Pisa takes the Owl Shift

Pierluigi Catastini covers a shift for CDF from Pisa. The control rooms are connected by network and streaming video and separated by 4,700 miles. Click the image to see view at CDF.

Scientists from opposite sides of the world often work in the same control room on the same shift. Scientists who work the same shift from control rooms on opposite sides of the world, though, are a bit of a novelty.

If you happen to be around the CDF control room during the owl shift, 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., in the next few days you'll find they are one man down. Three people are at work instead of the usual four. A physicist in Pisa covers the position normally manned by this fourth person, data quality monitoring. For those in Pisa, the Batavia owl shift is a friendlier 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daytime shift.

Pisa is able to monitor data through a network connection, browsing a CDF webpage. A live video connection between Pisa and CDF keeps the team, separated by 4,700 miles, coordinated. "Human communication is essential," said Kaori Maeshima, Fermilab physicist who works on remote detection operations for both CDF and CMS. "The person viewing results must be able to say, 'Hey guys, something's wrong--you'd better look at it.'"

CDF and their Pisa collaborators from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare benefit from this remote monitoring. "It's much nicer to work during the day than at night," said Fabrizio Scuri, senior physicist at INFN. CDF spokesperson Rob Roser added, "It allows us to fill a difficult shift by exploiting the time difference. That person is more alert than they would otherwise be."

Cost savings and avoiding travel are another practical boon. "It's expensive to take long trips to attend shifts," said Scuri. "We are suffering with budget cuts. If we can show we are making an effort to save money--that's good."

For Pisa the ability to participate in CDF, while staying in Italy, may attract other collaborators. "For the moment everyone is very glad," said Scuri.

The initial run of the remote shift, two weeks long, is scheduled to end next Saturday, November 25. If these remote shifts are successful, Pisa will take over the owl shift one week of each month, and other remote monitoring stations may be set up. DZero was the first Fermilab collider experiment to operate round-the-clock remote control room shifts, running detector monitoring from Brazil, India and Europe between 2003 and 2005.

While Fermilab's LHC remote operations center will work differently, the CDF and DZero remote shifts are important developmental steps. "It is a good working model," said Maeshima. "It is good implication that CMS will be successful."
--D.A. Venton

Fermilab seeks nominations for Citizens' Task Force

Fermilab officials have announced a plan to form a task force of local citizens to work with the laboratory on planning for a bid to host the International Linear Collider. The worldwide community of particle physicists has proposed the ILC as the world's next large particle accelerator. If a global decision is reached to build the ILC, the U.S. Department of Energy has expressed its interest in the possibility of hosting a linear collider at Fermilab, subject to cost and scientific validation.

"Strong community involvement will be essential to Fermilab's success in bringing the ILC to Illinois," said Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. "We are seeking to engage a wide spectrum of community leaders in a Citizens' Task Force that will provide input into key aspects of planning and decision-making for the proposed accelerator."

Currently, scientists and engineers from Europe, Asia and the Americas are at work on determining the design and cost of the proposed ILC, which would require participation from many nations. Their report is expected in February 2007. The construction and operations of the ILC would play a key role in Fermilab's future and the future of U.S. research in particle physics. The ILC would occupy a 20-mile-long tunnel some 500 feet below ground.

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• Nominate a task force member

Seed Magazine, November 20

Why the US should spring for a new particle accelerator
The US must develop a compelling bid to host the International Linear Collider in order to safeguard American science.

Physics in the United States is at a crossroads. There are scientific discoveries just within reach whose impact is likely to transform and even transcend the field. Yet US particle physics facilities are being closed or converted to other uses, federal investments are stagnating, and the intellectual center of gravity is moving overseas with the construction of new facilities in Europe and Japan.

These were the conclusions of the committee for the National Academy of Sciences, which I had the honor of chairing. Our mandate was to examine the current state, and make recommendations regarding the future shape, of a US particle physics program that has yielded innumerable discoveries and played a defining role in American scientific leadership.
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