Description
The main goal of the proposed project is to facilitate transfer of knowledge in the field of nuclear and high energy physics between two leading research institutes. In the program young researchers will acquire knowledge of the current state of the art statistical and computing methods, both theoretical and practical, which are applied for the analyses in particle physics experiments. The field of high energy particle physics, as it is carried out in experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, pushes boundaries of computing and statistical data mining. The scale of these activities, defined by the hundreds of petabytes of data, requires utilization of large distributing computing infrastructures and efficient use of the available resources. The knowledge of modern and efficient techniques is paramount for being able to successfully carry out the dataintensive research. Moreover the targeted skills are highly sought after in applied science and industry.
Summary of project results
During the project participating young researchers took part in extensive data-driven training in the currently most advanced tool for statistical data analysis – ROOT v.6. Projects had 3 parts: two in CTU Prague and one University in Bergen. Participants gained new analysis skills and prepared new teaching materials based on the real data examples. New directions in further cooperation were established. The particle physics is pushing limits of currently available computing technology.The need to collect and process petabytes of data every year puts a high demand not only on the physicists, but also on the computing community. With construction of the LHC at CERN the need for increased data analysis power led to development of distributed “grid” computing technology. These advances were enabled by development of tools and infrastructure for large international collaborations to manage, distribute, and analyze very large amounts of data. Research groups at UiB are leading experts in big data analysis. Both groups in UiB and CTU regularly train young researches in data analysis. However usually this proces is very time consuming and limited material exist to make this training more effective. Challenge of the project was to identify the skills that has to be improved in not homogeneous training group.
Summary of bilateral results
The primary objective of the project was to educate and also to give practical training to young nuclear and particle physics researchers in using the most modern available tools for statistical data analyses and large-scale computing. The knowledge and skills that are to be developed and strengthened are necessary for scientists involved in large multinational experiments such as those conducted at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider or CERN to carry out successful research. Another objective of this project was to start close cooperation between the groups in CTU Prague and UiB in advanced data analysis. These goals were reached in expected range. The group of researchers from target group were attracted to participate in the training and training material was developed. Several common points of interest for future cooperation in data acquisition and outreach discovered were and this guarantee that long term goal - prerequisites for future collaboration were achieved.