Why particle physics?

I am back to CERN, after 11 days in Rwanda (including travel, and some visits to mighty African animals that are part of our collective imagination since we were children, but that I had never seen in the wild before!), but my mind still goes back there, despite the enormous backlog of things to do.
During the last dinner I was discussing with other lecturers about a topic often mentioned among us, that lies at the core of the school. The point is: why teaching a curriculum centred around particle physics to students who are not working in this field, and that in most cases will never? Would it not be better to teach something closer to their current research topic?
All that of course is not denying the positive aspects of this school from the social perspective, but are we optimising the return of the effort?
I has similar questions in Dakar, when I realised that indeed the particle physics students in this school are a minority.
After some thinking, I thought that indeed what we are doing does make sense (even if everything can be improved of course).
In most countries and universities, a Physics curriculum includes a compulsory course (usually in the third year) on particle physics. This is often not available in Africa, given the lack of research in this field. This school tries to partially fill this gap. In addition to that, it gives a glimpse of the future, of the applications of accelerator technologies, and of modern computing techniques. All this is very important for the scientific culture of the students, some of them will be professors in their universities and form new students on their turn. We are also showing an example on how Cern managed to operate super-complex machines with thousands of physicists from all over the world working together. It is not obvious, even if we give it for granted somehow.
Some of the students may decided they are really passionate about particle physics, and try to get a PhD in this field (sadly, from the time being, mainly outside of Africa). However, some of them may come back, and starting building something in their own country. Of course nobody thinks that at least how things stand now a large particle physics accelerator will be built in Africa (not talking about light sources, mainly used for matter physics, but really about a high-energy machine); however Africa has mines, and land; already several cosmic ray projects are taking place there, and more can come, attracting foreign investments. Participating to Cern experiments may still be expensive for some countries, but perhaps if they join their efforts and create a cluster, plus hire some professor who is already in the collaboration it is not impossible.
The alternative is also far from clear. If we do not teach particle physics, well in that case the organisers and lecturers should be found in other disciplines, but which ones? It is already very dense and difficult to teach a topic to people with so different backgrounds. If we have a school of cosmology, condensed matter, environmental physics etc. all in three weeks, the risk is that only a superficial introduction to each topic can be given. So it is perhaps better to concentrate on a topic, and perhaps give more emphasis, with the students and not only in the forum, on what Africa can do on it.

A Namibian in Rwanda

I am Vasti Mantedo from Namibia, the South West part of Africa. I am a final year Physics honors student at the University of Namibia. My flight from Namibia (Windhoek) to Rwanda (Kigali) was quite long, changing flights and waited hours for my flights, nevertheless, the delay was worth it at the end from the upcoming facts.

First and foremost, I would like to thank the African School of Physics (ASP) team for granting me this opportunity to participate in this wonderful event. Being exposed to research on fundamental physics and its applications was quite fascinating. Though most of the topics were far beyond my academic level, I was able to match-up the difference in my knowledge about this area of research. Most of the subject matter was apparently new to me, due to that fact, questions I asked and things I always wonder about, I got answers to and was able to assimilate them to my understanding. The most intriguing outcome of this School is that I would like to gain more insight into the underlying subject of particle Physics. Continuing my studies is no longer an option but a must desire! ASP has brought back the zeal I once lost for wanting to know more, and I am now motivated by questions like: “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” and nonetheless, I will like to contribute to the unified field theory by pursuing the field of fundamental and particle physics to the fullest.

ASP has opened my mind in so many ways; academically, socially, morally, just to name a few.
I met students coming from approximately 29 countries from Africa and a student from the US, as well as lecturers from all over the world and from famous scientific laboratories. Due to this multitude of people, I learned more about others cultures, religions, and believes and I now have a diverse mind about happenings worldwide. 

Speaking of Kigali and Rwanda as a whole, I was amazed with what my eyes saw during my stay in Kigali. The people, culture, food, weather and nature made my stay in Kigali worthwhile. The citizens are humbled, friendly, welcoming and loving. I bet hospitality originated in Rwanda! With regards to the food, Rwanda has abundance and variety of vegetables and fruits, it’s like I only know 50% of them prior to my arrival. The nature as well is amazing, it is dry season in Rwanda but I see so much green, it’s almost untrue compared to what I previously experienced. 

Oh! almost forgot, when I heard Kigali (Rwanda) is the cleanest city, I just thought about it being clean, well its beyond clean. My reasons for testifying this totted truth is because one cannot find refuse lying around, no paper, no plastic and no bottles. But how...? Well hey, I can testify, Kigali (Rwanda) is the cleanest city. I will forever be grateful for this privileged scientific adventure.

Thank You!
XOXO

A peculiar social outing

Traditionally, at the ASP a social outing is organised between the end of the first week and the start of the second, to allow lecturers of both weeks to attend, and have some informal time with the students.
So while I could not attend the outing in Dakar two years ago, I decided to plan my trip in order to be able to participate this time. So I left Geneva, where I live most of the year, in the morning of Friday, flew to Istanbul, then from there a 6-hours flight to Kigali. Even if I did pay for an economy class ticket, I was given a business class seat because all economy class ones were occupied, and it was an unusually relaxing trip. As I arrived at the airport in Kigali at half past midnight, someone was waiting for me, but he told me that we also had to wait for Esmeralda, another lecturer, coming with a later plane. We then got a ride to the University guest house where we lodged, and in the end we went to bed at 2, and the plan was that the bus had to pick us up at 7:45.
My colleagues called me at 7 since apparently we had to meet at the building where the lectures take place, and we started walking there; then after a few phone calls we were told to go back to the guest house; at 7:45 it looks like our bus had just left from the hotel where the others lodged, half an hour on the other side of town.
Knowing all this, I could have slept at least one hour more!
Finally the minibus with the other lecturers (most of them familiar faces) arrived, and we jumped in. After a few minutes in the steep, windy streets of Kigali (I still do not understand if this town has a place where one can actually walk, distances seem enormous!), we get out of town, and at the second uphill turn we see a large bus, with "University of Rwanda" written on it, standing in the middle of the road, and many students taking pictures at the side. Well, that was our other bus, and our students. Someone said "une petite panne", and we also went off our small bus. We did not realise we were about to spend the next seven hours in that place.
The driver tried to restart the engine in a quite noisy way, but with no success. Then someone went to a nearby tree to get a branch, and tried to open a little door, giving access to the fuel reservoir.
The local organisers, plus people who were in charge of that trip from the ministry side, were frantically talking in their phones, to find a solution. The school organisers, on the other hand, proposed to use the working minibus (the one used by the lecturers) to take people back to Kigali and there rent some private minibuses, but I guess the local organisers wanted to find a solution by themselves. There was some embarrassment, while the students were anyway enjoying their time, still taking a lot of pictures among themselves, and with us.
After a couple of hours a car came, with the principal of the college; he had an oil tank, since apparently the problem was due to oil missing in the fuel composition.
Adding the oil did not help, and time was passing by. At some point another minibus arrived, and a guy with a proper blue mechanician suit and proper tools, who started to work directly on the engine.
The second minibus was however not big enough to accommodate all students.
A few more hours passed, and the problem was that the available time was running short; it would have taken more than two hours to reach the destination, and here it does get dark shortly after six.
Finally the engine started, but the noise was quite strange, and it was not very advisable to travel for several hours on hilly roads with that unreliable vehicle.
In the meantime, a car had left to start the trip with the lecturers who had to catch a plane on the same day. Another car also arrived.
So, it was decided that the non-Rwandan students were fitted in to the two available minibuses, and most of the lecturers in the second car. The destination was changed, to a place that was supposedly only one hour away. The Rwandan students, plus Ketevi plus another victim (myself) had to wait for yet another minibus. Initially everybody was supposed to wait for this third bus, but since its request involved a complex bureaucratic procedure, we left the others go (at around 2PM), so that they could get to the new destination on time. Sick of being at the side of the road for so long, we decided to walk down, and have a beer. There I must say that the Rwandan students were great, smiling despite everything, joking among themselves, and happy to share a beer or two. I thought that after all I did not care about going to the excursion, and the main reason why I was there was to talk to people, and spend a god time with them.
At around 3PM , almost seven hours after the bus broke down, the third minibus arrived. We got on board, and after a few minutes we received a phone call: the alternative place that was supposed to be one hour away was actually more than two hours, and we would not have made it on time.
Then the Rwandan students proposed a yet alternative solution: first, stop somewhere to have some skewers (brochettes) and roasted corn; then go to see the caves in Musanze. When we got there the caves were of course closed, but the students knew someone working there, and we made a private, clandestine tour, accompanied by a security guard with a gun!
Then night arrived, and our minibus driver came down the mountains like crazy, and we were in Kigali in time for a late dinner.
As per the title, I never had such a social outing for a conference; however I must say that the fantasy and enthusiasm of the students largely compensated for the lack of flexibility of the official, bureaucratic organisation.
Is it a proxy for how Rwanda works?

First week of ASP2016

Hi everyone, this is Haifa Rejeb Sfar,  I’m from Tunisia, I got my license degree in fundamental physics in 2014, currently, I’m a second year master student in quantum physics and I’m also doing an internship in experimental particle physics. In the meantime I’m attending the ASP2016 in Rwanda.

Firstly I would like to tell you that I’m impressed how beautiful, clean and safe this country is and how friendly the people are.

It is a great pleasure to have been selected to attend this school, to get the chance to be surrounded by these great lecturers and these active and supportive students. It’s actually nice to meet people from different countries with different cultures. ASP2016 has not only helped me academically but also helped me sociologically.

I’m interested in particle physics, and as I have mentioned before I am doing my internship in that field, during this week we have studied many courses such as: relativity and quantum mechanics plus introduction to QFT, particle physics and the standard model taught by famous lectures and it was a great honor for me to have met them like Dr. John Ellis, Jean Alexandre and Bobby Acharya, I’m really impressed, they made the physics so interesting. After listening to them, I made sure that I’m in the right path and I hope that one day I’ll be like them.

P.S: I’m a native Arabic speaker with French as a second official language, one of the best benefits that ASP2016 has given to me is to help me to improve my English by writing in this blog. 

The African School of Physics is back - this time in Rwanda!

The latest edition of the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications (ASP) will commence on August 1, 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda at the University of Rwanda, College of Science and Technology.

The 4th edition of ASP is hosted with the University of Rwanda, College of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of Rwanda. The school will run through August 19, 2016.

A record number of students were invited to participate in this edition of the school, and a number of the students will be representing their countries for the first time at ASP. We are excited to welcome all of them, as well as you, in learning more about physics throughout the school.

You can learn more about the day-to-day activities at ASP by watching our video highlighting the 2014 edition held at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal.

A tribute to a great young mind-our fallen hero Papa Aly Diop!

On the wee hours of Saturday 23^rd August 2014, the day when the first batch of ASP 2014 participants were to fly out of Dakar, having participated in the highly successful (third) African School of Fundamental Physics, the hired UCAD bus pulled outside Mermoz- one of the ASP student guest houses to pick more students, en route to the airport. In their characteristic manner, the ever joyful group of students were all smiles laughing and chatting happily. Some in their mother tongue- for those that had their fellow countrymen- others mainly in english, though one would not miss some foreign accents, if not arabic then definitely french. Seated on the second back row on the left inside the bus, I thought that I saw my good friend the dark-skinned ever smiling (late) Papa Aly Diop stand at the bus door as if to get inside, but left into the guest house when the bus left. If I could recollect well, his face seemed a bit dull and he looked as if something was disturbing him. Little could one guess that what would later befell him on that fateful day, would happen.

Though it has taken me many days to post this message, my heart still feels cold when I remember the untimely demise of our good friend. I wish I could travel back to Dakar and convey my sincere condolences to his family and friends, maybe one day I will. I could not believe it, and neither can I do it today! This is the message that I have longed to deliver to our ASP 2014 hero, who passed on while doing what he loved most- helping others..

Rest in Peace Papa, we miss you!

Geoffrey O. Okeng'o

Some Memories of Grid Computing at ASP2014

Hi,

This is Dick Greenwood with an embarrassingly late ASP2014 blog entry. 

It was my great pleasure to participate in ASP2014 in the “Grid Computing” part of the school.

Grid computing was added as a component of the ASP in Ghana two years ago and we are glad to see that it has become a valuable addition to the school program.  As in 2012, my institution, Louisiana Tech University,joined with other DOSAR institutions UT-Arlington (UTA), the University of Oklahoma (OU), the University of Kansas (KU), and the Open Science Grid (OSG), to put together exercises for ASP2014.  From those institutions, Jae Yu (UTA), Julia Gray (KU),Horst Severini (OU) and Rob Quick and Kyle Gross of the OSG, in collaboration with our Dakar hosts,  deserve a lot of credit and thanks for planning the logistics of the 2014 grid program.

Jae kicked the program off with a rousing and entertaining introductory talk that described the necessity of the grid to meet the challenging computing demands of present day experimentation at the LHC.  

Next, overview talks about high throughput computing were given by Rob, followed by great hands-on tutorials by Rob, Kyle and Horst.

Then, I had my turn. I gave a lecture/tutorial  that applied an actual HEP analysis of Z boson decays. This talk/tutorial had been originally developed by Pat Skubic and Chris Walker of OU.  I added to it actual data taken with the ATLAS detector that had been very kindly sent to me by Heather Gray.  

With this data, we (the students and I) actually were able to produce the Z mass peak with ROOT.  That was so great!!  During this tutorial, Jae walked around the room and made sure that each student actually did  find the Z mass…fantastic!!

Well, that was the high point of ASP2014 for me.  But I must say that I really enjoyed meeting and socializing with many of the students, and many of the lecturers as well.

The entire trip was a wonderful experience for me.  Thanks everybody!  

Best wishes,

Dick