On 23-24 January, CERN openlab held its annual technical workshop. CERN openlab is a unique public-private partnership, through which CERN collaborates with leading ICT companies to accelerate the development of cutting-edge computing technologies for the LHC research community. This week’s workshop saw representatives of these companies gather at CERN — along with representatives of several research organisations collaborating in CERN openlab — for a series of technical discussions.

Presentations were given on over 20 ongoing R&D projects being carried out through CERN openlab. A poster competition was also held, with fellows sponsored by CERN openlab presenting their latest work. Danilo Cicalese, of the CERN EP Department, was declared the joint winner with Matteo Migliorni and Viktor Khristenko, both of the CERN IT Department. In addition, the workshop featured a session dedicated to discussion of emerging technologies related to quantum computing. This follows on from CERN openlab’s highly successful event on this topic in November.

“The technical workshop provided a fantastic opportunity to meet with representatives from our collaborators and the LHC experiments,” says Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO. “Together, we discussed the progress made in our many ongoing projects, as well as emerging technologies that will play a critical role in enabling us to address new computing challenges.”

At the workshop, an award was given to Oracle in recognition of 15 years of fruitful collaboration through CERN openlab. While CERN’s relationship with Oracle actually stretches back to 1982, Oracle has now been a partner in CERN openlab since 2003. During these 15 years, we have collaborated on a range of exciting and challenging projects related to databases, cloud, storage, industrial controls, and more. Frédéric Hemmer, head of the CERN IT Department, presented the award to David Ebert, a director for industry solutions (public sector, education and research, healthcare) at Oracle.

“The joint R&D projects carried out between CERN and Oracle through CERN openlab have played an important role in helping us address many computing challenges faced by our research community,” says Hemmer. “Collaboration with leading ICT companies like Oracle is central in enabling CERN to fulfil its mission.”

“We are honoured to be receiving this prestigious award in recognition of our long-standing collaboration with CERN openlab,” says Ebert. “We truly value and appreciate the close collaboration and are delighted that Oracle technologies help advance CERN’s pioneering research.”

“As well as looking back on 15 years of successful partnership with Oracle, the technical workshop was also an excellent occasion to look ahead to the exciting work planned over the coming years — both with Oracle and with all of our collaborators from industry and research,” says Alberto Di Meglio. “We’re looking forward to continuing our work to tackle many of the ICT challenges outlined in our white paper, as well as fascinating new challenges that arise in relation to CERN’s ambitious upgrade programme for the LHC.”

All presentations and posters from the workshop can be found on the event website.

Image caption: Frédéric Hemmer presents an award to representatives of Oracle, marking 15 years of fruitful collaboration with the company through CERN openlab. From left to right: Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO; Alberto Di Meglio, head of CERN openlab; Frédéric Hemmer, head of the CERN IT Department; Cris Pedregal, technology director, Oracle Development; David Ebert, a director for industry solutions (public sector, education and research, healthcare) at Oracle. (Image: Rachel Tessa Lavy/CERN).