Dr. Omar Costa Hamido (OCH) is an Assistant Professor in the Computational Media and Arts Thrust (CMA) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST-GZ), with a PhD in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology from UC Irvine (USA, 2021), an MA in Composition and Music Theory from ESMAE-IPP (PT, 2014), and a BA in Music-Jazz (Performance in Saxophone) from UEvora (PT, 2011).
OCH is an artist-researcher, combining a practice as a performer, composer, technologist, with an academic career in music, multimedia, and emerging technologies. His music explores experimental practices in instrumentation, improvisation, and notation, including networked music performance, and dialogues between musical and visual elements. OCH is deeply interested in the expressibility of electronics in interaction with live human performers, while deepening the conceptual inquiry on the ‘material means of artistic expression’. His work lives at the intersection of live performance, multimedia, and emerging technologies, with a current focus on quantum computing, promoting interactions between creative artists/musicians and computer scientists/physicists-engineers.
OCH is a pioneer of “Quantum Computer Music”, he created the concept of “Quantum-computing Aided Composition” (QAC), and he is the author of The QAC Toolkit - a software toolkit that allows musicians and artists to build, run, and simulate quantum circuits. During his international research career, he was a Fulbrighter in the US, where he initiated the research project “Adventures in Quantumland”, and a Marie-Curie Fellow in Portugal, where led the project IIMPAQCT. OCH is the co-founder and co-organizer of the International Symposium on Quantum Computing and Music Creativity (ISQCMC) (UK 2021, DE 2023, IT 2025) and is dedicated to promote and map out the international scene on QC and Creative Practices with his Community.quantumland.art open access project. He has presented his music and research at international venues such as the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, NIME, IRCAM, Splice, Audio Mostly, and MCM. In recent years, his work has been recognized with grants and awards from European Commission-MSCA, Fulbright, FCT, Medici, Beall Center for Art+Technology, and IBM.
At HKUST-GZ, Dr. Omar Costa Hamido is starting a new Research Group on Quantum Computing and Creative Practices. The group will explore hardware/software programming, theoretical discussions, creative applications, and include practice-based research methods and experimental collaborations between Art and Science.
Research areas:
Computer Music and Emergent Technologies
Multimedia and interactive real-time electronics
Telematics (Networked Music Performance)
Quantum Aesthetics and Mediation in Art
Quantum-computing Aided Composition (QAC)
Music Performance and Improvisation
Contemporary Art Practices
Sonification/Visualization
Website: https://omarcostahamido.com
Email: omarhamido@hkust-gz.edu.cn