After two days of exciting talks on various major ICT topics, the annual CERN openlab Technical Workshop has ended. With participants from CERN, industry, and research institutions, CERN openlab launched its new phase VIII, and discussions were held about the updates from CERN openlab projects on cutting-edge ICT. 

The 2024 CERN openlab Technical Workshop, held on March 26th and 27th, marked the beginning of an exciting new era with the launch of Phase VIII. This latest phase, "Accelerating Computing for Science," represents a strategic enhancement of the fruitful public-private partnership between CERN and some of the world's leading technology companies fostered by CERN openlab.

Maria Girone, the head of CERN openlab, unveiled the ambitious goals of Phase VIII in her presentation. She underlined CERN openlab's unique position as a bridge between industry and scientific research: "Our initiative serves as a unique model for collaboration between science and industry. With Phase VIII, we are committed to pioneering research in emerging technologies and sustainable infrastructures, setting a fast pace for advancements in scientific computing."

The workshop was attended by more than 130 in-person participants, drawing in experts from companies such as Intel, Oracle, Siemens, Micron, NVIDIA, Google and several research institutes, demonstrating the critical role of public-private partnerships in propelling scientific research.

Participants engaged in rich discussions on the ongoing projects at CERN openlab, delving into the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of technology and science. Ian Fisk from Flatiron, a Simons Foundation Institute, believes in CERN openlab uniqueness and that "It is a unique resource of the whole field of high-energy physics and science in general. There is no place like it where, over the last 20 years, companies have figured out how to work together. The fact that there is a science use-case and a community relying on its solutions makes it a strong motivator to make these solutions happen quicker than any other collaboration".

As well as discussing ongoing projects, the workshop provided an excellent opportunity for considering emerging challenges and identifying opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration. From Micron Technologies, Jason Adlard states that CERN's openlab demanding environment offers "a unique situation to test out the robustness of our technology and provides immediate feedback from the researchers and engineers working at CERN and using our technologies. My takeaway from the launch of this new phase VIII is that there is more clarity about the organisation within CERN openlab, its goals and objectives; we can only encourage the continuity of this collaboration".

The workshop was a venue for presentations and an event to foster future collaborations, showcasing the importance of co-development between industry and the research environment.

Video recordings will be available online. You can also follow the social media coverage on CERN openlab, Twitter & Facebook, and the CERN Computing LinkedIn. More information on openlab.cern.

On Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 September, the 2022 CERN openlab summer students will present their work at the public “lightning talk” sessions (session 1, session 2)

Students will each give a five-minute presentation, introducing the audience to their project, explaining the technical challenges they have faced and describing the results they have found during their projects. Each student will have the opportunity to showcase their progress while also informing the audience about different cutting-edge IT projects they have been working on.

This year marked the first in-person openlab Summer Student programme since the start of the pandemic, with students returning to the openlab corridor once again. Since some of the students will not physically be at CERN at the time of the Lightning Talks, the decision for the presentations to remain online was to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to present in front of their peers and the wider CERN community.

Over nine weeks (June-September) the CERN openlab summer students have been working with some of the latest hardware and software technologies. 32 students representing 19 nationalities were part of this year’s openlab Summer Student Programme. During their time at CERN, the summer students, alongside working on their projects, attended a series of lectures given by IT experts on advanced CERN-related computing topics.

Join us on 14 and 15 September to discover more about the exciting projects the students have been working on. The presentations are free and open to everyone at CERN. Enrica Porcari, Head of IT, will give an introductory talk at the start of the first session. On 14 September, the presentations will start at 15:00 and finish by 17:15 CEST, and on 15 September the presentations will start at 15:30 and finish by 17:45 CEST.

You can follow the live webcasts by following the links below:

Session 1
Session 2