About Me

My name is Joy Kitson and I’m currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park as a part of the Parallel Software and Systems Group. I am also honored to have been selected as a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow in 2021.

I study how to best harness high performance computing (HPC) resources to support scientific simulations. In particular, my current work focuses on leveraging HPC systems to improve our understanding of how infectious diseases spread by studying ways to balance the flexibility and granularity of agent-based modeling techniques with their computational costs. I have also studied the efficacy of a range of parallel frameworks in providing performance portability, efficient execution on a range of HPC systems, for scientific applications. For more details, feel free to check out my CV or Google Scholar profile.

Prior to my time at UMD, I studied at the University of Delaware, completing my B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in May 2020. While at UD, I got my start in research with the Global Computing Lab – now at the University of Tennessee – and the Vertically Integrated Projects program.

In my free time, I enjoy swing dancing (especially Lindy Hop!), reading science fiction and fantasy novels, and playing tabletop games with friends.