Students at CMU are able to access the same professional NMR prediction algorithms found in the locally installed desktop version, but without having to install any additional software on local PCs
Advanced Chemistry Development, (ACD/Labs) reports that Carnegie Mellon University has purchased a site license subscription to ACD/Labs Online.
Online is ACD/Labs's internet-based portal that allows anyone with an internet connection and either ChemSketch (freeware or commercial) or MS Internet Explorer access to all ACD/Labs one-dimensional NMR prediction software and databases (1H, 13C, 15N, 19F, and 31P), chemical structure naming software, and physicochemical property prediction software and databases (pKa, logP, logD, aqueous solubility, boiling point, etc).
The original interest in this campus-wide deployment was headed by Roberto Gil of CMU's department of chemistry.
Gil had originally seen the power of ACD/Labs' NMR prediction tools at the Experimental NMR Conference and instantly thought that they could be used as an invaluable tool for both pedagogical and research efforts at the Carnegie Mellon campus.
The one drawback he could foresee was that to truly apply NMR prediction software in a useful manner, they would need to purchase dozens of desktop licenses to accommodate all of the students, staff, and faculty who wanted to access the software.
The answer was to purchase an annual subscription to ACD/Labs Online through the library as an electronic service.
Through ACD/Labs Online, Gil and the students at CMU were able to effortlessly access the same professional NMR prediction algorithms, found in the locally installed desktop version, but without having to install any additional software on local PCs.
Obtaining accurately-predicted NMR spectra became simply a manner of navigating to the website, drawing the structure of interest in the Java structure drawing applet, and then choosing the nuclei that they wanted to receive the predicted spectrum in.
The same procedure can be repeated for generating Iupac and Index names for drawn structures or obtaining physicochemical property values.
No logins or passwords to remember - just direct access from any PC connected to the internet through CMU's web and proxy servers set up by ACD/Labs.
