Post-Conference Workshops

International Accelerator Data Base Group (IADBG) - Valley Room

Saturday, 01 December 2001, 9:00 – 16:00

Organizer: Roland Müller (BESSY, Germany)

The IADBG (International Accelerator DataBase Group) was set up in 1994 to provide a forum for exchange of information and ideas concerning the use and role of RDBMS in accelerator laboratories. Beside a three-day workshop following ICALEPCS 1995 in Chicago regular information flow has been based on satellite meetings at PAC and EPAC conferences, as well as the circulation of a newsletter and private contacts (see http://iadbg.web.cern.ch/IADBG/). Since PAC 1999 IADBG activities have been dormant.

In contrast, the importance of RDBMS has significantly risen within the last few years. The need for discussion of ideas has already lead to some smaller working group meetings within certain DB interest fields.  In particular, there are several application areas of extreme importance to any new accelerator related project where a common level of awareness would be advantageous for a wider community:

1. Configuration management: With availability of generic applications and hardware standards the interplay of the components as well as the adaptation to site specific needs has become crucial. Proper networking was the central problem of the past. Today’s challenge is a central repository of reference and configuration data as well as an appropriate standard suite of DB applications.
2. Data archiving: there are numerous attempts to store the indispensable operation analysis data directly into a RDBMS. The hope is to be able to utilize the power of DB query tools for data retrieval and data correlation. Performance, methodology as well as design considerations, maintainability and users experiences are of general interest.
3. Contents management: the WEB has become the de facto standard of intra-lab communication and documentation. The documents are no longer static HTML pages, but often dynamically generated from an RDBMS. In this field a new world of tools, conventions and methods is emerging.

To address the general needs of the accelerator (controls) community, we are holding a one-day meeting on Sat Dec 1st 2001 after the ICALEPCS covering the following areas:

The workshop will start with a collection of status reports in the morning followed by moderated discussions in the afternoon. This would allow us to identify the present areas and directions of RDBMS activities within the accelerator controls projects.

For further information on the workshop structure and program as well as for the opportunity to contribute, please contact:

Roland Müller

Automated Beam Steering and Shaping (ABS) Workshop - Garden Room

Monday, 03 December 2001, 8:30 – 17:00
Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 8:30 – 17:00

Organizer: Greg White (SLAC, USA)

The Automated Beam Steering and Shaping (ABS) 2001 workshop is concerned with the application of accelerator modeling and numerical methods to the on-line, operational aspects of the commissioning and improvement of particle accelerators and light sources. Typical ABS systems include beam steering, optimization, feedback, beamline-diagnostics and calibration, and beam-based alignment.

Workshop program and additional information are included on the ABS 2001 web site.

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control Systems (EPICS) Workshop - Gold Room

Monday, 03 December 2001, 8:30 – 17:00
Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 8:30 – 17:00

Organizer: Leo Dalesio (LANL, USA)

The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software tool kit is used in more than 100 laboratories, universities, and industrial facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia.  Following the tradition at previous ICALEPCS meetings, a workshop will be held in conjunction with ICALEPCS 2001, giving newcomers an opportunity to learn about EPICS. EPICS users will also have the opportunity to give feedback and suggest ideas for new enhancements with the developers.