I
am a Professor in the USNA Computer Science department, and I am interested in machine learning, particularly in reinforcement learning and distributed optimization.
I am interested in Machine Learning, in a number of areas, including the vulnerabilities of neural networks, representation learning for time series data, and how to improve performance in ski jumping. I work in close collaboration with labs at the University of Maryland, College Park, and NTNU and Olympiatoppen in Norway. You can find my Google Scholar page here.
I value good teaching, and have developed courses and taught in the Data Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Cyber Operations, and Operations Research majors. In 2022 I won the campuswide Class of 1951 Civilian Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in honor of Professor Theodore J. Benac. My fall courses will be SD311: Data Structures and Scalability, and SI470: Machine Learning (links will go live in time for class).
With a lot of help from other faculty at USNA and people across the DOD, I chaired the development of USNA's new Data Science major, whose inaugural class graduated in 2025. The major's focus is in teaching midshipmen to make better decisions by understanding and analyzing data.
Contact Information
Email: taylor at usna.edu
Office: Hopper 445
Office Phone: 410/293-6816
Research and Teaching
Calendar
My calendar is offered below to help advisees and students schedule meetings with me. Midshipmen, please find a time that works for us both, and then email me with your request.
Tuesdays are my "research days," and if possible, I try to keep them relatively distraction-free. However, if Tuesday is the only day we can meet, that is fine.
