over 70 book chapters, refereed articles and conference papers.
Website: http://www.infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Stewart_Marshall/
Professor Wal Taylor
Professor Wal Taylor has a wide experience in community
development with 35 years in public sector service delivery in rural
and regional communities. As a regional manager, he held responsibilities
for staff delivery in counselling, economics, trade, chemical use,
quarantine, food product development, information technology, leadership
development, and community consultation processes for regional development
projects: rural industry adjustment in central and northern Queensland,
social and industry audits of Central Queesland, the development
of a regional international business exchange for Central Queensland,
regional consultation and environmental sustainability assessment
for for water storage projects on the Fitzroy Basin, building social
capital for mining towns.
Professor Taylor has served at board level on many regional
development organisations. He has traveled widely to research community
development in a number of cultural settings in north America (USA
Canada & Mexico), Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland),
Thailand, New Zealand and all Australian States. He has been recognized
for his efforts in community development being awarded Citizen of
the Year and a public sector Achievement Award. He has more than
50 publications in community informatics, regional development,
community development, leadership and agricultural research. His
current research interests are in the use of information technology
products and services in regional areas as an enabler of community
development.
Website: http://www.infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Wallace_Taylor/
Professor Xinghuo Yu
Xinghuo Yu is Professor and Associate Dean Research
& Development of the Faculty of Engineering at the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology University, Melbourne Australia. He was
with the Central Queensland University, Australia from 1991-2002
where, before he departed in early 2002, he was a full Professor
and the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Informatics
and Communication. He has held Adjunct/Visiting Professorships at
City University of Hong Kong, Harbin Institute of Technology China,
Bogazici University Turkey, and Huazhong University of Science and
Technology China. He has recently been conferred Emeritus Professor
of Central Queensland University. His research interests are predominately
in the areas of Information Technology, Intelligent Systems and
their applications in industrial, social and economic systems.
Professor
Yu has published over 200 refereed papers in technical journals,
books and conference proceedings. He has co-edited five books and
one special issue in the International Journal of Applied Mathematics
and Computer Science, including “Variable Structure Systems:
Towards the 21st Century” (Springer Verlag 2002) and “Applied
Decision Support with Soft Computing” (Springer Verlag, in
press), and “Closing the Digital Divide: Transforming Regional
Economies and Communities with Information Technology” (Greenwood,
in press). He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers Australia,
a Senior Member of the Institition of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE), and was the sole recipient of the 1995 Central
Queensland University Vice Chancellor's Award for Research. He was
also the General Chair of the 6th International Workshop on Variable
Structure Systems held on the Gold Coast, Australia in December
2000. He has been on the program committees of many international
conferences.
Professor Yu is a member of the following professional
organizations: the Australian Computer Society National Committee
on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, and the Technical
Committee on Modelling and Simulation and the Technical Committee
on Control of the International Association of Science and Technology
for Development (IASTED). Currently he is an Associate Editor of
the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems – Part I, a
leading journal in the areas of systems, control and information
sciences. He is also on the Steering Committee of IEEE Transactions
on Mobile Computing, a leading journal in telecommunication.
Website: http://web.fe.rmit.edu.au/~xinghuo/