ORNL project director to discuss world-leading computing at noon Tuesday

Buddy Bland, project director of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will discuss world-leading computing and ORNL sciences during a lunchtime meeting Tuesday.

The meeting on Tuesday, September 8, is open to the public.

“Today, the Titan supercomputer at ORNL is one of the world’s fastest and most productive tools for science at every scale,” a press release said. “From the composition of nucleons from quarks, to nanomaterials, to chemistry and biology, to transportation, to fission and fusion reactors, to astrophysics, modeling, and simulation using high-performance computers has transformed the way we do science and engineering. This presentation will cover a brief history of computing at ORNL, where we are going in the future, and the impact that computing has on our local community, the nation, and the world.”

Arthur “Buddy” Bland is the project director of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility—home to some of the world’s most powerful computers. He has worked in Oak Ridge for more than 30 years, with seven of those at K-25 managing the Cray X-MP supercomputer, and 23-plus years at ORNL in technical and managerial roles, all working with supercomputers.

Prior to arriving in Oak Ridge, Bland spent four years in the Air Force, installing and managing the USAF’s first Cray supercomputer. He is a senior member of the IEEE.

The meeting location in Oak Ridge is the University of Tennessee Resource Center (the white-colored building at 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike (State Highway 95) between Taco Bell and Applebee’s at the intersection of the Turnpike and Rutgers Avenue. Use the canopy entrance at the Southwest (back) corner of the building. There is plenty of parking.

At 11:30 a.m., lunch is catered by the Soup Kitchen (cost is $8), and at 12 p.m., the presentation begins, the press release said.

You are welcome to bring a friend. As always, registered professional engineers who attend shall receive one (1) PDH certificate, the press release said.

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