Add May Testing group talk

_events/2026/2026-05-testing-talk-series.md

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+---
+title: "US-RSE Software Testing Talk Series"
+subtitle: 
+expires: 2026-05-20
+event_date: "May 20, 2026"
+layout: event
+duration: 60
+repeated: false
+category: Software Testing
+time:
+    - - start: 2026-05-20T18:00:00Z
+        end: 2026-05-20T19:00:00Z
+---
+
+The Testing working group is happy to announce a new talk on Software
+Testing on Wednesday May 20, 1-2 PM EST.
+
+Title: **Software testing in the Open Force Field Initiative** 
+
+Presenter: **Matt Thompson**
+
+### Abstract
+Force fields---physics-based models used in molecular
+simulations---are central to computational chemistry, but they are
+often difficult to use with other software, lack accuracy on chemical
+systems of interest, or are not developed openly. The Open Force Field
+Initiative is an open and collaborative approach to addressing these
+challenges, built on open-source software, publicly accessible data,
+and open science. Our primary products are force fields, but we also
+ship software to enable their adoption in users' workflows. These
+users from academia and industry work in a range of fields including
+drug discovery and materials science. In this talk, I will present the
+processes the team uses to develop, maintain, and deploy force fields
+and research software, monitor deployment and packaging issues, and
+manage user support. Finally, I discuss outstanding challenges our
+infrastructure and the broader ecosystem, ideas that did not work as
+well as expected, and other actionable lessons learned from years of
+experience.
+
+### Biography
+Matt is a Senior Research Software Engineer with the [Open Force Field
+initiative](https://openforcefield.org/), where he started in March
+2020 (and until March 2022 held the title of Software
+Scientist). Broadly, he operationalizes research software as part of
+developing and maintaining the [OpenFF software
+stack](https://github.com/openforcefield) that enables it.
+
+Previously, he was a PhD candidate and research engineer in the Peter
+T. Cummings lab in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular
+Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he received his PhD
+in 2019. His research there focused on the use of molecular simulation
+to study the fundamental properties of components of next-generation
+energy storage devices. Late in his time at Vanderbilt, he also worked
+on tools that automate workflows aimed at these and other scientific
+questions. His main two projects at Vanderbilt were the FIRST
+Center and [MoSDeF](https://mosdef.org/).
+
+#### Registration details
+
+To register follow this link:
+[Testing Talk Series Registration](https://tennessee.zoom.us/meeting/register/GU3-6ggxRVi_gvfvHoY6Cg)