NB: workshops which have Indico event pages may require an additional registration to facilitate central communication and distribution of workshop resources and information
TANGO Controls Workshop
This workshop is a continuation in the series of ICALEPCS workshops on Tango. Tango is a toolkit for building modern distributed control systems in C++, Python, and/or Java. It is prepared for people who are new to Tango but also for those who want to get an update on the latest tools in Tango. The workshop provides hands-on exercises and examples which attendees can try during or after the workshop. Attendees will acquire a good understanding of the concepts of Tango and its tools for building an object oriented distributed control system.
Detailed agenda: https://indico.tango-controls.org/event/55/
Duration: Full day
Contact Person: Devon Petrie (dpetrie@sarao.ac.za)
EPICS Collaboration Meeting
The EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) is a set of Open-Source software tools, libraries, and applications developed collaboratively and used worldwide to create distributed soft real-time control systems for scientific instruments such as particle accelerators, telescopes, experiment beamlines and other large scientific experiments. The EPICS Collaboration Meetings provide an opportunity for developers and managers from the various EPICS sites to come together and discuss their work and progress and inform future plans. Attendees can see what is being done at other laboratories, and review plans for new tools or enhancements to existing tools to maximize their usefulness to the whole community and avoid duplication of effort.
Detailed agenda: https://conference.sns.gov/event/258/
Duration: Full day
Intended audience – Controls system developers who currently use EPICS or want to learn more about EPICS to evaluate future projects
Contact Person: Karen S. White (whiteks@ornl.gov)
Control System Cybersecurity
Attacks against industrial control systems, including Ransomware and politically motivated attacks, are now regularly reported in the media; new vulnerabilities are regularly published and exploited; and politicians become more and more concerned about the resilience of the control systems controlling a nation’s critical infrastructure.
Modern accelerator and detector control systems do not differ significantly from the control systems used in industry or devices being part of the “Internet-of-Things” (IoT). Modern Information Technologies (IT) are commonly used, control systems are based more and more on common-of-the-shelf hardware/software (VME, PLCs, VxWorks, network switches, networked controls hardware, SCADA, commercial middleware, etc.) or Windows/Linux PCs, and commonly employ standard IT-techniques (Git & built frameworks, virtualisation & containerisation, Machine Learning, etc.). Furthermore, due to the academic freedom in the High Energy Physics community, control systems are produced in a wide, decentralized community, which leads to heterogeneous systems and often necessitates remote access. However, with this adoption of modern IT standards, control systems are also exposed to the inherent vulnerabilities of the corresponding hardware and software. The consequences of a security breach in an accelerator or detector control system might be severe, and attackers won’t ignore HEP systems just because it’s HEP.
Detailed agenda: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1270052/
Duration: Full day
Objectives: Resurrected, this new (CS)2/HEP workshop is intended to continue sharing and discussing counter-measures, to review configuration and development procedures for secure control systems, and to review the progress since the last (CS)2/HEP workshop.
Contact Person: Stefan Lueders (Stefan.Lueders@cern.ch)
Motion Control Workshop (MOCRAF)
The ICALEPCS MOCRAF workshop group has been created on www.MOCRAF.org to discuss the organization of the ICALEPCS Motion Control pre-conference Workshop. Its purpose is to get feedback from attendees to make the workshop as interesting and pleasurable as possible. This group will remain alive after the workshop to be the input for the future ICALEPCS MOCRAF meeting.
Different topics can be discussed, such as:
- Experiences in Motion Control
Technical solutions in software and in low level hardware: Kinematic transforms, Complex trajectories, Protection including collision avoidance, Multi-axes and Multi-controller synchronization, Embedded and/or hosted motion features, Closed-loop control system with different feedback sources, Vibration Control. - Experiences in Robotics
Industrial Robot arms, Collaborative robot, Implementations, experience under X-Rays, integration into control systems (Tango, EPICS, ….), maintenance. - Experiences in Metrology
Stage evaluations, estimations, simulations, characterization methods. - Experiences in Modeling
Tools for modeling and improving motion control and mechanical systems. (Matlab, Simulink, Modelica….) - Application experiences
Challenges: submicron positioning complex sample stages environment, continuous and synchronous motion control and data detector’s acquisition
Detailed agenda: https://indico.synchrotron-soleil.fr/event/62/
Duration: Full day
Contact Person: Yves-Marie Abiven (yves-marie.abiven@synchrotron-soleil.fr)
PBCS: PLC based control systems
This ICALEPCS 2023 conference workshop intends to create a collaborative space where attendees will show and exchange their best practices, tools employed and return of experience when engineering PLC based control systems. Specific topics we would like to address are:
- Specifications
- Software development under Standards and/or Frameworks.
- PLC Suppliers IDEs: Advanced software engineering features availability
- Novel paradigms: e.g. Automatic code generation, object orientation…|
- New technology trends: e.g. embedded OPC-UA, MQTT
- Programming language choice and coding conventions: Best practices
- Application management: source version control & deployment service
- Testing and verification: Methodologies and tests (FAT, SAT), virtual commissioning, formal methods…
- Upgrade and/or reengineering of applications
- Documentation
Detailed agenda: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1250169/.
Duration: Full day
Intended audience: Engineers/Technicians working or planning to work with PLCs in their host institutes
Contact Person: Enrique Blanco (Enrique.Blanco@cern.ch)
Controls GUI Strategies
Are you struggling with a GUI strategy for your Controls? Wondering which direction and technology to choose? Java? Web? Python? Qt? Do you have people responsible for application development as a secondary activity, who can’t or won’t follow the technology evolution? Come along to this workshop to learn and discuss the latest status and plans around the GUI solutions used in Control systems across the world. Explore some of the more key technical aspects, ask your questions and make new Contact Persons.
Although the workshop is only 1 day, it takes place before the conference and thus it will enable you to bootstrap your understanding of the GUI area of Controls. You can then take the many opportunities throughout the conference week to go into more details with relevant people or get the most out of the dedicated conference presentations and posters.
Detailed agenda: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1299332/
Duration: Full day.
Intended audience: Anybody involved with developing GUI applications for Controls
Objectives: Listen, discuss, and exchange knowledge and ideas on various aspects of GUI development in a Controls environment. Establish Contact Persons with people in other institutes facing similar challenges or with interesting solutions.
Contact Person: Chris Roderick (Chris.Roderick@cern.ch)
Efficiency through Automation
First edition of a workshop exploring the benefits of using software automation to improve efficiency in scientific experiments and facilities. By attending this workshop, you will gain insights into how software automation can transform work, and take away practical ideas for implementation in your own laboratory or facility. Use-case study of a few selected solutions to drive the discussion.
Detailed agenda: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1307323/
Duration: Full day
Intended audience: Controls systems software engineers, operations coordinators, system analysts
Contact Person: Lukasz Burdzanowski (lukasz.burdzanowski@cern.ch)
Data Science and Machine Learning Workshop
General development of new methods and applications in the field of data analytics and machine learning are appearing at an increased speed. The use of these techniques in the field of scientific installations is also growing rapidly. Some examples of applications are anomaly detection, better diagnostics, automatic control, improved performance, optimization of engineering designs or procedures, automated data extraction and analysis from logbooks/logs, coding assistants, etc. The workshop will give an opportunity to learn some of the fundamental concepts underlying the tools that are already in place. It will also be the occasion to share the state of the projects that the participants are involved in.
Detailed agenda: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1296634/
Duration: Full day
Intended audience – People with some basic knowledge of data science and basic programming skills, Specially we will need some participants involved in DA/ML projects that can share their experience
Contact Person: Manuel Gonzalez (manuel.gonzalez@cern.ch)
