Project Overview

1. Introduction

The ALICE (The Large Ion Collider Experiment) is one of the 4 large experiments of the Large Hadron Collider Project. ALICE has been designed to study the Physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities where the formation of a new phase of matter –  Quark Gluon Plasma – is expected. After 15 years of design and installation, and following a series of dedicated sessions in 2008 and 2009 to commission the different sub-detectors, the online systems and the online-offline interfaces, the ALICE experiment started to detect and record in March 2010 the first collisions produced by the LHC and has been collecting hundreds of millions of events since then.  

The experimental programme foresees a series of upgrades in several key domains to prepare it for the next operational campaign in 2015 when the LHC will run at its designed energy and intensity. This gives the ideal opportunity for the implementation of applied research projects to upgrade the experiment for more efficient operation. The areas targeted by the project are detector electronics and controls, data acquisition and event triggering and offline computing and storage. 

2. The ARCHITECT PROPOSAL (ALICE Research Computing, HIghlevel Trigger, detector Electronics and Control systems Training project)

In January 2011, under the terms of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, the ALICE Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva submitted  the ARCHITECT proposal for a Mono-site Initial Training Network (ITN) for 13 Early Stage Researchers (4 years’ experience after MSc but not having obtained a PhD). The proposal was composed of five work-packages contributing to the upgrade of the experiment. Each work package contained a number of traineeships in: particle detector, readout and detector electronics; data acquisition of physics events; offline computing and storage methods; high-level trigger for event selection; detector control system. The proposal was evaluated positively by the EU in May 2011 with a score of 83.6%, well above the threshold of 70% but unfortunately below the bar for funding of 91%.

In view of the positive comments of the reviewers and our own improved awareness of the weak points of the initial proposal, we are highly motivated to re-submit the proposal in January 2012 in somewhat different form:

• All research themes/ traineeships  will focus on the major upgrade of the Inner Tracker System and will be coherent to this development.
•  We will make a Multi-Partner ITN proposal in 2012 due to a change in the rules governing Mono-site proposals. This means there will be several Full Partners and several Associated Partners all coordinated by CERN/ ALICE.
• The number of Early Stage Researchers will be limited to 13 because of another new rule limiting the size of Initial Training Network proposals.

Early Stage Researchers, of any nationality are eligible and will be supervised by internationally recognized experts. They will have access to state-of-the-art equipment. Hands-on project training will be supplemented with formal training courses in relevant and related fields, and a wide variety of complementary training (including language courses) colloquia and seminars. Mobility within the ITN will ensure exposure to complementary research and industry environments. Researchers will be allowed to spend up to 30% of their time in industrial or academic training placements. 

8 Full  Partners and 6 Associated Partners from universities, research institutes and industry in Europe and the USA have been invited to join ALICE in this venture to provide suitable supervision and training opportunities for these researchers. Full Partners will hire and supervise their ESRs and provide a certain amount of training for them. The CERN coordinator will be there to help and advise them and will be  involved for planning and integration of  training courses and for ensuring the cohesion of the research themes. The CERN coordinator will also be helping the Associated Partners in their role to provide coherent training course and/ or research topic placement with clearly defined objectives and deliverables. The Associated Partners will be required to sign a simple "Letter of Intent" to show their commitment to the proposal.

Project leaders supervising the work-packages will be available to give help and advice.

NB: The revised proposal will be submitted in January 2012. The EC will evaluate the proposal and the result in June 2012.. If the proposal is successful and is selected for funding then, there is series of negotiations with the Commission. Recruitment of ESRs should be able to start their researchships towards the end of 2012/ beginning of 2013.

A first list of specific job descriptions for all the work packages can be seen below.

3. Work Packages and Research topics:

• WP1-Detector Electronics (4 positions): Detector sensor development; Trigger; Detector Electronics; Detector Cooling'
  
• WP2-Data Acquisition (2 positions): Readout; Software Refactoring.
  
• WP3-Offline Computing and Storage (3 positions): Multicore Technology; Code Quality; Parallel IO.
  
• WP4-High Level Trigger (2 positions): Tracking; FPGAs
  
• WP5-Detector Control System (1-2 positions): to be defined.

Watch this space for updates and more detailed descriptions.

4. Contact Persons: