Brandon Kimmons to Present Research at the American Chemical Society National Meeting

March 24, 2015

Brandon Kimmons, Interim Assistant Director of Research for Information Technology Services, along with Dr. Russell Thackston, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, and Dr. Ryan Fortenberry, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, will be presenting his research on Computational Chemistry: Practical Issues in Leveraging the Cloud on Wednesday, March 25, at the 249th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in Denver, Colorado.

The research compared the costs and practical issues of in-house high performance computing data centers to cloud-based high performance computing. He concluded that, under certain circumstances, cloud-based computing, with benefits such as cost savings, time savings, and theoretically infinitely expandable capacity, can be a valid alternative to expensive on-premises data centers. Cloud-computing, however, presents some practical issues such as provisioning of computing resources, software installation, and student account management. Kimmons will present empirical data of when cloud-based computational chemistry makes financial sense and techniques for managing these practical issues.

In addition to being selected as a presenter, Kimmons was awarded a grant from the Graduate Student Professional Development Fund to support his travel to Denver. These grants are awarded on a competitive basis and Kimmons’ award was the maximum allowable. According to Dr. Susan Williams, Interim Chair of the Department of Information Technology, Brandon is completing his Master of Science in Applied Engineering with a concentration in Information Technology and has been encouraged by the Graduate Student Association and the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies to present his findings at the Graduate Research Symposium.