Participants:

Guy Baribaud (CERN), Winfried Busse (HMI), Ron Chestnut (for Rusty Humphrey, SLAC), Matthias Clausen (DESY), Peter Clout (Vista Control Systems), Axel Daneels (CERN), Nguyen Nhi Dien (for Tran Ha Anh, NRI), Rucheng Hou (IHEP-Beijing), Tuanhua Huang (IMP), Noriichi Kanaya (KEK), Tadihiko Katoh (KEK), Toyoaki Kimura (JAERI), Shiyao Liu (IHEP-Beijing), Mike Mouat (TRIUMF), Rudolf Pose (JINR), Rudolf Steiner (GSI), Takeshi Wada (Spring-8), Chunhong Wang (IHEP-Beijing, ICALEPCS'97 scientific secretary), Chip Watson (Jefferson Lab), Frans Weehuizen (NAC), Jijiu Zhao (IHEP-Beijing)

I. General Considerations

Progress report

• - Rucheng Hou (ICALEPCS'97 administative secretary) gave an overview of the current status and progress of the preparations for ICALEPCS'97. A document was distributed. The budget estimate is based on an estimated participation of 200 conference participants (170 overseas and 30 chinese). Any deficit will be endorsed by the IHEP-Beijing.
• - Brief summaries were given of the discussion of the european and north american ISAC respectively held on Sept. 6, 96 at ESO, Garching and on Oct. 25, 96 at the Garden Plaza Hotel, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• - Chip Watson read Peter Lucas' letter on "Lessons learnt (at ICALEPCS'95)".

Programme committee

Prof. Liu Shiyao proposed to set up a program committee with the following members, all members of ISAC:

- America: Peter Clout (Vista), Mike Mouat (TRIUMF)
- Asia: Tadahiko Katoh (KEK), Jijiu Zhao (IHEP-Beijing)
- Europe: Winfried Busse (HMI), Axel Daneels (CERN)

The ISAC insist on a Chinese Chairperson: Jijiu Zhao. Co-chair is Axel Daneels.

Number of Sessions and Talk

Considering:

• - the time taken by the introductory talks, breaks, closing remarks, 2 afternoon for posters, 1day for excursion,
• - the number of parallel sessions limited to two,
• - "unit" length of sessions limited to 1.5 hours the number of sessions available for presentation is approx. 12 (see further).

Abstracts

• - Abstracts to be mailed to the Scientific Secretary Chunhong Wang: deadline is 1 June 97;
• - Chunhong Wang will mail the abstracts to the Program Committee by 15 June 97.

These abstracts should: 
     - include keywords; 
     - be available on the WWW with access restricted to the Program Committee
       members only.

Program Committee Meeting

The program committee will meet on 26 - 27 June 97 at CERN.

Publication

• - Medium: publication will be on WWW, CD and paper.
• - Speedy publication: the importance of publication "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE" was emphasised: i.e. 4 to 6 months after ICALEPCS'97.

To achieve this goal it is proposed to establish strict rules:

• - stick strictly to the deadline for submission of abstracts and papers,
• - papers are delivered in camera ready format at the conference,
• - stick strictly to the length that is imposed for the papers,

In addition, papers that are accepted at the conference will be published on the WWW and in the Conference Proceedings within the number of pages that were agreed with the publisher. Only quality papers with archival value will be published in Conference Transactions after proper referreeing.Papers would thus be made available in the following sequence: 1). on WWW, 2). as Proceedings, 3). as Transactions.

- Quality.

In order to ensure quality of content and presentation,

• - the authors are requested to have the content and the english language of their papers reviewed before submission (ask a colleague, or enquire through the Program Committee: some of the ISAC members volunteered: e.g. Chip Watson);
• -only quality papers whose content is estimated to be of lasting value, will be considered for publication in Transactions (cf. par. on publication).The publication of these Transactions may take more time, but since the papers would be available on the WWW and in the Proceedings, this delay was considered to be acceptable.

Notes:

1. we will ask for John Poole's guidelines for EPAC publications ---> ACTION: Axel Daneels

2. there may be copyright problems with the publishers for papers appearing both on the WWW and on paper. To be checked with the publisher: ---> ACTION: Jijiu Zhao.

Program Topics

The lists of topics that were proposed by both the european and north-american ISAC at their respective meetings were compared. The following list was then agreed:

• - Operations (it was agreed that this topic should be included only if we run short of subjects to fill the other sessions);
• - Feedback, Control theory, Automation, FSM; - Inexpensive (PC) systems;
• - Fieldbusses (survey) and Networks (future networks);
• - JAVA and WWW; - SOSH, CDEV and CORBA, O.O. technologies;
• - Databases (RDB, OODB);
• - Status of projects (focussing in particular asian projects);
• - Microcontrollers, DSP, etc;
• - Techology spinoff (i.e. application of "our" techniques and applications in other areas);
• - Industrial off-the-shelf systems, PLC;
• - Engineering (requirements engineering, methods, tools, project management, standards, high reliability, ...);
• - Futures.

II. Conference Sessions

The sessions were outlined in sofar this was possible within the time that was avilable for this meeting.Sessions were defined in units of 1.5 hrs.For every session chairpersons were suggested (as much as possible taken from the ISAC "pool"). Session chairpersons take up the organization of a session: i.e. identifying subjects for tutorials, invited talks, speakers, etc. n some cases also tutorials, talks etc. were suggested. Each session was estimated to include max. 3 talks (20 - 25 mins each + ~ 10 - 5 mins for discussion).Tutorials were estimated to be ~ 1 hour (hence equivalent to 2 talks).

- Session 1:

Title: "STATUS REPORTS"

We like to hear a limited number of well selected status report onsignificant projects. Although the emphasis should be on asian projects, also other significant projects could be reported.

Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 2:

Title: "ENGINEERING"

Some european laboratories (in particular CERN and ESO) are increasingly relying on industry for their controls: be it by outsourcing developement or by buying full systems. This poses the problem of specifying the requirements and of controlling developements that are no longer carried out in house. Other aspects falling under "Engineering"are e.g. project management.

Chairpersons: names to be defined 

- Session 3 + 4:

Title: "SOSH, CDEV and CORBA, O.O. TECHNOLOGIES"

The EPICS collaboration is working on CDEV, whereas the O.O. community (in particular the CORBA-OMG) is working out a standard allowing diverse O.O systems to collaborate. We would be interested in obtaining a better insight in both approaches.

Chairpersons: names to be defined: SOSH and CDEV  
              names to be defined: O.O. and CORBA
        

- Session 5:

Title: "DATABASES"

Relational databases, Object Oriented databases, real-time, etc.: what is the current status, what are the trends, ...

Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 6:

Title: "JAVA and the WWW"

Applications of JAVA and the Web for process controls.

Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 7:

Title: "INEXPENSIVE (PC) SYSTEMS"

There is a general tendency to use cheap PC based systems for experimental physics controls. Although these systems appear primarily in smaller laboratories, larger ones are now also looking into these systems as they are increasingly pressed by budget restrictions.

 Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 8:

Title: "FEEDBACK, CONTROL THEORY, AUTOMATION, FSM"

Our controls involve in general very little automatic feedback and even less of the sophisticated automation one find e.g. in navigation systems. This may be in part due to the lack of knowledge of the possibilities offered by modern control theory.

 Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 9:

Title: "NETWORKS and FIELDBUSSES"

Networks: emergence of new technologies: ATM, FFDI, High speed real-Time networks; Fieldbusses: although 3 fieldbusses are recommended for our applications, we should keep informed on possible new technologies.

  Chairperson: names to be defined

- Session 10:

Title: "MICROCONTROLLERS, DSP, etc" (Hardware session)

  Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 11:

Title: "INDUSTRIAL OFF-THE-SHELF, PLCs, ..."

Some laboratories are basing their control on industrial off-the-shelf systems. In order to select the most adequate system several products should be compared. Unfortunately, a laboratory does not have the resources to evaluate much more than 1 product. How could we handle that problem: by concerted evaluations, ... ? What systems are currently available, what are their pros and cons ? How to integrate different systems ?

Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 12:

Title: "TECHNOLOGY SPINOFF"

Some labs, in particular the russian ones, are trying to apply their expertise, in e.g. accelerator controls, to applications in other domains. What applications and what are the lessons learnt ?

Chairperson: names to be defined

- Session 13:

Title: "OPERATIONS"

What is Operations' experience with current control systems and how does it see the evolution.

Chairpersons: names to be defined

- Session 14:

Title: "FUTURES"

What are the trends of controls in the years to come; which technologies will have an impact on future controls; is the so-called "standard model" going to evolve; ...

Chairpersons: names to be defined

III. Miscelaneous

Axel Daneels will spend next week at IHEP (Beijing). He will:

• - E-mail the DRAFT of the minutes of this ISAC meeting to all participants by Mon. 18 or Tues. 19 Nov. 96; please reply by E-mail by Wedn.20 Nov;
• - write the 2nd announcement; it should appear on the WWW by Frid. 22 Nov. 96;
• - visit the premises where ICALEPCS'97 is intended to be held.

Interesting E-mail addresses:

Hamid Shooae SLAC Hamid@slac.stanford.edu

Mike Stanek (?) SLAC MWS@slac.stanford.edu

IV. Post meeting thoughts

In view of the industrial exhibition, I would suggest that in each of the continents, someone be responsible for taking up contact with industrial companies and for ensuring the follow up. Suggestion: Songqing Lu (China) + names to be defined for America, the rest of Asia and Europe

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