Take part in climate action through CERN’s online Webfest Challenge 2022

The Webfest – CERN’s annual hackathon based on open web technologies – will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. CERN is celebrating with a bumper edition: rather than taking place over a single weekend, this year’s Webfest will run online across July and August. This will enable participants to develop their projects and ideas over a longer period of time.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last two years have seen the Webfest held online, with over 300 people from 63 different countries taking part in last year’s event. This year, the Webfest will continue in an online format, once again providing another opportunity for students from around the world to get involved. The last two years have shown how students from across the globe can work together successfully to innovate for positive societal impact.

The Webfest has been running annually since 2012, with the aim of encouraging collaboration between bright minds. During the event, participants collaborate on innovative projects and design applications that can be beneficial to society. In previous years, participants have worked on a broad range of creative projects. Last year’s theme of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) saw several ideas pertaining to environmental impact, focusing on SDG 13: climate action. Projects focused on nuclear energy, wildfire alerts, increasing understanding of climate change, and more.

As part of CERN’s Year of Environmental Awareness, the upcoming Webfest will focus on climate action and sustainability. Students taking part will be assigned to a challenge related to climate action, with these challenges set by a project linked to CERN. Students will work together in small teams to propose solutions for the challenge they have been set.

The event will incorporate an introductory session on Friday 8 July, with the winners announced in the closing session on Wednesday 31 August. Between those dates, there will be two further feedback sessions, as well as workshops and networking sessions.

The World Wide Web was born at CERN; join us online to get involved in climate action and make a difference. Together, we can put technologies like the Web, machine learning, data visualisation and more to use in the fight against climate change.

Find more information on the Webfest, including how to register, here. Registration closes on Tuesday 5 July.

- Alexia Yiannouli

Junior Communications Officer

Read more about Junior Communications Officer

Interested in science communication and other related fields? Want to work at one of the world’s leading research organisations, while also gaining experience collaborating with some of the world’s leading technology companies? If so, then apply now for the position of CERN openlab junior communications officer.

Guest artists from Arts at CERN, visiting the Data Centre — Guest artists from Arts at CERN: Armin Linke, Chloé Delarue, Patricia Domínguez, Alexia Marie Yiannouli, Guest from IT: Franciska-Leonóra Török, Guide: Xavier Espinal. (Image: CERN)

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New materials for long term digital storage

On the time-scale of HL-LHC, it is expected that tape will remain the archive medium of choice for CERN experiments. However, other archival technologies are in the R&D stage and should be investigated for possible future exploitation. This topic evaluates the characteristics and likely evolution of new materials as archival storage mediums to inform CERN’s long-term plans for data archival.

Impact: CERN openlab will foster investigations of innovative, long-term, and durable storage solutions (DNA, ceramics, silicon).

Digital twins

Digital Twin technology is gaining traction across a diverse range of fields. It involves creating a dynamic digital counterpart of a physical entity, continuously updated to mirror real-world changes. CERN openlab focuses on Digital Twin use cases for scientific applications. Our involvement in the interTwin project, funded by the European Commission, focuses on developing a versatile digital twin engine prototype. This initiative spans physics, including particle physics, radio astronomy, and gravitational waves, as well as environmental modelling for early warnings using satellite imagery. Another direction of exploration includes CAD-based digital twins to enhance the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and experiments. This not only aids in maintenance but it would also allow to simulate detector assembly scenarios. The potential applications are vast, offering simulation of underground interventions in a virtual space, resulting in cost savings, time efficiency, and reduced exposure to radiation.

Impact: CERN openlab will leverage the expertise developed in digital twin applications to offer versatile solutions, from scientific applications to enhancing LHC operations, enabling real-time modelling of real-world scenarios, predictions, and time-cost optimisation.

Quantum computing and networks

While quantum computing activities are managed within the Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI), CERN openlab will be instrumental in establishing co-development projects with technology providers and application developers. It can also help with access since all quantum machines in Europe will be accessed via HPC centres, which is already one of the components of openlab.

Impact: CERN openlab will provide expertise on tools and methods to access federations of supercomputers and quantum computers.

Heterogeneous computing platforms and infrastructures

CERN openlab contributes to this area of innovation via collaboration with resource providers for access to test resources on cloud and HPC infrastructures. The main focus is on understanding how to access and integrate external resources into the computing workflows employed by the CERN community (e.g., IT, experiments). This can be done via direct access to cloud environments or pilot collaborations with cloud providers and HPC sites. This activity includes optimisation of AI workflows on large-scale HPC systems.

Impact: The expected impact is the co-development of adapted access models to HPC and cloud infrastructures, integrated and optimised workflows, including AI, and costing models.

Computer architectures and software engineering

CERN openlab contributes to this area of innovation via collaboration with resource providers for the provision of hardware and software components, dedicated specialised expertise from the technology partners, funds for engineers and developers, as well as training and education opportunities. The main focus is on assessment, benchmarking and validation of accelerated architectures (e.g. GPUs, FPGAs) and new processors (e.g. RISC V) following user requirements.

Impact: The expected impact is to provide the HEP community with innovative technology and key expertise on ongoing and future research programmes.

Storage and data management

CERN openlab contributes to this area of innovation via collaborations with technology providers and systems integrators. This includes, for example, the evaluation of new storage media, the co-development of specific functionality for multi-disciplinary applications, or the definition and implementation of data workflows for HEP in the context of the emerging data analysis facilities concept.

Impact: The expected impact is to provide the HEP community with storage and data management tools that can effectively support cutting-edge research programmes.

Artificial intelligence algorithms, platforms and applications

CERN openlab contributes to this area of innovation by fostering collaboration with technology providers and research institutions developing state-of-the-art platforms, services, and methodologies. This includes access to software and expertise, as well as large-scale testbeds for co-creating new AI models and optimization workflows. The areas of work include distributed AI optimization, generative AI, foundation models for physics, as well as optimal deployment of AI-based algorithms on modern computing architectures, and benchmarking of these architectures on AI workloads. Work is also ongoing in the realm of real-time AI inference (on edge or accelerator devices) as part of the detector data acquisition, fast data selection, and accelerator control.

Impact: The expected impact is to enable the science community to access and leverage AI resources and skills.

Applications for society and environment

Energy-efficient computing and AI for society are of great interest to technology providers, data centres, and software developers. CERN openlab will contribute both in the establishment of dedicated investigations in green computing, life and environmental science, and in raising awareness through explicit requirements in the definition of development projects.

Impact: CERN openlab will support the migration to energy-efficient architectures and develop tools for sustainable data centres. Furthermore, it will keep its work with other sciences and contribute to research with a societal impact.

Applications in other disciplines

By working with communities beyond high-energy physics, we are able to ensure maximum relevancy for CERN openlab’s work, as well as learning and sharing both tools and best practices across scientific fields. Today, more and more research fields, such as medical research or space and Earth observation research, are driven by large quantities of data, and thus experience computing challenges comparable to those at CERN.

CERN openlab’s mission rests on three pillars: technological investigation, education, and dissemination. Collaborating with research communities and laboratories outside the high-energy physics community brings together all these aspects. Challenges related to the life sciences, medicine, astrophysics, and urban/environmental planning are all covered in this section, as well as scientific platforms designed to foster open collaboration.

Group photos of CERN openlab summer students 2018 — Group photo-CERN openlab-summer students-2018-jump (Image: CERN)

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What are you doing next summer?

Each summer, CERN openlab runs a nine-week programme for bachelor’s and master’s students specialising in subjects related to computer science. These students work on cutting-edge projects with our collaborators, gaining hands-on experience with the latest computing technologies.

CERN is the birthplace of the World Wide Web. The laboratory hosts ground-breaking experiments and is at the heart of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). It is an environment like no other, where dizzying computing challenges abound!

By joining the CERN openlab summer student programme, you will work with some of the latest hardware and software technologies and see how advanced computing tools are used in high-energy physics. Students will also participate in a series of lectures prepared for them by computing experts at CERN, in addition to the main lecture series for CERN summer students. Visits to the accelerators and experimental areas are also included in the programme.

Who can apply?

Are you a B.Sc. or M.Sc. student in computer science, mathematics, engineering, or physics? Do you have a strong computing profile? Will you have completed at least three years of full-time studies at university level by next June? Would you be interested in working on an advanced computing project for nine weeks during the period June-August? If the answer to these questions is yes, you should apply to the CERN openlab summer student programme!

How and when to apply?

The call for applications for the 2025 CERN openlab summer student programme is now open. You can apply until the 26th of January 2025 (23:59 CET time). Find more information on how to apply on jobs.smartrecruiters.com/CERN/744000024797745-cern-openlab-summer-student-programme-2025.

The following documents should be included in the application:

CV
Recommendation letter(s) by university supervisor(s)
Motivation letter with an indication of the preferred area of work
Academic transcripts for the current year

All required documents must be submitted with your application. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.

Replies to applicants will be sent out by late March/early April 2025.

What else is there to know?

Students participating in the programme work on projects related to specific computing topics, each with a dedicated CERN supervisor. At the end of their nine weeks working with CERN, students produce a report and present their work in a short public presentation. Reports on previous summer-student projects can be found zenodo.org/communities/cernopenlab/.

A stipend is provided to cover students' living costs while staying at CERN. Full details on this — and all eligibility criteria — can be found on the CERN careers website and the summer student programme website.

Find more on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the CERN openlab summer student programme.

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Training the IT specialists of the future

CERN openlab is a structure designed to create knowledge. We do this through research, development, and evaluation of cutting-edge computing technologies.

This knowledge is disseminated through a wide range of channels, from the publication of reports and articles to the organisation of lectures and seminars. By capitalising on our extensive network of connections from research and industry, we are able to secure speakers working at the forefront of new technologies. Wherever possible, we aim to make our lectures and seminars open to all via the Web.

In addition, we are working to ensure the next generation of IT specialists have the right skills, helping them to capitalise fully on the potential of groundbreaking new technologies. That's why we also organise hands-on workshops and training courses — often featuring invited coaches from industry — for both members of CERN and the wider research community.