NEWS
Hosting 4 Students to Work on Cooperation Projects in the Organization for A Year CERN Praises the Contributions of UoB to the Muon Detector Experiment
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Khadijah Abdusalem)
26 October 2023
The President of the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Fuad Mohammed Al-Ansari, stressed the importance of scientific cooperation to enhance access to education and innovation, saying: “The National University is keen to strengthen its scientific cooperation with various local and international bodies, including its cooperation with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in research and technical projects, which contributes to promoting national competencies and making the University an attractive center for science, technology and innovation.”.
As UoB hosted Martin Gastal, advisor to CERN MENA, to deliver a symposium titled “How Bahrain and CERN/CMS Develop Their Scientific Cooperation,” at the University’s campus in Isa Town.
Gastal stressed the importance of scientific cooperation between different academic circles, expressing his admiration for the remarkable progress evidenced in the cooperation between UoB and CERN in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector project, since the University became a participating member in the CMS experiment in 2019. He pointed to the importance of this partnership, saying: “We started with two summer training students four years ago, and now we are making plans with the University to send four university students to continue working on current cooperation projects, and participate in new cooperative projects, for at least a full year for each student”.
During the symposium organized by the College of Engineering, he stated, “The contributions of the University of Bahrain students and faculty members focused on several topics, including: fluid dynamics, parallel computing, device control and leadership. I believe that this is only the beginning, and what I witnessed today confirms that the students are active and ready to participate in our joint training program, which fills me with optimism and respect for the scientific vision of the Kingdom of Bahrain.”.
The CERN consultant reviewed the results of the cooperation between the two parties, and its contribution to the implementation of practical cooperative projects, to produce knowledge and develop technology. In addition, he provided a summary on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project, and the Kingdom of Bahrain’s contribution to particle physics research, pointing to the implementation of the College of Engineering and the College of Information Technology in UoB of a number of projects in cooperation with CERN over the past years.
In the context of the summer training program, three students – who completed their summer training at CERN for the year 2023 – presented an overview of their experience, namely: electronic engineering student Hamza Darwish Al-Sayed, physics major student Amal Ali Marzouq, and computer engineering major student Abdulrahman Arif Al-Marzooqi.
Regarding his work with the CERN team in the muon detector experiment, Al-Sayed stated: “My task was to design computer systems that receive data from the detector, to extract important indicators that enable researchers to separate a single collision from hundreds of collisions between particles that occur in fractions of a second, and to study such collision in detail.”. Stressing that the technologies developed by scientists and engineers at CERN have resulted in many applications that have multiple uses and contribute to the development of all sectors, such as: health, education, industry, and finance.
Al-Sayed was chosen to give a lecture at CERN on the subject of his research, as 30 students out of 300 are chosen every year to give a lecture, which confirms the excellence of the students of UoB and reflects the success of its educational outcomes in international forums.
Regarding her experience, student Marzouq said: “My training at CERN was one of the greatest experiences I had, as I worked on the recent project of the LHG to measure the latency of particles with the lowest ionization energy. I also worked on analyzing data related to the energy of such particles and classifying them, to have collisions that carry physically important information.”, expressing her desire to continue research activity in the national and international scientific fields.
Moreover, the student Al-Marzooqi, pointed out that he benefited greatly from his experience at the CERN Research Center, where he met participants from all over the world with diverse and various cultures, and was impressed by the safety rules and guidelines that CERN had set for students and workers and reminders thereof.
From a scientific standpoint, he noted his work with the CMS team, where he worked on programming the user interface for the MIP Timing Detector project, saying: “I wrote the documents for this project to be used by the students who will come after me, and who will work on developing it.” Al-Marzooqi added, “This experience changed my life and inspired me a lot.”.
It is worth noting that UoB – as a representative of the Kingdom of Bahrain – signed an international cooperation agreement with the CERN in June 2023, for scientific and technical cooperation in high energy physics, in order to empower scientists, researchers, engineers, teachers, students, and technicians from the Kingdom of Bahrain, to apply to join the Organization’s schools, including the Accelerator School, the Computing School, the European School of Physics, and the summer student program at CERN.
