CERN openlab is a structure designed to create knowledge. This is done through the evaluation of solutions as well as genuine research and development of IT technologies. This knowledge is then disseminated through multiple channels. One of the major ones is the publication of reports and articles, as described in the preceding section, but this may be viewed as passive dissemination. The openlab education programme, which provides active dissemination, is currently implemented through several lines of actions.

Workshops or seminars are regularly organised at CERN on advanced topics directly connected to the openlab projects. This year more than 180 participants attended the tried-and-tested two-day workshop formula on “Multithreading and Parallelism” and “Computer Architecture and Performance Tuning”. These workshops have a special feature: they involve a mix of lecturers from both industry and CERN, thus exemplifying the openlab principle of two-way knowledge transfer through active collaboration. Several of the workshops combine hands-off theory with hands-on practice. In addition to the regular quarterly courses, special courses have also been organised this year for advanced CERN users. These classes touched on numerous topics, including future tools and optimisations and were taught by Intel specialists. However, openlab experts also contribute to off-site education activities such as the CERN School of Computing.

These direct training activities are complemented by the CERN openlab Student Programme, which itself is a genuine educational undertaking. This programme was launched in 2002 to enable undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D. students to get hands-on experience with Grid technology and other advanced openlab-related topics. A total of 132 students have participated so far. In 2010, the programme accepted 15 computer science and physics students of 12 nationalities for two months, during the period June to September. The students worked on cutting-edge computing technologies supervised by openlab staff, other groups in the IT Department as well as staff from WLCG.

Visits were organised to the CERN Computer Centre, the CERN Control Centre, the ATLAS experiment, the LHC magnets test hall, the anti-matter factory and the LINAC-LEIR accelerators. In addition, the students toured the Geneva Observatory in Versoix. A dedicated lecture series for the students was given by CERN experts. Several of this year’s students were co-funded by CERN and Intel, Oracle or Siemens.

Follow the links within this section to discover more information about the Summer Sudent Programme and how to apply.