Early this year, the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) and the Future Circular Collider (FCC) teams organized for the first time an Innovation Course for young researchers in their last year of association with CERN. Developed in collaboration with IdeaSquare and CERN Knowledge Transfer (KT), this course was aimed at providing the participants with an insight into their future career perspectives, beyond their scientific experiences at CERN.

By means of hands-on learning tools, they explored opportunities of applying KT technologies and Design Thinking practices in order to think as innovators and develop their own entrepreneurial project. Nineteen creative ideas were pitched during the course, and finally the participants teamed up for three selected projects. After several weeks of intense teamwork, the course concluded on 21 March with a final presentation event.

The first project – “CERN rides” – is a ride-sharing app for the CERN community. Since many people commute to CERN in their own vehicles, the team estimated that using this app and sharing rides would save up to 1.5 tonnes of CO² per day and nine working days per year of sitting in one’s car in traffic. Moreover, it would help address the shortage of parking spaces on site as well as difficulties related to public transport. More than 80% of CERN people could be potential users. Marta Alcaide, the team leader, aims to fully develop the app over the next 18 months and help solve CERN’s commuting issues.

The “Green Disc Brake System”, is another creative project proposal, aimed at developing a sustainable device for disc brakes in cars to trap the harmful particles emitted during braking. Traditional braking systems emit six times more harmful particles than exhaust pipes, which increases air pollution leading to high rates of lung disease. Working as a trap and filter, this system would not only improve air quality in cities, it would also allow heavy and rare metals to be collected and recycled. The team, which is led by Alessio D’Andrea, has already built a prototype of the device and plans to test it on CERN vehicles soon.

The third project is called “Kinesis” and is a wearable resistance trainer with embedded energy harvesting. It is a motor unit with a microcontroller that, when worn, typically on one’s leg, can generate energy from the performance of simple movements. It could be used to solve issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle, medical limitation of motion or muscle atrophy in space, or simply to charge wearable technology. Manuele Narduzzi and his team now aim to develop prototypes of a device that is simple, ecological and safe to use.

Generating a lot of curiosity and feedback from the audience, the presentations were promising and the young researchers expressed their hopes to see the projects materialise. Lucio Rossi, head of the HL-LHC project, awarded diplomas and congratulated all the participants on their creative ideas and hard work. Following up lively discussions about opportunities and challenges, the event paved the way to new encounters and future collaborations at CERN.

The ALICE collaboration celebrated its 25^th anniversary at a jubilee event on 21 March.  The well-attended event was an occasion to share personal recollections of the first days of the experiment and retrace the milestones of its history.

On 1 March 1993, the recently formed ALICE collaboration submitted a letter of intent to the CERN LHC Committee, proposing the construction of a heavy-ion experiment dedicated to the study of the physics of strongly interacting matter produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The design of the experiment was optimised to determine, in the laboratory, the properties of quark-gluon plasma, the primordial state of matter that prevailed for a short time after the Big Bang. The letter of intent was also the first official document in which the ALICE acronym for “A Large Ion Collider Experiment” was used.

During the 25 years that followed, a strong collaborative effort was put into conceiving, designing, building and operating the ALICE experiment. This venture was rewarded with unprecedented advances in the measurement of the physical properties of quark-gluon plasma and with the discovery of new phenomena, from the observation of a completely new regime for the formation of open and hidden charm hadrons to the detection of collective effects and strangeness enhancement in small colliding systems.

Spokesperson Federico Antinori opened the jubilee event, before four speakers – Emanuele Quercigh, Jürgen Schukraft, Chris Fabjan and Luciano Musa – talked about the conception, infancy and build-up of the ALICE experiment and the plans for its future, respectively. Back in October 1990, at the Aachen workshop, ideas about nucleus-nucleus collisions and a possible heavy-ion physics programme at the future Large Hadron Collider had been discussed. A couple of months later, some 60 physicists gathered at CERN to initiate “a serious experimental effort towards a heavy-ion detector capable of measuring ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at LHC energies” and the so-called Heavy Ion Proto Collaboration (HIPC) was created. This would later evolve into the ALICE collaboration.

In March 1992, at the “Towards the LHC Experimental Programme” meeting in Evian, scientists put forward an expression of interest. The letter of intent followed in 1993 and the technical proposal in 1995. The dedication demonstrated by the international collaboration in building and installing the detector is still a key feature of the ALICE collaboration, which is not only harvesting the results of the work done throughout the past 25 years, but also laying the foundations for important future measurements, thanks to the upgrade activities and long-term plan.

The presentations were followed by celebrations, including projections of historic pictures portraying the ALICE members and the detector. Attendees included collaborators and invited guests, who reminisced and exchanged anecdotes of the experiment’s history, and toasted a fruitful continuation of activities.

The LHC cold check-out, during which all equipment is run simultaneously as if there were beam in the machine, was completed successfully before the Easter weekend, well ahead of schedule. The Good Friday LHC morning meeting ended with a statement that the accelerator was ready for beam injection, signalling the start of the 2018 proton run.

In the weeks before Easter, the injectors tuned the low-intensity single-bunch beam to make it ready for use by the LHC. The bunch intensity was set to around 5x10⁹ protons (the nominal bunch intensity is around 1.2x10¹¹ protons). The process for the first injections is to inject a single bunch and make it travel through the first sector (roughly 1/8 of the LHC’s circumference), after which it is absorbed by collimators, which are closed further than usual. The operations team measures the trajectory of the bunch through the arc and makes adjustments where necessary, before opening the collimators for the next injection to allow the beam to travel through two sectors. This process is repeated until all sectors have been corrected and the trajectory of the beam is deemed sufficiently good. This process resulted in beam 1 (clockwise) circulating at 12.17 p.m. on Good Friday and beam 2 (anti-clockwise) following only 20 minutes later, an impressive six days earlier than scheduled.

Once these circulating beams were established, the real beam commissioning work started. The functioning of the beam instrumentation was checked, the different feedback systems adjusted, the optics measured and corrected and the collimators aligned to protect the machine against excessive beam losses in unwanted places, such as the superconducting magnets. All this is easily said in a single sentence, but it takes many shifts and a substantial number of experts to complete the work.

The initial beam commissioning is done without colliding the beams in the experiments. First collisions had been scheduled to take place with only a few bunches on Monday, 23 April. However, thanks to the faster than expected progress and small number of minor issues encountered, two beams, each consisting of two nominal bunches, were collided in all experiments at 11.13 a.m. on Thursday, 12 April.

Following these first collisions, a period of alternating commissioning and intensity ramp-up will take place. The final beam commissioning steps will be interleaved with colliding beam being provided for the experiments, with the number of bunches increasing stepwise. Each step will require at least 3 cycles and an accumulated stable beam time of 20 hours. Experts will then evaluate the measurements taken on the different systems and establish formal approval to go ahead with the next step. Again, this process will be repeated until the maximum number of bunches per beam (2556) is established.

During the January LHC performance workshop in Chamonix, it was agreed that collisions with 1200 bunches per beam would mark the start of serious data taking. If all goes well, this should happen around 4 May – again, well-ahead of schedule.

From 9 to 13 April, some 500 scientists from 147 institutes met in Amsterdam for the 2018 Future Circular Collider (FCC) week. This fourth annual meeting of the FCC collaboration offered a vibrant space to discuss the latest research results and present technological breakthroughs that could pave the way for a new large-scale research infrastructure.

Both LEP and the LHC were massive endeavours spanning more than 20 years each, from conception to commissioning. This is why it is timely to advance with the design of the next-generation of circular colliders, which could begin operation after the completion of the HL-LHC research programme.

Open questions in modern physics, such as the nature of dark matter and the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry, along with the need to study the Higgs boson in detail, call for particle accelerators at the energy and intensity frontier. The combination of accelerators envisioned by the FCC study, through their synergies and complementarities, offer an extraordinary tool for further exploration of these questions.

The different options being considered by the FCC study captivate particle physicists and challenge accelerator engineers, with unprecedented opportunities for physics discoveries and technological breakthroughs.

“Historically, accelerators have been our most powerful tools for exploration in particle physics and I believe they will continue to play a crucial role in the future. They will be part of a compelling and diverse scientific programme together with other, complementary approaches,” said Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s Director General, during the FCC week opening session. She added: “I cannot see a more natural and better place than CERN to host future circular colliders of the complexity of the FCC, given CERN’s demonstrated expertise in building and operating high-energy accelerators, the existing powerful accelerator complex, and the available infrastructure that we continue to upgrade.”

An intense week of meetings and discussions looked at performance-optimised machine designs, detector concepts and future R&D lines to meet the physics targets along with studies on the infrastructure and civil-engineering requirements. More than 285 presentations and 80 posters covered current progress as well as new concepts. Parallel sessions summarised R&D efforts on topics including superconducting materials and high-field magnets, high-efficiency klystrons, superconducting RF cavities, as well as beam-monitoring systems, energy-efficient cryogenics and vacuum systems.

The FCC study offers opportunities to train the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators who will further develop accelerator technologies that could find many applications outside particle physics. The FCC innovation awards acknowledged the high-quality work of young researchers, which is key for the realisation of this project. “One of the main goals of the FCC collaboration is to help young, talented and motivated colleagues to develop into successful scientists, by presenting networking opportunities and exposing them to new views and perceptions. The high number of young people participating in the FCC week is testimony to the attractiveness of the ongoing research and is key for the success of this project,” says Michael Benedikt, FCC study leader.

The worldwide interest in the FCC study was reflected in the number and diversity of attendees at this year’s meeting, with participants from research centres, universities and industrial partners in 30 countries. The FCC collaboration is now gearing up for the preparation of its conceptual design report, set to be published by the end of 2018 in time for the upcoming update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

The European Strategy for Particle Physics, which is due to be updated by May 2020, will guide the direction of the field to the mid-2020s and beyond. To inform this vital process, the secretariat of the European Strategy Group (ESG) is calling upon the particle-physics community across universities, laboratories and national institutes to submit written input by 18 December 2018.

The update of the European Strategy got under way in September when the CERN Council established a strategy secretariat. Chaired by Halina Abramowicz, the secretariat includes Keith Ellis (the Chair of CERN’s Scientific Policy Committee), Jorgen D’Hondt (the current ECFA Chair) and Lenny Rivkin (the Chair of the European Laboratory Directors group).

The ESG secretariat, which has been assigned the task of organising the update process, proposes broadly following the steps of the previous two strategy processes, concluded in 2006 and 2013. An open symposium, which on the two previous occasions took place in Orsay (France) and Kraków (Poland), will take place in May 2019, during which the community will be invited to debate scientific input into the Strategy update. With the event expected to attract around 500 participants, the secretariat proposes holding it over a period of four days.

To prepare for the open symposium, the location of which is expected to be decided by the summer, the ESG will be calling for written contributions towards the end of the year. Input should be submitted via a portal on the Strategy update website, which will be available from the beginning of October, once the update has been formally launched by the CERN Council. The link will appear on the CERN Council’s web pages and will be widely communicated closer to the time.

A “briefing book” based on the discussions will then be prepared by a Physics Preparatory Group and submitted to the ESG for consideration during a five-day-long drafting session in the second half of January 2020. A special ECFA session on 14 July 2019, during the European Physical Society conference on high-energy physics in Ghent, Belgium, will provide another important opportunity for the community to feed into the ESG’s drafting session.

Global perspective

The European Strategy update will take into account the worldwide particle-physics landscape and developments in related fields, and was initiated to coordinate activities across a large, international and fast-moving community.

Understanding the properties of the Higgs boson (which was discovered at CERN just before the previous Strategy update) will remain a key focus of analysis at the LHC and future colliders, as will precision measurements of other Standard Model (SM) parameters and searches for new physics beyond the SM.

Neutrino physics is another key area of interest, with much experimental activity having taken place since the last update. A Physics Beyond Colliders programme has also been established by CERN to explore projects complementary to high-energy colliders. The European astroparticle and nuclear-physics communities, meanwhile, recently launched their own strategies, which will also feed into the ESG update.

“After the discovery of the Higgs boson, the field is presented with a number of challenges and opportunities,” says Abramowicz. “Guided by the input from the community, the European Strategy will determine which of these opportunities will be pursued.”    

Un mois après notre article « Curieux, prenez garde aux liens ! » (https://home.cern/fr/cern-people/updates/2018/02/computer-security-curiosity-clicks-link) paru fin février dans le Bulletin, nous avons mené notre « campagne de clics » annuelle. Environ 20937 courriers électroniques « suspects », basés sur un modèle créé par des étudiants de l’Université de Rotterdam avec uniquement des informations qu’ils ont pu trouver sur les pages web publiques du CERN, ont été envoyés à toutes les personnes ayant une adresse électronique CERN. Un grand nombre de personnes nous ont immédiatement informés de ces messages malicieux, quelques-unes se sont rendu compte qu’il s’agissait de notre campagne de sensibilisation, et certains destinataires ont cliqué...

Vous êtes toujours curieux ? Regardez ces exemples de « phishing » (https://cern.ch/security/malicious_email.shtml?c=0k2l) envoyés par un certain “David.Marquinais@cerm.ch” ; ce message demandant de vérifier votre adresse électronique pour un compte « CERN Lightweight » (https://security.web.cern.ch/security/malicious_email.shtml?c=9sn7; “support@cern.com”) ; celui-ci vous demandant de confirmer votre compte pour la « mise à jour des pensions du CERN » (https://cern.ch/security/malicious_email.shtml?c=w4fz), envoyé par « head.office@cem.ch » ; ou cette demande issue de l’adresse « évaluation pour les étudiants et enseignants du CERN » (https://security.web.cern.ch/security/malicious_email.shtml?c=qbv4), envoyée par « outreach@cem.ch » et vous invitant à formuler des commentaires sur leur nouveau site web... oui, beaucoup d’adresses d’expéditeurs sont étranges. « David Marquinais, chef de l’appui utilisateurs » et « Fabien Delacroix, directeur du CERN »... n’existent pas. Il en va de même pour « cern.com » et « cem.ch » (qui, dans une police de petite taille, ressemble à « cern.ch »). Le CERN utilise uniquement « cern.ch » et « .cern ». Si vous lisez les textes contenus dans ces messages, les liens qui y figurent paraissent étranges et ne semblent pas avoir de rapport avec le CERN. Ces individus mal intentionnés (dans le cas présent les étudiants de Rotterdam) essaient pourtant de vous faire croire que ces messages sont authentiques. Afin que vous cliquiez sur les liens, et que vous tombiez dans le piège.

Le fait de cliquer n’a pas eu de conséquences fâcheuses... cette fois-ci. Mais dans la réalité, face à de réels courriers électroniques malveillants, un seul clic peut être fatal à votre ordinateur ; un seul clic peut suffire à l’infecter, à le mettre en danger. Avec un seul clic, un attaquant pourrait être en mesure d’installer un logiciel sur votre ordinateur (PC, Mac ou portable, moins probablement sur des systèmes Linux) qui enregistre chaque caractère que vous tapez sur le clavier, de manière à récupérer vos mots de passe Facebook ou Twitter, ceux vous permettant d’accéder à votre compte CERN, et même ceux donnant accès à votre compte en banque (http://cds.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2016/20/News%20Articles/2151917). Les attaquants peuvent allumer votre webcam et votre micro afin de vous espionner. Il peuvent télécharger vos documents et les crypter afin de vous soutirer de l’argent (https://home.cern/fr/cern-people/updates/2017/05/comp-security-wannacry-importance-being-patched) ; et si vous ne faites pas ce qu’ils demandent, ils peuvent également les rendre publics (https://home.cern/cern-people/updates/2018/03/computer-security-malware-ransomware-doxware-and). Et là, c’est « game over ».

Heureusement, ce n’était cette fois-ci qu’une campagne de prévention ; environ 14 % des destinataires se seraient retrouvés « game over ». C’est-à-dire que 14 % des personnes ont cliqué sur les liens contenus dans les messages. Leurs ordinateurs infectés constitueraient à présent une menace pour l’Organisation. Par rapport aux années précédentes, le chiffres a baissé (18,7 % en 2017 et 16,5 % en 2016). D’autres organisations ont reporté des « taux de clics » comparables. Mais en fin de compte, ce pourcentage n’est pas très important, car le taux de personnes qui cliquent augmente avec le niveau de sophistication du courrier électronique. Les messages ciblés et bien faits sont plus difficiles à détecter, et les « taux de clics » sont alors plus élevé. Il faut aussi dire, pour être honnêtes, qu’un grand nombre de personnes nous ont informés immédiatement après avoir reçu ce courrier électronique suspect. Grâce à eux, nous aurions été en mesure de bloquer rapidement le site web, lien ou courrier électronique malveillant. Grâce à eux, nous aurions été en mesure de mettre en garde les autres. Évidemment, nous ne l’avons pas fait cette fois-ci. Mais dans une situation réelle, si vous nous informez rapidement via l’adresse Computer.Security@cern.ch, cela peut grandement nous aider à assurer la sécurité du CERN et à réduire l’impact d’une attaque.

C’est pour cela que nous menons ces campagnes de sensibilisation, qui vous aident à identifier rapidement les courriers électroniques étranges, à faire preuve de vigilance, et à éviter de cliquer avant de perdre votre vie privée... Et avant de donner accès au CERN à des personnes malintentionnées. Faites preuve de bon sens. Il est bien entendu difficile de vous protéger des messages bien ciblés et sophistiqués, mais vous pouvez déjà vous protéger de ceux qui sont faciles à détecter. C’est comme dans la vie réelle. Par exemple, si un inconnu nous donne un sachet de poudre blanche et nous demande de traverser la frontière avec, nous refusons et nous éloignons, non ? (https://home.cern/fr/cern-people/updates/2017/10/computer-security-and-real-world) Il en va de même dans le monde numérique : si un courrier électronique, son auteur, le contexte, la langue, le style, les liens et URL qu’ils contient, etc., paraissent bizarres, c’est très simple : ne cliquez pas ! Détruisez-le. Et, si vous avez des doutes, envoyez-le nous afin que nous puissions vérifier. Si quelque chose paraît malveillant, prévenez-nous !

Pour en savoir plus sur les incidents et les problèmes en matière de sécurité informatique au CERN,  lisez notre rapport mensuel (en anglais) (https://cern.ch/security/reports/en/monthly_reports.shtml). Si vous désirez avoir plus d’informations, poser des questions ou obtenir de l’aide, visitez notre site (https://cern.ch/Computer.Security) ou contactez-nous à l’adresse Computer.Security@cern.ch.

CERN doesn’t just accelerate particles... it also accelerates people! For six years, its ever-growing community of cyclists has participated in the biggest event promoting cycling in Switzerland: Bike to Work. 831 members of the personnel took part last year and the goal for 2018 is to encourage at least 1000 to come to work using pedal power.

Bike to Work is an annual challenge that takes place during the month of June and is aimed at encouraging cycling as a mode of transport. The rules for taking part are simple: during June, at least half of your journeys to and from CERN must be by bike. You and three teammates regularly note down the distance travelled by bike in your personal calendars within the Bike to Work application. If you live too far away, don’t be put off, as it’s possible to combine cycling with another mode of transport, or even with walking, provided that you fulfil certain conditions.

Aside from the fact that cycling is a sustainable mode of transport, it’s also a great lifestyle choice. You don’t need us to remind you of the health benefits. Cycling also gives you more freedom to get around, particularly by helping you to avoid stressful traffic jams... This year, people at CERN have even more reasons to get their bikes out, as the SMB department has installed bike repair stations and new showers to encourage the use of environmentally friendly modes of transport.

“Even though registration has been open just a few days, more than 20 teams have already signed up. People who are interested in taking part but don’t yet have a team can register individually, then join an incomplete team later,” says Jens Vigen, CERN’s Bike to Work coordinator. So why not take the opportunity to meet new people and share your passion for cycling?

Sign your team up here: https://www.biketowork.ch/fr/participation/Team_anmelden

Or join an incomplete team here: https://espace.cern.ch/bike2CERN/Pages/official_team.aspx

After our Bulletin article entitled “Curiosity clicks the link” at the end of February, our annual “clicking campaign” followed on one month later. Based on e-mail templates created by students of the University of Rotterdam, using only information they were able to find on CERN’s public webpages, 20937 “suspicious” e-mails were sent, to everyone with a CERN e-mail address. Many reported these malicious mails to us immediately, a few detected them as our awareness campaign, and some recipients clicked…

Are you still curious? Learn from examples of “Phishing mails” provided by a “David.Marquinais @ cerm.ch”; verify your e-mail address for “CERN Lightweight Account verification” (“support @ cern.com”); check out your account for the “Cern Pensions update” sent by “head.office @ cem.ch”; or answer the “CERN Students & Educators evaluation email” from “outreach @ cem.ch” in order to comment on their new website… Yes, many sender addresses do not make sense. “David Marquinais” as “Head of User Support” and “Fabien Delacroix” as “Head of CERN” do not exist at CERN. Neither do “cern.com”, “cem.ch” (which looks like “cern.ch” when displayed in small fonts). CERN only uses “cern.ch” and “.cern” (dotCERN). If you read the corresponding mail bodies, the embedded links look weird and have no apparent ties with CERN. But this is what the malicious evil-doers (in this case the students from Rotterdam) try to do: to lure you in believing the mail is genuine. To make you click. To fall for it. To fail.

Clicking had no negative consequences… this time. But in reality, with real malicious e-mails, with one click, your computer would have been lost. Infected. Compromised. With one click, the malicious evil-doers might be able to install software on your Windows PC/laptop or Macbook (less likely on Linux systems), which register every keystroke you make in order to figure out passwords to your Facebook account, your Twitter feed, to access CERN or for accessing your bank details. Attackers will enable the webcam and the microphone in order to spy on you. They will download your documents, encrypt them in order to obtain money from you, and if you don’t comply make those documents public. Game over.

Luckily it was just a clicking campaign this time, as we would have had a “game over” for 14% of the recipients. 14% clicked on the embedded links. Their compromised Windows PCs/laptops or Macbooks would now pose a threat to the Organization. Compared to previous years, this is a decrease from 18.7% in 2017 (16.5% in 2016). Other industries have reported similar “click rates”. But in the end, the number doesn’t really count, as the “click rate” scales with the level of sophistication of the e-mail. Targeted and well-engineered e-mails are harder to spot, and the “click rate” would be higher. Also, to be fair, many people informed us immediately after they received a suspicious e-mail. Thanks to them, we would have quickly been able to block any malicious website, URL or e-mail. Thanks to them, we would have been able to warn others. Of course, this time we let it go. But in reality, a quick heads-up send to us at Computer.Security@cern.ch can crucially help to secure CERN and minimise impact.

Hence this awareness campaign, helping you to identify strange e-mails early, be more vigilant, and avoid clicking before you lose your private data. And before you give the malicious evil-doers access to CERN. Just be reasonable. While it is difficult to protect yourself from the more sophisticated and targeted e-mails, protect yourself against the “easy” ones. It is like in the real world. If a stranger offers us, for example, a small bag of white powder and asks us to carry it across the border, we decline and walk away, don’t we? It’s the same in the digital world: if an e-mail, its sender, its context, the language, the way it is phrased, the embedded links and URLs, etc. look weird to you, just do not click. Delete it. Or, if in doubt, send it to us for verification. If it looks malicious, give us a heads-up!

Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project aims at increasing the number of collisions in the LHC and consequently improving the precision of the experiments’ analyses. For several years, engineers, technicians and operators have been devising, designing and building the components, some of which are completely novel. Among these innovative components are the “crab cavities”, which will rotate bunches of the beams to increase the overlap between them and therefore the probability of collisions inside the experiments. CERN scientist, Giovanna Vandoni, has coordinated the recent installation of the cryomodule containing the first two prototype cavities in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), where they will be tested this year. Here’s the story so far in pictures.

Out of 25 applications from 14 different countries, five teams of students and young professionals were selected to come to CERN to solve challenges in the medical field. The challenges were set by healthcare organisations and industry partners and the teams were given access to relevant CERN technologies in order to solve them.

Why is a hackathon organised by CERN focusing on MedTech? Early activities at CERN relating to medical applications date back to the 1970s.. In light of the significant growth in these activities, in 2017, CERN published a formal medical applications strategy (approved by the Council in June that year). The MedTech:Hack was initiated by the Knowledge Transfer group’s Medical Applications section and its Entrepreneurship team together, to explore new ways of developing viable applications in the field.

The challenges of the hackathon were set by the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève (HUG), the Global Humanitarian Lab, RadiaBeam Technologies and G-ray. Moreover, to complement the technical know-how provided by CERN, the MedTech:Hack was organised in close collaboration with: HUG, providing access to medical doctors’ expertise; the Global Humanitarian Lab, offering a close link to several humanitarian organisations; Impact HUB, supporting the teams in business model development; The Port, which has extensive expertise in hackathons and also shared their methodology; and the Geneva Health Forum, providing an opportunity to present the results to the global health community. Finally, MassChallenge Switzerland partnered with MedTech:Hack to support a selected team on their way to becoming a start-up.

After three days of intense work and remarkable progress with the help of mentors from industry and technical experts from CERN, the AwardFEST took place on 9 April. The jury had a tough job selecting a winner and ended up choosing two of the teams.

Team 2.7 from Tanzania worked on the Global Humanitarian Lab’s challenge, on mobile health, finding a solution for people in rural areas to get better access to vital healthcare. The solution they came up with was Box.e, a portable device with several sensors to measure the vital signs of patients, using CERN’s C2MON technology to store and monitor data.

Team Radioactive_boys from Germany worked on HUG’s challenge on screening radiopharmaceuticals in a much faster and more efficient way. Their solution, Bioscan, is a modular hybrid scanner for the measurement of radioactivity. It is fast and boasts high spatial and temporal resolution using CERN’s GEMPix detector.

Both winning teams were rewarded with a stay at CERN to continue developing their projects. In addition, Team 2.7 got the opportunity to present their project at the opening ceremony of the Geneva Health Forum, while Team Radioactive_boys won a spot in the second round of judging at MassChallenge Switzerland.

On 28 April 2018, 13 days ahead of schedule, the operators of the LHC successfully injected 1200 bunches of protons into the machine and collided them. This formally marks the beginning of the LHC’s 2018 physics season.

An important milestone was achieved on Tuesday, 17 April, when, for the first time in 2018, stable beams were declared and the experiments started to take data, although only at very low luminosity levels, and with only three bunches per beam. The LHC has now entered the period during which the final beam commissioning steps will be interleaved with stable beams for the experiments, with a stepwise increase of the number of bunches in each beam until the maximum number of 2556 bunches per beam is reached.

The scrubbing run is another key step in the beam commissioning process, preparing the machine to perform well with a large number of bunches. The scrubbing process “cleans” the surface of the vacuum chamber of “loose” electrons. Loose electrons can detach and then build-up as a cloud in the vacuum chamber, affecting the beam’s stability and quality. The duration of the scrubbing run depends on the type of work that took place during the YETS. This time, the machine was neither extensively opened, nor warmed up to room temperature. The one new component that required extra attention was an injection kicker module that was exchanged during the YETS. Therefore, only one day of scrubbing – performed on Monday, 23 April – was required to establish the conditions necessary for running with 2556 bunches per beam and to condition the injection kicker module. The machine was successfully filled with 2820 bunches and the beam was maintained for several hours at a low (injection) energy (450 GeV).

A large number of measurements were made during the scrubbing run to monitor the effectiveness of the cleaning and to decide when to stop. Against expectations, some activity was observed in the interconnection of 16L2, where, in 2017, some gas condensate caused regular beam losses. This problem could be circumvented by filling the LHC with a different bunch pattern. It is still early days to be able to draw conclusions and so more measurements, with an increased number of bunches at higher energies and in stable beams, will be required to understand the extent and possible consequences of the observed activity.

At present, the intensity ramp up is at the level of around 600 bunches per ring, roughly 25% of the total number of bunches, but also about six days ahead of schedule. The threshold of 1200 bunches, which is considered significant in terms of data taking, was expected to be reached around 11 May, but it was already reached on 28 April.

A revised 2018 LHC schedule, which takes into account the faster than anticipated commissioning, has been approved and published, providing 131 days of physics with 25 ns proton beams, 17 days of special runs with protons, usually at a lower luminosity production rate, and 24 days of lead-lead collisions at the end of the year.

CERN has always valued its academic freedom, its international character and its openness, welcoming people from all over the world, giving them the opportunity to think outside the box and try something new, fostering creativity and avoiding placing hurdles in their way. It is this open and free environment that allows us to tackle the riddles of nature, to endeavour to understand the universe and its rules, and to advance fundamental research and technology. While such an open academic environment is paramount to the operation of CERN, it cannot be completely free of rules…

Rules are (maybe?) an annoying but necessary part of running an Organization like CERN. Rules are imposed on CERN by the Host States, e.g. for safety or radiation-related matters, and are also an essential ingredient in preserving the Organization’s independence. Rules are also enacted by CERN itself in order to enable peaceful and friendly coexistence inside the research community and, like anywhere else in the world, between people. At CERN, the Staff Rules and Regulations, its subsidiary Administrative and Operational Circulars, and the CERN Code of Conduct provide the official and “legal” framework for the proper and efficient functioning of the Organization: employment conditions and working hours; salaries and benefits; working conditions and safety precautions; access rights and control; as well as how to deal with alcohol problems, harassment and fraud.

The CERN Computing Rules, i.e. CERN’s Operational Circular No. 5 (OC5), govern the usage of CERN’s computing facilities, CERN’s wired and wireless networks including all devices connected to them, any computer centre service and the systems, data and applications running therein, any computing nodes and storage clusters for any kind of data processing, as well as any digital and connected device that is part of the accelerator complex or the experiments. Here too, academic freedom prevails and OC5 tolerates the personal use of CERN’s computing facilities as long as this use “is in compliance with [OC5] and not detrimental to official duties, including those of other users; the frequency and duration is limited and there is a negligible use of CERN resources; it does not constitute a political, commercial and/or profit-making activity; it is not inappropriate or offensive; it does not violate applicable laws.” As you can see, online as elsewhere at CERN, you are expected to respect the fact that this is a professional environment and to behave accordingly. The mandate of the CERN Computer Security Officer is to protect the operations and the reputation of the Organization against any cyber-threat; this includes verifying that the corresponding rules are being followed.

As outlined in the Bulletin article entitled “Transparent Monitoring for your Protection”, measures have been implemented to automatically validate the conformity of personal and professional activity with OC5 and its “Rules for personal usage”. Usually, this forms part of our logging and monitoring systems for the detection of intrusions, attacks and malicious deeds against CERN’s computing facilities from both outside and within CERN, as described in some depth in our Digital Privacy Statement. But besides our automatic tools, the Computer Security Team follows up any suspicious activity reported to them by CERN staff, users or third parties from outside the Organization (e.g. affiliated universities, security companies, individuals who are part of our computer “security” network, law enforcement agencies and the police). While we seek to maintain open access to the Internet (including for personal usage), we may in some rare cases block access to, for example, websites hosting malicious content (e.g. drive-by infections, CERN-like phishing pages) or other kinds of clearly illegal material. Please note, however, that you are always responsible for your own web browsing; the fact that you are able to access a website does not mean that it is legal or otherwise acceptable under OC5.

So, please refrain from any inappropriate or illegal usage of CERN’s computing facilities, CERN computers/PCs/laptops or any network belonging to CERN, and, for example, do not browse or download offensive material (see “Offensive Public Browsing”), do not post commercial messages on CERN webpages, do not mine crypto-currencies as the resources (electricity, CPU cycles, etc.) are needed by CERN for other purposes (see “Computing power for professionals… only!”), and do not share music, videos or software if you do not have the proper authorisation to do so (see “Music, Videos and the Risk for CERN”). Otherwise, you must face the fact that virtual misconduct might be detected, reported and have real consequences (“Virtual Misconduct – Real Consequences”)...

Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Register to receive our monthly report. For further information, questions or help, check out our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

Have you ever come across CERN in your favourite newspaper? Have you watched a documentary featuring the LHC? Or have you read a popular science book about particle physics? Newspapers, TV stations, radio channels and blogs worldwide talk about CERN on a daily basis. Most official journalists, photographers, writers and bloggers contact the CERN Press Office when they want to cover stories about CERN, check some facts or find interviewees or other resources such as photos and videos.

Around 500 to 1000 people from the media visit CERN every year, and the Press Office organises bespoke visits for them. Whenever possible, the press officers find interviewees or guides who speak the same language as the journalist, so that technical concepts are easier to digest even for journalists without a science background. The Press Office also takes care to ensure that access and safety rules are followed and, finally, monitors and archives articles mentioning CERN. During the next long shutdown (LS2) in 2019-2020, we expect a large number of media visits.

However, the Press Office is also aware that some members of the media might contact you directly, maybe because you have worked together before or they found your name on a publication, webpage or conference programme. In such cases, we invite you to contact the Press Office (press(at)cern.ch) as early as possible for assistance with the visit, ideally one month in advance due to the high number of requests we receive. The Press Office will then help to organise a complete visit that extends beyond your experiment or department, and meets the needs of the reporter. The journalist will also leave CERN having had a richer experience, and maybe will have gathered ideas for new CERN-related stories to write about in the future. Moreover, specific release documents must be signed to authorise filming within CERN, and to legally protect you from the inappropriate use and distribution of material. Finally, the Press Office can keep in touch with the journalists and send them updated information about CERN.

CERN coverage in the media is only possible thanks to the collaboration of all CERN people who give up their time to guide media visits and answer journalists’ questions. You are encouraged to contact the Press Office if you are running an interesting event at CERN, if your high-profile publication has been accepted, or if you want to challenge yourself by explaining your research to the media. The Press Office also organises media training sessions in collaboration with the HR Department twice a year. There are still some places on the course in May, so hurry up and register if you are interested, it’s not too late!

The Admin e-guide procedure regarding media visits is available at this link: https://admin-eguide.web.cern.ch/en/procedure/requests-media-information-or-visits  

CERN press office 

Did you know that, in 2017, 846 000 plastic cups were used in Restaurants 1 and 2? That’s two truckloads, or around 2400 cups per day. Can you imagine that? 

A widely used and non-recyclable source of waste, a plastic cup takes around 500 years to decompose. Every day, with each and every plastic cup of water, human beings create an additional half a century’s worth of waste on our planet. At CERN, efforts have been made to ensure that the majority of waste is sorted and recycled. But we can do better: first, by not using non-essential products, in particular plastic cups. In this way, we can save the planet 1.5 tonnes of plastic per year!

The Novae team has suggested eliminating plastic cups from all CERN restaurants. From 28 May 2018, plastic cups will no longer be used. Visitors to the restaurants will use only washable glasses, which will significantly reduce the amount of waste every day. The use of personal bottles and reusable thermal cups is another great way to cut down on plastic. If you purchase a Bodum cup from Novae, you will get five coffees free. In addition, if you bring your own cup, you can benefit from a small discount on the cost of your coffee or tea. 

However, for this initiative to succeed, we all need to make an effort and use crockery sensibly. At present, three in five people take two glasses on their tray (some even take three!). Given that 2000 people use Restaurants 1 and 2 each day, this amounts to far too many. 

In addition, a large amount of cutlery and crockery disappears from the restaurants each year. At least 7850 forks and 4124 knives were stolen in 2017, for example. To help reduce our use of plastic and the amount of waste we produce, please take just one glass per meal and leave all cutlery and crockery in the restaurants. 

As mentioned in the last LHC Report, the LHC reached 1200 bunches per beam on 28 April and, during the scrubbing run, some activity was observed in the interconnection of 16L2 where, in 2017, the presence of gas condensate resulted in regular beam losses. At that time, it was not known if this activity would be serious enough to limit this year’s performance, which would involve a larger number of bunches. During the subsequent steps in the intensity ramp-up (i.e. 1551, 1887, 2175, 2319, 2460 and finally 2556 bunches per beam), the beam losses induced by 16L2 were closely monitored. These beam losses are of two types: firstly, a steady, constant beam loss that depends on the total number of particles per beam. This beam loss is substantially lower than the threshold that could provoke a beam dump, thanks in particular to a special solenoid that was installed during the second half of 2017. Secondly, erratic beam loss spikes that add to the steady losses, potentially surpassing the dump threshold. The steady beam losses increase when the number of bunches increases but, fortunately, the frequency of the beam loss spikes decreased the longer the beam circulated in the machine. These spikes were “conditioned away”, in the parlance used at the CCC for this effect, allowing running with a full machine.

Another very encouraging event took place on Saturday, 5 May, during the last steps of the intensity ramp-up, when the average peak luminosity for ATLAS and CMS was close to 2.1 x 10³⁴ cm^-2s^-1, equalling or even surpassing the record peak luminosity of 2017. The only caveat here is that the final calibration of the luminosity measurements, provided by the experiments, still needs to be done, using the so-called van der Meer scans that are scheduled to take place during the weekend of 23 to 24 June, which might slightly change the peak luminosity value.

Since the start of the intensity ramp-up, luminosity optimisation by anti-levelling has been tested and used. To refresh your memory of this technique: during the fills, the instantaneous luminosity and the beam intensity decrease (i.e. luminosity burn-off). This allows, after some time, the crossing angle for the collisions to be reduced, which actually slightly increases the instantaneous luminosity, resulting in a greater accumulation of luminosity in the same amount of time. This was successfully used operationally in 2017. For the 2018 run, an extra step has been added at the end of the fill and after the initial reductions of the crossing angle. This extra step consists of squeezing the beams further down to even smaller sizes. Each fill starts with a beam squeezed down to a beta star (b*) of 30 cm, as used in 2017. Two steps have been added in the optimisation process, consisting of a further reduction, first to 27 cm and finally to 25 cm. Besides optimising luminosity production, this also allows testing of the various types of levelling (crossing angle and b* levelling) that are expected to be used routinely during the HL-LHC era.

From now on, the LHC is in production mode for physics. The operation of the machine will be consolidated in parallel, meaning that the machine settings will be further tweaked, beam life times optimised, performance stabilised and, if possible, increased. On Friday, 11 May, the integrated luminosity for ATLAS and CMS was already at 6.91 fb^-1 (of the 60 fb^-1 planned for 2018).

All in all, a very successful start of, hopefully, a very successful data-taking season for the experiments. A big thanks goes to all the people that made this very efficient start-up possible: a real team effort!

Having trouble with a detector component? Or you think a key machine component might be getting damaged? At the start of this year, the EN-MME group’s Materials, Metrology and Non-Destructive testing section (MM) acquired a brand-new tomograph that offers comprehensive materials soundness inspections for materials and performs accurate metrology. This new, non-destructive testing instrument is used to look inside materials and detect faults (cracks, porosity, inclusions, etc.) or to visualise any internal structures that are not physically accessible. Until now, the MM section had only one, tailor-made tomograph that was solely used to check the LHC magnet interconnections. It had to call on outside external companies or laboratories to perform tomography-based inspections of materials.

With a penetration depth of approximately 50 mm for steel, 300 mm for aluminium and slightly more for polymers, this new tomograph can be used to test samples up to 430 mm in diameter and 800 mm high, weighing up to 50 kg.

The sample to be tested is placed in between an X-ray source and a CCD detector and then X-rayed from all angles. “The tomograph takes a set of X-ray images - up to 4200 for a single scan - and these are reconstructed to obtain the 3-D volume of the object,” explains Ahmed Cherif, head of CERN’s metrology laboratory. “The volume can then be viewed as a 3-D video showing the different axes and layers, and this allows anomalies to be detected. For small objects, the reconstructed image has a resolution as high as 4 micrometres,” adds the head of the non-destructive testing service, Gonzalo Arnau Izquierdo. “The tomograph is capable of producing this level of resolution thanks to its microfocus X-ray tube and its large-surface imager.” The imager can also render a wide range of shades of grey, 65 535 to be precise. By comparison, a human eye can only distinguish 256! 

This new and highly versatile microtomograph can also perform conventional metrology with a precision of 10 micrometres. “For example, we can measure components and compare them to a CAD model (Computer Aided Design) in order to show up nonconformities,” Ahmed Cherif adds. “It also provides an ultra-precise 3-D representation of an object’s surface.”

To see this new tomograph in action as well as the other instruments of the metrology laboratory, don’t miss the open day organised by the metrology and non-destructive testing teams on 6 June from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. Coffee and croissants will be served.

To receive more information on the open day, please write to: Ahmed.Cherif@cern.ch or Gonzalo.Arnau.Izquierdo@cern.ch

One major source of revenue on the Internet is advertisements. One view, one hover of your mouse, one click: everything is counted and converted into money paid by the advertisers to the owners of the website where the ad is displayed. This is not bad per se as it provides visitors with “free”* content while still maintaining a revenue stream for the content providers. Interestingly, not only honest companies have embarked on online advertising, but the evil side has also discovered advertisements to spread their malware.

As outlined in a previous article (“Malware, Ransomware, Doxware and the like”), attacking end-user computers is a multi-billion dollar business run by professional, but illegal, enterprises. Many different attack vectors are employed, such as phishing e-mails, malicious attachments, or targeted attacks against companies and their employees. Or attackers even try to infiltrate major websites and hide malware within. If an unfortunate user accesses that website, his or her vulnerable computer is compromised and his or her private life is gone (see our article on “Drive-bye”).

Alternatively, the malicious evil-doers just buy themselves into one of the big advertisement network distributors (“ad networks”, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_network for examples) and hope that their malicious advertisements (“malvertisements”) are properly distributed and shown on major websites. Superficially, their malvertisements promote fake products or services. Behind the scenes, however, the malvertisement tries to exploit vulnerabilities in your web browser, its plugins, or in your operating system.

Although the ad distributors generally do a good job of blocking such malvertisements, it’s a cat and mouse game. Malvertisements might affect major legitimate and popular websites: news outlets, public transport webpages, feeds in Facebook or Twitter, etc. In such cases, our motto “Stop – Think – Don’t click!” can’t be applied. Instead, it is of the utmost importance that you keep your operating system and all applications, in particular your web browser, up-to-date. Make sure that the respective update mechanism is set to “automatic” so that your devices download and apply fixes as soon as possible. If available, install and run antivirus software and remember that CERN’s antivirus software for Windows computers and Macs is free for you to also use at home. Good luck!

*The “free” has been put in inverted commas as, unfortunately , advertisements nowadays often come with tracking algorithms that monitor your activity and try to gather more information about you and your computer (e.g. your location, keyboard language, operating system type). If you don’t like this, consider using ad blockers or browser extensions for more privacy.

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Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

Do you often find yourself stuck in a traffic jam on your way to work? Are you interested in car-sharing but worried how you’d make it to the dentist’s at lunchtime? Have you given up hope of ever finding a parking spot less than 100 metres from your office? Are you looking for new ways to simplify your journeys to and from work? If so, this survey is for you!

The mobility working group, which was set up in 2017, is launching a two-part survey designed to help to improve the situation. The first part is aimed at establishing people’s habits and needs. Please take five minutes to complete the survey to make sure that your profile is taken into account. The survey is designed for everyone who travels to the CERN site, from members of the CERN personnel to users, contractors’ personnel, students, apprentices and fellows.

Your answers will provide crucial input for new mobility proposals, which will be the subject of the second part of the survey, in September.

Please complete the surveyby 20 June by clicking here. The results will help you to save time and energy in the future!

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See also the Word from Martin Steinacher, Director for Finance and Human Resources.

The scale and technological sophistication of the detectors at the LHC experiments is almost incomprehensible. In addition to several subdetector systems, they contain millions of detecting elements and support a research programme for an international community of thousands of scientists. The volume of data that will be produced during the high-luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) and by future colliders calls for even more sophisticated technologies.

In November 2017, CERN launched a process to define its R&D programme on new experiment technologies from 2020 onwards. The programme covers detector upgrades beyond HL-LHC and includes concepts developed for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) and the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study. The first workshop took place at CERN on 16 March and more than 450 physicists and engineers, about half of whom are visiting scientists hosted by the laboratory, took part.

Beyond the HL-LHC, experiments may evolve in different directions. Therefore, the aim is to launch an R&D programme that concentrates on advancing key technologies rather than developing specialised applications. Developments in detectors for high-energy physics also benefit many other sectors, from healthcare and medical imaging to industry and quality monitoring, so it is timely to think how industry can be involved in joint R&D efforts.

Detector improvements envisioned for the 2020s and beyond include better electronic readout, modelling and simulation tools, and better computational techniques for reconstructing the recorded information. Increased timing accuracy to mitigate event pile-up in very high-luminosity environments will almost certainly impact the development of all classes of detectors, whether silicon, gas or photodetectors. The challenges of the HL-LHC and future colliders also places tough requirements on readout electronics and fast data links, while advances in data processing and storage are equally important.

Participants also discussed the special facilities and infrastructures needed to test chips under realistic conditions – presenting an impressive number of options on advanced materials, design tools and production technologies, which could change how detectors are built and boost their performance. R&D into magnet design for future colliders also demands progress in superconducting materials and cables to meet strict strength and cost requirements.

The talks at the March workshop covered a variety of topics reflecting CERN’s diversity and strong collaboration with commercial and academic partners worldwide. They demonstrated that new concepts, manufacturing tools and materials, combined with the development of simulation tools and software, can open a new era in detector technologies.

A second workshop will take place this autumn to review progress.

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This article is based on an article published in the May issue of the CERN Courier.

From an altitude of about 100 metres, the drone recently acquired by the Design Office and Patrimony service (SMB-SE-DOP) took over 6200 aerial photos of CERN’s Meyrin and Prévessin sites in two days. The images were then put together using the principles of photogrammetry in order to produce orthophotos (photos geometrically rectified in order to create 2D maps). You can find them at maps.cern.ch and gis.cern.ch. The level of detail, as you’ll see, is remarkable. The resolution is 1.5 cm per pixel, between four and ten times the previous level of precision.

Before the service acquired the drone, photos were taken from a plane in the framework of a partnership between CERN and the SITG, the Geneva geographical information system. These photos, which are still used in areas outside the fenced part of the CERN site, offer a lower resolution of 6 to 15 cm per pixel and are updated only every two to four years, not enough to build up a real geomatics tool like the one available today. To keep the maps up to date, the Design Office and Patrimony service intends to photograph the CERN sites every year. These updates will also play an important role in documenting the history of CERN.

“The incredible precision of the photos means that we are now able to create maps directly from digital photos of objects such as road markings, curbstones and manholes,” explains Youri Robert, the geomatics engineer in charge of the service. “Using these images we can make digital elevation models (DEMs) virtually automatically, with a topographic accuracy of better than 3 cm in the case of hard surfaces. This saves a huge amount of time when it comes to producing topographic drawings for preliminary design studies.” These digital models are also used to calculate the volume of material in large-scale earthworks, such as those for the HL-LHC project, and so to check how much earth has been excavated and stored without having to physically inspect the worksite.

“In manual mode, the drone also allows us to inspect or explore areas that are hard to access, such as roofs, facades, the water tower and electrical power stations. By getting extremely close to the object we’re studying, we can produce photos with a very high resolution of 1 or 2 millimetres per pixel”, continues Youri. “We have also acquired a heat camera to be able to check insulation and assess the impact of renovation work.”

Discover the new aerial photos of CERN at maps.cern.ch or gis.cern.ch or, if you require your own aerial photos, send a request to "Drone Mapping".