Fermilab leads the way in CMS data-taking preparations

Patricia McBride, Computing Division deputy head, wrote this week's column

Patricia McBride

With the startup of the LHC just around the corner, computer centers around the world are preparing to receive the first data.

Fermilab, a Tier-1 center for the CMS experiment, and seven Tier-2 centers will use the Open Science Grid for data processing and analysis. Fermilab staff have taken a leadership role in developing the computing infrastructure and software for the experiment. The data operations and Tier-1 teams at Fermilab have been very busy preparing the computing infrastructure and software for data processing. Fermilab also has a large software development team working on the computing framework, simulation code, reconstruction, databases, data management and workload management software for CMS as part of the US-CMS Software and Computing project.

During the first half of 2008, CMS set up a series of computing challenges to make sure that the software was tested and computing centers were ready to process and deliver the first data to physicists around the world. In May, a complex series of challenges focused on prompt calibration and alignment and on the reconstruction and analysis of early data. Large samples of simulated data were prepared quickly during a few weeks using all CMS computer centers. These data were shipped to CERN for processing. Reprocessing was done at the Tier-1 centers. At the Tier-2 centers, physics analysis using the grid was tested under heavy load for the first time. These tests were very successful and demonstrated that the services scale and function well. The challenges also identified areas that need improvement.

Preparing CMS computing and software for data-taking has been a large undertaking. The experienced teams in the Computing Division and the CMS Center have made major contributions to ensure the experiment's success. They will continue in what will surely be an interesting and challenging startup.

The architecture outlined years ago has become a reality. The experimenters anxiously await the first data, which will arrive very soon. In the meantime, we continue to test the systems using data from the cosmic rays that pass through the detector.

Researchers pursue grasses as Earth-friendly biofuel

From PhysOrg.com, July 21, 2008

At a small site on the Batavia campus of Fermilab, ecologist Julie Jastrow of Argonne National Laboratory pushes the scientific frontier in a new and exciting way: She watches the grass grow.

As part of an effort to develop a new collection of alternative fuels, Jastrow and her colleagues from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have planted seven different combinations of native Midwestern prairie grasses on the 13-acre site at Fermilab's campus.

The experimental facility that Jastrow planted in June will examine the sustainability of different perennial bioenergy crops - plants that could be turned into energy either by being burned directly or by being converted into cellulosic ethanol.

While crops with high starch or sugar contents -- most notably corn grain and sugarcane -- are the focus of current bioenergy applications, botanists have also seen potential in perennial grasses. "Right now, if you looked at the list of perennial bioenergy crops being studied, switchgrass will be at the top of the list," Jastrow said.

According to Jastrow, DOE began to consider perennial forage crops as possible sources of alternative fuels during the oil crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s. As Americans lost access to imported oil due to political instability in the Persian Gulf states, scientists saw an opportunity in the open grazing land of the Great Plains and the prairie remnants of the Midwest, where switchgrass and other native perennial grasses grow in dense stands from four to eight feet high.

Read more

ES&H weekly report, July 22

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, lists no reportable injuries. There were four minor injuries during the past week but none of them required medical treatment beyond first aid. We have now worked 86 days without a recordable injury. We have worked 210 days since our last DART case. Congratulations to all for this ES&H achievement! Find the full report here.

Safety report archive

Have a safe day!

Free osteoporosis screening Aug. 8
Wellness Works and Delnor-Community Hospital will host an osteoporosis screening between 7:30 and 11 a.m. on Aug. 8 in the Emergency Operating Center on the ground floor of Wilson Hall. Only Fermilab employees who have not participated in a previous screening are eligible. The free heel scan is an ultrasound test that measures the bone density in the heel. Participants will need to remove their sock and the shoe from one foot. (Ladies please do NOT wear panty hose.) Participants with heel/ankle fractures or surgery to both feet are excluded from this screening. Sign up instructions are on the ES&H homepage.

Tango lessons
Beginning tonight, the International Folk Dancing group and NALWO will start a new group and offer Argentine tango lessons by experienced tango dancers from Chicago. The lessons will take place in Ramsey Auditorium on Wednesdays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. for beginners and 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. for intermediate/advanced level. To sign up, call Pamela Noyes at (630) 840-5779 or e-mail her.