Brandon and
Cheryl-Annette Parker

A Bit about Brandon

Brandon is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at UT Dallas. He has always been and engineer at heart. As a kid, he never tired of building elaborate Lego contraptions, or constructing forts in the forest near his house. Then came the computers. Ever since high school AP computer science, Brandon knew he would be working with computers as a career.

Technology

Nerd Brandon attended the University of North Texas for both his bachelor's and Master's degrees. While there, he was able to explore his technological side through both the academic and non-academic opportunities. He got internships at Verizon and IBM, helped the Denton Wesley foundation design and install their entire network, and had lots of fun working with computer security at the UNT CoPS lab and participating in the Collegiate Cyber Defense contests. In order to learn more and get even more hands-on experience, he had a rather complex apartment computer network with servers, a cluster, and a five-screen workstation.

Music

Music Music has also been an important part of Brandon's life. He has played the piano since third grade, and the cello since fifth grade. In high school, he had the opportunity to perform in Carnegie Hall with the Texas State Honor Orchestra. He also began composing music in high school, starting with a catchy yet simple piano piece called Triumph. Composing really took off during an English project his junior year where he wrote a four movement orchestration based on The Scarlet Letter entitled The Scarlet Letter Suite. Then, his senior year, he wrote a piece called In Remembrance: Finale '99 for the senior class which was performed at Stude Hall during the 1999 Klein High School end of year concert. In college, he continued his music writing music for three CDs, and playing keyboard in the Wesley TNT band, and performing around Texas and Oklahoma with the bands Chi Rho and Blind Passion. (Click here to find out more about Brandon's music.)

Outdoors

The Outdoors As Brandon did propose to Cheryl-Annette on a Colorado backpacking trip, it should probably be mentioned that he also enjoys the great outdoors. He has been on three different week-long backpacking trips, is an Eagle Scout, and loves camping, canoing, kayaking, snorkeling, biking, and numerous other outdoor activities. When work, or thesis, or computers cause stress, a relaxing camp-out in the wilderness always seems help.

Brandon met Cheryl-Annette at the UNT Wesley center one Tuesday evening, where she invited him to the UNT Chess club. Brandon decided to go to the chess club meetings, and the rest is history.

 
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