Beau Michael Christ, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Wofford College | Spartanburg, South Carolina

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Academic Profile

Computer science professor, developer, and academic program leader with experience in undergraduate teaching, interdisciplinary curriculum development, high-performance computing education, and applied research. My scholarly interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, computer vision, and computational science. I focus on making technically complex ideas accessible within a liberal-arts environment and building meaningful connections between computing and other disciplines.

Academic Appointments and Leadership

Wofford College 2016-present

Associate Professor of Computer Science, 2023-present
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, 2016-2023
Coordinator, Program in Data Science, 2020-present
Coordinator, Emphasis in Computational Science, 2017-present

Teaching, research, interdisciplinary curriculum development, academic program coordination, and institutional service at a residential liberal-arts college.

Utah Valley University 2015-2016

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Undergraduate teaching in algorithms, discrete mathematics, software development, and computing ethics.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2010-2015

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Graduate research in computer vision and undergraduate instruction across introductory computing, discrete mathematics, and Unix programming.

Additional Professional Experience

Nicely Dressed Code LLC 2021-present

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Design and development of educational software and applications for Apple platforms.

Education

M.A. in The Beatles, Heritage and Culture, University of Liverpool 2026-2028 (expected)

Status: Beginning September 2026; expected completion September 2028.

Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2015

Dissertation: A Visual Analysis of Articulated Motion Complexity Based on Optical Flow and Spatial-Temporal Features
Advisor: Dr. Ashok Samal

B.S. in Computer Science (with Honors) and Mathematics, Doane College 2009

Advisor: J. L. Vertin

Research and Scholarly Interests

  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • Data science and computational science
  • Computer vision and activity recognition
  • High-performance computing and computing education
  • Technology, music, cultural history, and Beatles scholarship

My interdisciplinary scholarship includes independent research into Beatles historiography, recording innovation, and cultural heritage; field study in Liverpool, Hamburg, and London; and teaching and public programming that connect computing, music, business, and the humanities.

Teaching Experience

Representative undergraduate and interdisciplinary courses taught across three institutions.

Wofford College

Computer Science: COSC 115 - Introduction to Web Authoring; COSC 201 - Modeling and Simulation; COSC 235 - Programming and Problem Solving; COSC 240 - Discrete Mathematical Structures; COSC 310 - Computer Graphics; COSC 320 - Programming Languages; COSC 340 - Theory of Computation; COSC 350 - Data Structures and Algorithms; COSC 360 - Operating Systems; COSC 365 - High Performance Computing; COSC 370 - Data and Visualization; COSC 375 - Data Science; COSC 440 - Artificial Intelligence

Interdisciplinary Interim Courses: WoCraft: Bringing Wofford to Minecraft; The Beatles: A Magical Mystery Tour

Utah Valley University

CS 2300 - Discrete Mathematical Structures I; CS 2420 - Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures; CS 305G - Global, Social, and Ethical Issues in Computing; CS 3320 - Numerical Software Development

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

CSCE 101 - Fundamentals of Computing; CSCE 155 - Introduction to Computer Science I; CSCE 235 - Discrete Mathematics; CSCE 251 - Unix Programming

Grants, Fellowships, and Honors

Grants and Fellowships

  • 2026 | Wofford College Cultural Affairs Grant for Deconstructing the Beatles | $3,210
  • 2025 | CDS-Exchange Community Fellow | $1,000
  • 2024-2025 | ACCESS HPC Training Grant, CIS240453 - Ookami/Anvil | $8,000
  • 2022-2023 | XSEDE HPC Training Grant, CIS200031 Renewal - Anvil | $1,000
  • 2021-2022 | XSEDE HPC Training Grant, CIS200031 - Anvil | $1,000
  • 2020 | Wofford College Faculty Teaching Innovation Grant | $300
  • 2019-2020 | XSEDE Campus Champions Fellow | $15,000
  • 2018-2019 | XSEDE HPC Training Grant - Bridges | $1,000

Honors and Awards

  • 2014 | UNL College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
  • 2009 | Doane College Information Science and Technology Excellence Award

Presentations and Public Scholarship

  • 2026 | From Rubber Soul to Revolver: A Data-Driven Look at The Beatles’ Creative Explosion. Everything Fab Four Fest: REVOLVER, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey, November 6-8.
  • 2025 | From Help! to Rubber Soul: A Data-Driven Look at The Beatles’ Musical Shift. Everything Fab Four Fest: REVOLVER, Asbury Park, New Jersey.
  • 2020 | Implementing a New Program in Data Science in a Liberal-Arts Setting. Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC).
  • 2019 | Panelist, Imagine Science Film Festival: Transhumanism, Wofford College.
  • 2016 | From Character Recognition to Augmented Reality: The Current State of Computer Vision. Utah Valley University IEEE Chapter.
  • 2014 | An Overview of Activity Recognition Techniques. Agile Sports Technologies / Hudl.

Technical Expertise

Programming Languages: Swift, Python, R, C++, C, Objective-C, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Java, MATLAB, Ruby, Prolog, Lisp, and ML
Platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, Linux, Unix, and Xinu
Frameworks and Libraries: SwiftUI and TensorFlow

Professional Development

Computing and Higher Education

  • XSEDE/ACCESS Campus Champion, 2018-present
  • SIGCSE Conference attendee, 2016-2024
  • Regular DataCamp training, 2019-present
  • SIGCSE workshops on generative AI, undergraduate data science, interactive programming environments, distributed computing, and curriculum design, 2020-2024
  • Developed HPC educational resources for Shodor, 2020-2022
  • XSEDE HPC Workshop: Big Data, 2020
  • IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition attendee, 2016
  • Global/Intercultural Faculty Fellowship, Utah Valley University, 2016
  • New Faculty Teaching Scholars Program, Utah Valley University, 2015-2016

Interdisciplinary Scholarship

  • Fab Four Master Class focusing on Beatles history, music, and scholarship, 2024-present

Academic and Professional Service

Institutional Service

  • Academic Integrity Committee, Wofford College, 2025-present
  • AI Working Group, Wofford College, 2023-2024
  • Rank and Tenure Committee, Wofford College, 2022-2023
  • Summer Interim Working Group, Wofford College, 2022
  • IT Advisory Committee, Wofford College, 2017-2021
  • Admission, Graduation, and Academic Standards Council, Utah Valley University, 2015-2016
  • CS Advisor Search Committee, Utah Valley University, 2016
  • CS Engineering Faculty Search Committee, Utah Valley University, 2016

Professional and Community Service

  • Reviewer, ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium, 2026-2027
  • Server administrator, Wofford Computer Science PicoCluster, 2024-present
  • Administrator, Wofford Computer Science Students and Alumni LinkedIn group, 2021-present
  • Research Symposium judge, USC Upstate, 2019-present
  • Interviewer, Wofford Scholar’s Day, 2017-present
  • Reviewer, CCSC Southeast, 2018-2020
  • Reviewer, Computing in Science and Engineering, 2018-2020
  • Reviewer, Machine Vision and Applications, 2016-2020
  • Programming Contest judge, CCSC, 2017
  • Graduate student representative, UNL Faculty Committee, 2014-2015
  • Speaker, UNL Teaching Panel, 2014

Professional Memberships

  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2005-present
  • ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2017-present
  • ACM Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC), 2019-present
  • ACM SIGHPC Education Chapter, 2019-present
  • Campus Champions, 2018-present
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