The car parks next to the Globe (except the P+R) and in the clubs area will be reserved for the Director-General’s New Year ceremony with the local authorities from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, 17 January. You are requested to vacate the parking spaces by Wednesday evening. Both car parks will be inaccessible on Thursday morning (except to P+R pass holders). The car parks will re-open on Thursday afternoon.

Thank you for your understanding.

The CERN Protocol Service

Like any other organisation, institute or enterprise, CERN is under permanent attack by evildoers. Attackers try to break into our data centres, misuse the computing power of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid and attempt to steal your CERN password or compromise your laptop or PC. 2018 was no different from the years before. As 2019 begins, we would like to share a few fun facts on CERN computer security and our activities in 2018.

Cybersecurity is a marathon and, as in previous years, CERN computing resources were challenged by many different parties. Thanks to your awareness and care, the proactiveness of our colleagues in keeping the data centres and their computing services up to date, the quick responses when incidents have happened and the willingness of the CERN Management to embark on new protective measures, CERN has been spared from major cyber-disasters. Still, we have not been idle! All our computer security interventions are documented in our Monthly Report and some of them have been discussed in previous Bulletin articles. Here are a few fun facts:

• 116 [TBC] computer security interventions were performed by the CERN Computer Security team in 2018;
• 2TB of data per day was analysed in CERN’s Security Operations Centre;
• This data is compared online with about 17 000 suspicious IP addresses, domain names or known malicious files (so-called indicators of compromise, IoC;
• The most serious computer security incident so far (back in 2016) required 30 person-weeks of in-depth studies before it was finally concluded;
• 3 Macbooks were found to have been infected in 2018;
• 2670 CERN e-mail addresses (and local passwords!) associated with an external web service were exposed in a single data breach of that service;
• In the last “clicking campaign”, 15.2% of the email recipients clicked and would potentially have rendered their device compromised;
• 516.878 EUR in compensation has been demanded following an alleged licence violation;
• 126 CERN staff and users have so far been trained to become White Hats;
• 26% of non-computer devices, e.g. control systems, webcams, printers, coffee machines, smart meters, oscilloscopes, Raspberry Pis and Arduinos – devices of the so-called Internet of Things – connected to CERN’s office network have been found to be vulnerable;
• 2766 Service Now tickets were handled in 2018.

Will 2019 be calmer? That would be unexpected and against worldwide trends. Instead, 2019 will doubtless be as interesting as the past! So we continue to count on your help: with a sufficient amount of awareness, sensitivity and caution – STOP – THINK – DON’T CLICK – you can protect your own computers, tablets and smart phones, documents, photos and data, bank accounts and online accounts – and contribute significantly to protecting CERN!!! We wish you, your friends and your families a safe and secure 2019!

Christoph M. Madsen/CERN Video Productions

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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.

In August 2017, the Enlarged Directorate endorsed a new policy which defines the framework of software dissemination activities at CERN, contributing to a more coherent approach in the licensing and dissemination of the Organization’s software assets. As a member of the CERN community, your work may lead to potential applications across a wide range of industries beyond CERN. In order to maximise the dissemination, there is a number of important implications to consider when developing software.

CERN is a collaborative environment, where developers from different organisations, institutes, and countries often contribute to various degrees of a given software project. Despite its uniqueness as a fundamental research laboratory, CERN does not differ from industry or academia with respect to software creation. The majority of the laboratory’s output is Components Based Software (CBS), and software that does not contain external components is the exception rather than the norm.

Development teams often focus on the desired outcome, employing the component that seems most suitable to satisfy the project’s requirements. As a result, code may not always be properly identified and documented. This approach is perfectly valid if the CBS is not to be distributed outside CERN, but from a dissemination perspective, it may contribute to complicate the path as the licensing scheme of the different components are not taken into account.

The new software dissemination policy therefore recommends ways of anticipating software dissemination in order to facilitate it. The possible dissemination paths are greatly influenced by the freedom to choose a licensing model, and falls into four different cases depending on the involvement of external contributors in the development, and the usage of external code components.

In order to assess the dissemination potential, every software technology is evaluated on a case-by-case basis, considering the needs and aspirations of the developer’s team. The Knowledge Transfer (KT) group is responsible for facilitating the transfer of CERN technology, undertaking a number of concrete actions to promote CERN software technologies, also providing support and expertise to assist in all steps of the dissemination process. Numerous technologies are brought to the attention of CERN’s KT group every year, leading to various collaboration agreements and knowledge transfer activities with industry.

In 2017, a licence agreement was signed between CERN and the leading global display manufacturer LG Display, giving them access to controls middleware software from CERN to be used in factory automation across their plants. The software was originally developed by the BE-CO group for the LHC to provide a common software communication infrastructure for the accelerator controls, but will now be adapted to its new application by LG-Display with the support of the development team.

Another knowledge transfer activity conducted was a four-day training course on machine learning, in which a team of experts from CERN’s EP-SFT group shared their expertise with Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business unit of the global life science company Sanofi. The aim was to improve vaccine production by using ROOT, the data analysis framework used to analyse HEP data, and the Toolkit for Multivariate Data Analysis (TMVA), a library of associated machine learning algorithms.

The possible disseminations paths for software technologies are many, and if you want to learn more about how KT can support the process, please visit kt.cern or access all CERN KT policy documents here.

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The new CERN-wide policy applies to all CERN Software, addressing both proprietary licensing and open source licensing, and complements the more general framework ‘Policy on the Management of Intellectual Property in Technology Transfer Activities at CERN’ (the “CERN IP Policy”) while taking into account the recommendations of the ‘Final Report OSL-2012 – Main Volume’ by the ‘Open Source Licence Task Force’.

Giovanni Anelli is the Head of CERN Knowledge Transfer group.

The campaign to make an inventory of CERN premises for maintenance purposes is now finished. As announced, the panoramic pictures taken will be available to the personnel in charge of maintenance, safety/security and space management activities at CERN, from 15 February 2019.

You were invited to remove all personal belongings from your office. Our intention is to render the photos non-personal data. If the picture of your office still accidentally contains personal items, we ask for your cooperation and invite you to blur them from the image using the following URL: https://panoramas-blurrer.web.cern.ch/.

The Organization will, in its legitimate interest of using the photographs for a variety of purposes, blur any remaining ones.

SMB Department

I would like to wish you and your families a very happy New Year. 2019 promises to be an exciting year for CERN, offering a wealth of new challenges not only for physics, the accelerators, the infrastructure and the administration, but also for outreach, as CERN will be opening its doors to the public on 14 and 15 September. Before reviewing some of the highlights of 2018, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your hard work and for your commitment to the Organization. Without them, none of the year’s many outstanding achievements would have been possible. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the Member and Associate Member States for their continuous support.

Run 2 has just ended on a glorious note, with more integrated luminosity produced for the LHC experiments than foreseen, thanks to the outstanding performance of the accelerator complex over the past four years. The detectors and the computing coped very well with the deluge of data. Beautiful physics results have been produced already, and more will be released in the coming months.  

CERN is much more than the LHC. In 2018 we saw significant progress across the full scientific programme. To mention only a few examples, the upgrades of the HIE/ISOLDE and AD/ELENA facilities were completed, the Advanced Wakefield Experiment, AWAKE, demonstrated electron acceleration from plasma wakefields induced by a proton beam for the first time, and the world’s largest liquid-argon neutrino detector, the single-phase proto-DUNE at the CERN Neutrino Platform, reconstructed beautiful tracks from incident test-beam particles. 

It is fair to say that the long shutdown, LS2, which began in December, will not be an idle period. The upgrade of the LHC injectors (LIU project) will be completed in 2019 and 2020, and much work will be done by the accelerator teams and the experiments in preparation for Run 3 and the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. 

With the submission of input from the scientific community in December, the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) has begun in earnest. The ESPP is a bottom-up process that involves the whole community. We should all commit to it and contribute to the crucial task of preparing the future of our field.

Beyond the scientific programme, the highlights of 2018 include the accession of Lithuania as an Associate Member State, as well as the admissions of Serbia as a Member State and Croatia as an Associate Member State, subject to completion of those countries’ respective internal ratification processes. The Council also approved the implementation plan for the Science Gateway project, a new facility for scientific education and outreach in the area next to the Globe of Science and Innovation. 

The presentation to the personnel this morning is available at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/779524/

Together with the other members of the Directorate, I would like to wish you, once again, all the very best for 2019.

Fabiola Gianotti, Frédérick Bordry, Eckhard Elsen, Martin Steinacher and Charlotte Warakaulle

Geneva. Today, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) collaboration submitted its Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for publication, a four-volume document that presents the different options for a large circular collider of the future. It showcases the great physics opportunities offered by machines of unprecedented energy and intensity and describes the technical challenges, cost and schedule for realisation.

Over the next two years, the particle physics community will be updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics, outlining the future of the discipline beyond the horizon of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The roadmap for the future should, in particular, lead to crucial choices for research and development in the coming years, ultimately with a view to building the particle accelerator that will succeed the LHC and will be able to significantly expand our knowledge of matter and the universe. The new CDR contributes to the European Strategy. The possibility of a future circular collider will be examined during the strategy process, together with the other post-LHC collider option at CERN, the CLIC linear collider.

The FCC study started in 2014 and stems directly from the previous update of the European Strategy, approved in May 2013, which recommended that design and feasibility studies be conducted in order for Europe “to be in a position to propose an ambitious post-LHC accelerator project at CERN by the time of the next Strategy update”. The FCC would provide electron-positron, proton-proton and ion-ion collisions at unprecedented energies and intensities, with the possibility of electron-proton and electron-ion collisions.

“The FCC conceptual design report is a remarkable accomplishment. It shows the tremendous potential of the FCC to improve our knowledge of fundamental physics and to advance many technologies with a broad impact on society”, said CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti. “While presenting new, daunting challenges, the FCC would greatly benefit from CERN’s expertise, accelerator complex and infrastructures, which have been developed over more than half a century.”

The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC opened a new path for research, as the Higgs boson could be a door into new physics. Detailed studies of its properties are therefore a priority for any future high-energy physics accelerator. The different options explored by the FCC study offer unique opportunities to study the nature of the Higgs boson. In addition, experimental evidence requires physics beyond the Standard Model to account for observations such as dark matter and the domination of matter over antimatter. The search for new physics, for which a future circular collider would have a vast discovery potential, is therefore of paramount importance to making significant progress in our understanding of the universe.

The FCC design study was a huge effort, possible only thanks to a large international collaboration. Over five years and with the strong support of the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, the FCC collaboration involved more than 1300 contributors from 150 universities, research institutes and industrial partners who actively participated in the design effort and the R&D of new technologies to prepare for the sustainable deployment and efficient operation of a possible future circular collider.

“The FCC’s ultimate goal is to provide a 100-kilometre superconducting proton accelerator ring, with an energy of up to 100 TeV, meaning an order of magnitude more powerful than the LHC”, said CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Frédérick Bordry. “The FCC timeline foresees starting with an electron-positron machine, just as LEP preceded the LHC. This would enable a rich programme to benefit the particle physics community throughout the twenty-first century.”

Using new-generation high-field superconducting magnets, the FCC proton collider would offer a wide range of new physics opportunities. Reaching energies of 100 TeV and beyond would allow precise studies of how a Higgs particle interacts with another Higgs particle, and thorough exploration of the role of the electroweak-symmetry breaking in the history of our universe. It would also allow us to access unprecedented energy scales, looking for new massive particles, with multiple opportunities for great discoveries. In addition, it would also collide heavy ions, sustaining a rich heavy-ion physics programme to study the state of matter in the early universe.

“Proton colliders have been the tool-of-choice for generations to venture new physics at the smallest scale. A large proton collider would present a leap forward in this exploration and decisively extend the physics programme beyond results provided by the LHC and a possible electron-positron collider.” said CERN Director for Research and Computing, Eckhard Elsen.

A 90-to-365-GeV electron-positron machine with high luminosity could be a first step. Such a collider would be a very powerful “Higgs factory”, making it possible to detect new, rare processes and measure the known particles with precisions never achieved before. These precise measurements would provide great sensitivity to possible tiny deviations from the Standard Model expectations, which would be a sign of new physics.

The cost of a large circular electron-positron collider would be in the 9-billion-euro range, including 5 billion euros for the civil engineering work for a 100-kilometre tunnel. This collider would serve the worldwide physics community for 15 to 20 years. The physics programme could start by 2040 at the end of the High-Luminosity LHC. The cost estimate for a superconducting proton machine that would afterwards use the same tunnel is around 15 billion euros. This machine could start operation in the late 2050s.

The complex instruments required for particle physics inspire new concepts, innovation and groundbreaking technologies, which benefit other research disciplines and eventually find their way into many applications that have a significant impact on the knowledge economy and society. A future circular collider would offer extraordinary opportunities for industry, helping to push the limits of technology further. It would also provide exceptional training for a new generation of researchers and engineers.

• CDR to be publicly available here: https://cern.ch/fcc-cdr
• Photos: https://cds.cern.ch/ record/2653532
• Background information: https://cern.ch/fcc-cdr/webkit
• More information: https://cern.ch/fcc

Following a recommendation by the Standing Concertation Committee at its meeting on 27 November 2018 and approval by the Director-General, please note that:

• the Progressive Retirement Programme has been extended by one year, from 1 April 2019 until 31 March 2020;
• the Part-Time Work as a Pre-retirement Measure Scheme has also been extended by one year, from 1 January 2019 until 31 December 2019.

Further information is available on the following links:

• Progressive retirement programme
• Part-time work as a pre-retirement measure

In accordance with recommendations made by the Finance Committee and decisions taken by Council in December 2018, certain financial benefits impacting salaries and stipends have been adjusted with effect from 1 January 2019.

Annual adjustments are the following:

• A 1.05% increase to the scale of basic salaries paid to Staff Members and the scale of stipends paid to Fellows (Annexes R A 5 and R A 6 of the Staff Regulations).
• A 0.68% increase to subsistence allowances (2019 subsistence rates), family, child and infant allowances (Annex R A 3 of the Staff Regulations) and to payment ceilings of education fees* (Annex R A 4 of the Staff Regulations) following the movement of the Geneva consumer price index.
• Related adjustments will be implemented wherever applicable to associated members of the personnel (Annex R A 7 of the Staff Regulations).

The amended text of the Staff Regulations will be available shortly on the Web at: CERN Staff Rules and Regulations

*The new payment ceilings are applicable to academic year 2018/2019

Particle accelerators find several uses outside fundamental physics research. Following the first “miniature” accelerator developed for a compact injector for proton therapy, CERN has been building a new transportable high-frequency accelerator for use in the examination of art masterpieces.

The accelerator relies on the proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) technique, and CERN has been working on building a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) for this purpose since mid-2017. Innovative beam dynamics have been developed to make the PIXE-RFQ more compact and consume less power. The result is a short proton accelerator measuring one metre in length that can provide a beam of 2 MeV with a power consumption of less than 6 kVA.

The study of cultural heritage requires in-situ, non-destructive analysis. A transportable accelerator using PIXE offers a unique way to overcome the limitations of the mobile X-ray fluorescence method generally used. PIXE also has better sensitivity, provides layer information by using different proton energies and can exploit other reactions (gamma emission, backscattering particles) for more efficient analysis.

CERN and INFN are collaborating on a common project called MACHINA, which stands for Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In-situ Non-destructive Analysis. INFN, and in particular the Laboratory for Nuclear Techniques for Cultural Heritage and the Environment (LABEC) in Florence, has more than 35 years of experience in accelerator analysis of cultural-heritage artworks. Through a collaboration with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) in Florence, masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Antonello da Messina, Vasari, Mantegna and others have been studied. Collaborating with INFN-LABEC thus allows compact proton accelerator technology developed at CERN to be optimised and used in cultural-heritage projects.

Last December, the PIXE-RFQ reached an important milestone: after about one and a half years of high-precision machining and metrology at the CERN workshop, the four vanes of the first of two modules were assembled by vacuum brazing. The modulation at the tip of the vanes allows the particles to be accelerated and must be machined with a precision of 10 µm. The vanes, which are 50 cm long and 7 cm high, must then be assembled with a precision of 30 µm. Vacuum brazing is the best technique for this assembly and, thanks to a procedure initially developed for the Linac4 RFQ, the process is now highly efficient. During a controlled heating cycle under vacuum, wires of a silver–copper alloy melt and the liquid flows between the pieces. Springs are used for alignment during the heating. After cooling and solidification, this forms a perfect joint between the copper pieces.

The construction of the new accelerator isn’t finished yet, but the MACHINA/PIXE-RFQ project is well on its way. First beam tests are expected in late 2019 and first analysis of a real art object at the OPD is scheduled to be conducted in 2020.

The construction of the PIXE-RFQ is fully supported by the CERN KT Fund, with contributions from the EN/MME and BE/RF groups.

More pictures of MACHINA are available on CDS:

CHIS Directive No. 2 entitled “Recovery of Undue Payments”, approved by the Director-General after discussion at the Standing Concertation Committee on 27 June 2018, lays down the provisions governing the application of the CHIS Rules in respect of the recovery of undue payments (sums unduly received by a Member, see Article V 4.01).

This Directive is available via the following link: https://cds.cern.ch/record/2654418?ln=en

It enters into force on 1 February 2019.

Kindly note that vehicle access to the SM18 hall from Route de l’Europe has reopened, but that it will be temporarily closed again on Friday, 1 February, for surfacing work (weather permitting).

Thank you for your understanding.

On 23–24 January, CERN openlab held its annual technical workshop. CERN openlab is a unique public-private partnership, through which CERN collaborates with leading ICT companies to accelerate the development of cutting-edge computing technologies for the LHC research community. This week’s workshop saw representatives of these companies gather at CERN – along with representatives of several research organisations collaborating in CERN openlab – for a series of technical discussions.

Presentations were given on over 20 ongoing R&D projects being carried out through CERN openlab. A poster competition was also held, with fellows sponsored by CERN openlab presenting their latest work. Danilo Cicalese, of the CERN EP Department, was declared the joint winner with Matteo Migliorni and Viktor Khristenko, both of the CERN IT Department. In addition, the workshop featured a session dedicated to discussion of emerging technologies related to quantum computing. This follows on from CERN openlab’s highly successful event on this topic in November.

“The technical workshop provided a fantastic opportunity to meet with representatives from our collaborators and the LHC experiments,” says Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO. “Together, we discussed the progress made in our many ongoing projects, as well as emerging technologies that will play a critical role in enabling us to address new computing challenges.”

At the workshop, an award was given to Oracle in recognition of 15 years of fruitful collaboration through CERN openlab. While CERN’s relationship with Oracle actually stretches back to 1982, Oracle has now been a partner in CERN openlab since 2003. During these 15 years, we have collaborated on a range of exciting and challenging projects related to databases, cloud, storage, industrial controls, and more. Frédéric Hemmer, head of the CERN IT Department, presented the award to David Ebert, a director for industry solutions (public sector, education and research, healthcare) at Oracle.

“The joint R&D projects carried out between CERN and Oracle through CERN openlab have played an important role in helping us address many computing challenges faced by our research community,” says Hemmer. “Collaboration with leading ICT companies like Oracle is central in enabling CERN to fulfil its mission.”

“We are honoured to be receiving this prestigious award in recognition of our long-standing collaboration with CERN openlab,” says Ebert. “We truly value and appreciate the close collaboration and are delighted that Oracle technologies help advance CERN’s pioneering research.”

“As well as looking back on 15 years of successful partnership with Oracle, the technical workshop was also an excellent occasion to look ahead to the exciting work planned over the coming years – both with Oracle and with all of our collaborators from industry and research,” says Alberto Di Meglio. “We’re looking forward to continuing our work to tackle many of the ICT challenges outlined in our white paper, as well as fascinating new challenges that arise in relation to CERN’s ambitious upgrade programme for the LHC.”

All presentations and posters from the workshop can be found on the event website.

Nine months after work began, the excavation of the two new shafts for the High-Luminosity LHC has been completed. On the site of the CMS experiment (LHC Point 5) at Cessy, a 60-metre shaft with a diameter of 11 metres was fully excavated before the end of 2018. On the site of the ATLAS experiment (LHC Point 1), the 62-metre shaft has just been completed and the contractors are installing a concrete ring at its base. With this first phase of the underground work now complete, the contractors are starting to excavate the 50-metre-long underground halls, which will be 17 metres wide and 17 metres high. This work should last about four months. A number of service tunnels will then be constructed on each site, one of them 300 metres long to house equipment and four of them 50 metres long to connect the new structures to the LHC tunnel.

* © Antonino Panté, antoninopante.com. Reproduced with permission.

In a previous Bulletinarticle, we discussed the problem of free software and why "free" does not necessarily mean "free of charge" or, in the CERN context, why "free" software should not be used for professional or educational purposes. Here is a new theory as to why the situation might get worse!

First of all, a "free" licence might insist upon "personal usage only". But this does not mean it is a single-user licence allowing you to install the software as an individual for professional purposes. It instead refers to the software’s deployment at home and for completely private projects, not related to your profession, your job or the paid work you do. At most, it might permit professional testing for a (short) evaluation period or for you to "try it out". Care must be applied here, too, as "trying out" is definitely an activity not supposed to last forever.

Other "free" licences might authorise the software to be used by, for example, "small teams", even for professional purposes. While this sounds good, it also has a snag: CERN is a big organisation comprising many entities. While you might have deployed software for your "small CERN team", other teams at CERN might have considered this too (and already done so!). So, the software vendor might register a bigger picture, and conclude that CERN as a whole is contravening its licence conditions. And indeed, some have already pointed such a situation out to us and have pushed for CERN to subscribe to one of their professional licence packages. Are you prepared to contribute to these costs?

Finally, there is the "educational licence" for universities, generally intended for classroom usage. CERN is an academic institution and part of our campus can be fairly considered to be university-like. Our mission statement stipulates that we "enable research at the forefront of human knowledge[,] perform world-class research in fundamental physics[, and] unite people from all over the world to push the frontiers of science and technology, for the benefit of all"– a purely academic activity. We give lectures to students, and even issue certificates or diplomas through the CERN Accelerator School, CERN School of Computing (even leading to ECTS points), the CERN Teachers Programme and Beamline for Schools, among others. However, our academic environment, our fundamental research, lectures and seminars, as well as those certificates and diplomas, might not be sufficient for CERN to be entitled to an educational licence. Worse, and here is the new theory, licence conditions change. What was allowed for version 1.2.3 might not be the case any more for version 1.2.4. Eligibility changes. Terms change. The scope changes. Figuring all this out can be extremely cumbersome, as software vendors do not necessarily point you directly to the changes to their licence conditions! A formerly valid "free" licence might become a liability for CERN...

So, don't put the Organization at risk! Please check out the licence conditions carefully and read the fine print – not only when considering software for the first time, but also when updating it. If in doubt, please contact the CERN Software Licence Officer or the CERN-IPT Purchasing Service. If you want to stay on the safe side, check out the full portfolio of CERN-provided software via CMF for Windows PCs, LXSOFT for Linux systems and the CERN/Apple Mac Self-Service. Dedicated licences are also available for engineering software and for control software. A register of all centrally purchased licences can be found here: https://slma.cern.ch/slma.

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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.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a trending topic for the past few years in talks, conferences and newspapers and you have probably heard or read about it already. Analysts predict that ‘everything’ will be connected and industry is pushing to deliver this vision and to open new markets.

Although IoT is not new at CERN - you may remember “Computer Security: IoTs: The Treasure trove of CERN” – new user requirements and hence technologies keep appearing on the market.

A key way to distinguish the different requirements is by their bandwidth requirements and the range over which communication is needed. As shown in the diagram, these needs are met by different technologies.

If you have power available you can afford to have higher bandwidth and hence data throughput. You can then connect to the Ethernet network, to the renewed Wi-Fi service or to the mobile network if you are out of Wi-Fi range. Personal Area Networks (PAN) offer you a solution if your device is only a few centimeters/meters away. Bluetooth printers or contactless cards using RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) are just some PAN examples.

“When you are not connected to the electrical grid, there is a trade-off between the range over which you can communicate with your device, its maximum data rate and its power consumption.” says Hubert Odziemczyk, the IT engineer developing the new LoRaWAN network. “Take your Bluetooth headsets as an example; you can have HD audio on them but you need to recharge them daily and cannot go further than 10 meters from the source”.

An LPWAN (Low Power Wireless Area Network) provides long range (up to several kilometers) communication capability to low power consumption devices (up to several years without changing the battery) in a cost effective way (low device cost). The price to pay is the low bit rate (few kbps).

An LPWAN is the perfect match for any kind of sensor or meter sending small amounts of data several times per day. These networks are conceived to support a massive number of devices since they spend most of their time silent.

CERN is introducing a Proof of Concept for a new LPWAN network based on LoRaWAN. You can now connect any LoRa device above ground anywhere on the CERN campus.

The list of applications is countless:

• Smart buildings: presence, temperature/humidity, opinion beacons, glass break…
• Smart cities: water leakage, flood sensors, waste management, parking…
• Environnent monitoring: air pollution, radiation, noise…
• Industrial: vehicles tracking, door opening sensors, industrial standard bridges…

Do you have a use case you would like to discuss? Please, contact lora-support@cern.ch to start using the new network.

Rodrigo Sierra

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Please, read this IoT related Computer Security article if you have not already done so.

The LS2 marathon has begun. In all the accelerators, teams have set about the tasks of maintaining or renovating numerous hardware components or replacing them with new and often innovative systems. Most of this major upgrade work is being done as part of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project, which has been under preparation for several years and aims to increase the performance of the accelerators. The Engineering Department’s ACE group has been coordinating the schedule for all the installation work, with one coordinator per accelerator assigned to organising the master schedule and to liaising with the coordinators of each work package.

The PS Booster is to be completely transformed. When the new linear accelerator, Linac4, starts operating at the end of LS2, the PS Booster will receive protons at an energy of 160 MeV, compared with 50 MeV from the old Linac2. The injection system into the Booster therefore needs to be completely modified, especially as Linac4 will be accelerating H^- ions (formed from a hydrogen atom and an additional electron). These ions will be stripped from their electrons by an ingenious injection system before being accelerated in the Booster up to 2 GeV, compared with 1.4 GeV in the past. In addition to the injection system upgrade, the radiofrequency acceleration and power supply systems will also be replaced, the magnets upgraded and the transfer line to the PS renovated.

David Hay is coordinating installation work at the PS Booster during LS2. “In actual fact, renovation work started as far back as 2016,” he explains, “with the civil engineering work, cable removal and laying campaigns and the installation of new instrumentation.” In parallel, all the new equipment for high-intensity beam operation was developed and manufactured, as part of the LIU project. A new building (245) has been constructed to house the Booster’s new power supply system, designed to cope with the higher energy of the accelerator.  The power converters will supply power to the magnets with electrical intensities of 5500 amps, compared with 4000 amps previously. The new “POPS-B” power supply system was tested at the end of 2018 and successfully supplied the required level of power. This was an important milestone in the Booster’s performance upgrade.

The cable removal campaign has also begun. Another particularly tricky operation began this week with the dismantling of the equipment in the Booster’s injection zone. “Out of the 215 metres of beamlines of the PS Booster complex, 70 metres will need to be removed to make way for new injection and extraction equipment,” explains Wim Weterings of the TE-ABT group, who is supervising the work on the transfer lines. The equipment to be removed includes septum and kicker magnets, dipoles, quadrupoles and corrector magnets. Installation of the new systems should begin towards the end of the spring.

Some magnets will need to be replaced in the transfer lines as well as in the Booster ring. “We have to take out over 60 magnets. Most will be replaced with new magnets but some will be reconditioned,” explains Antony Newborough of the TE-MSC group, who is responsible for the Booster magnets. The heaviest weigh around 18 tonnes.

The radiofrequency acceleration system will be completely replaced. Since 2012, a new system based on cavities built using a composite magnetic material called FineMet has been developed in collaboration with Japanese institute KEK. Two cavities have been conclusively tested in situ over the course of several runs. The three structures, each containing 8 cavities, are ready to be installed once the old cavities have been removed. A new electrical power system has also been developed. “From the end of February, we will be installing 24 racks containing 144 power converters as well as 18 racks containing the control modules in the surface building. This will take two months,” explains Matthias Haase of the BE-RF group, who is coordinating the work.

In addition to the work being performed at the heart of the accelerator, much is also being done on the infrastructures, including the replacement of the cooling system and the installation of new cooling towers.

I’m very much looking forward to the second open discussion session between CERN personnel and the Directorate on 19 March. As we promised after the first such session in November 2017, we’ve taken on board the feedback you gave us, and made some refinements to the form the meeting will take. 

Next time, you told us, we should be seated – that’s an innovation we’re more than happy to accept! More seriously, however, while you liked the number and diversity of questions addressed in that first meeting, you would have appreciated a little more depth on a few, selected topics. That means that we need to find a format that reconciles openness with the ability to consider subjects in detail. We’ve therefore decided to begin as we did last year by asking you to send questions you’d like to be considered to directorate-questions@cern.ch before 4 February. We’ll then group your questions into themes and ask you to vote on those you’d most like to see discussed. Online voting will open in mid-February and close in early March. Any important subjects that we do not have time to discuss at the meeting on 19 March will inform CERN’s internal communication for the months to follow. 

I’m sure you’ll have plenty of things you’d like to discuss, but to get the ball rolling, the top themes that emerged from your submitted questions in 2017 were: priorities for future scientific projects (in the framework of the European Strategy for Particle Physics), energy saving, mobility in and around the CERN sites, diversity, work-life balance, geographical enlargement, and the societal impact of our research.

The whole Directorate looks forward to receiving your questions, and to a fruitful discussion of the things that concern you and CERN on 19 March. If you can’t make it to the Main Auditorium, a webcast will be available as well as the possibility to send questions live by e-mail.

On behalf of the Directorate

Link to last year’s session: https://indico.cern.ch/event/675992/ 

Five people who have played instrumental roles in the establishment of SESAME, learnt today that they are to receive the 2019 AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy. The award will be presented on 15 February at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The recipients include two former CERN Directors-General, Herwig Schopper and Chris Llewellyn Smith, who served as SESAME’s first and second Presidents of Council, steering the fledgling laboratory from the germ of an idea to a fully functional intergovernmental research institution, which was inaugurated in 2017. SESAME Director, Khaled Toukan; Council member, Eliezer Rabinovici; and former Scientific Advisory Committee Chair, Zehra Sayers are the other recipients.

“The AAAS Award brings well deserved recognition to SESAME,” said CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti, “not only for the five recipients whose roles have been so important, but also for the whole of the SESAME community. CERN’s congratulations go to them all.”

CERN has a strong relationship with SESAME, which is an intergovernmental organisation established on the CERN model under the auspices of UNESCO. Like CERN, SESAME has a dual mandate to provide a world-class centre for scientific excellence and a focal point for regional scientific collaboration. CERN’s biggest contribution to SESAME came in the form of the EU-funded CESSAMag project, through which CERN oversaw the design, construction and testing of the magnet system for the SESAME main ring   the heart of the facility. CERN continues to provide support to SESAME through the EU’s OPEN SESAME project, which is providing training and support to SESAME, largely through thematic schools and exchanges between SESAME personnel and personnel from European laboratories. CERN also has Observer status at the SESAME Council.

SESAME’s experimental programme got underway in 2018, and its first peer-reviewed papers are eagerly anticipated.

A public meeting dedicated to taxation in France will take place on Tuesday, 26 February 2019, from 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. in the Main Auditorium (500/1-001).

The guest speakers at this meeting will be tax inspector Mr Gérard Polizzi, deputy head of the Bellegarde-sur-Valserine tax office, and senior tax controller Ms Françoise Héduy, who are experts in the subject and will answer any questions that members of the personnel living in France may wish to ask.

The following questions, among others, will be addressed:

• defining one’s domicile for tax purposes and filing a declaration of income in France,
• what the income declaration should contain (in how to declare income from a French or foreign source),
• declaration of bank accounts abroad,
• liability for the payment of social-security contributions,
• housing tax (taxe d’habitation),
• taxation at source (“pay-as-you-earn”).

This public meeting will ONLY address questions of principle and we expressly invite you not to ask questions on personal matters.

For all questions on personal matters, including how to complete the various sections of your income declaration form given your own personal circumstances, you are invited to refer to the general information provided in the admin e-guide or to the instructions attached to the income declaration form, or to contact the tax office (Service des Impôts des Particuliers) for your place of residence.

Please note that this meeting will be held in French and that simultaneous translation into English will be provided.

Information on the Indico page.

On Thursday, 8 November 2018, André Mischke passed away at the age of 46. He had been fighting a serious illness for more than a year, but had always been upbeat and optimistic about his recovery and the news of his passing came unexpectedly for many of us. 

André had been involved in ALICE from before data-taking began and worked in the field of heavy flavour physics. He was one of the first to perform analysis on this topic in the Netherlands, starting with open heavy flavour, in particular D* resonances, ,and later moving on to heavy flavour leptons and jets. André attracted and supervised a large number of PhD students and postdoc fellows from different countries who took  part in these studies, and many of them are still working with us at ALICE or in the field of heavy ion physics. Besides his research at ALICE, he also had an interest in developing medical applications for detector technology. In his work, André was always looking ahead and was very enthusiastic about new projects and future experimental programmes. 

André had a keen sense for making new connections and was very passionate about training a new generation of researchers and stimulating young colleagues to participate in physics discussions. To this end, he co-organised several events in the Hot Quarks workshop series, which specifically targets young researchers, nparticipated in several juries for prizes at conferences and was a founding member of the Young Academy of Europe. In addition, André brought several larger meetings to Utrecht, including the Heavy Flavour Workshop in 2012 and the Strange Quark Matter conference in 2017.

At the university, André was active in teaching at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, in shaping the curriculum of the courses and in supervising research projects.

André had an extensive network of colleagues and friends in the field, not only within the ALICE collaboration, but also in other experiments, such as STAR at RHIC, as well as among theoretical physicists. We remember André as an enthusiastic physicist and we will miss his presence at meetings and in discussions. Our thoughts go out to his wife and daughter and the other members of his family.