Some personal pics and descriptions from my time at CERN last November
After arriving at Geneva airport, I was picked up in this high speed TELSA electric car – complete with touch screen interface, voice command and some sort of hydraulic system – courtesy of CERN- (the car is somewhere in the astounding range of $150K). I was dropped off by this iconic dome nestled in the Jura mountains – it definitely set the tone…
Before the Port hackathon, we had a chance to explore CERN – these are diagrammatic displays of particle acceleration in the circuit of the Large Hadron Collider and its detectors: the ‘general-purpose detectors’: ATLAS (which is what I was able to visit) and CMS, the ‘heavy ion detector’ ALICE, and the LHCb – a ‘subdetector’ to detect particles traveling in a forward direction. Apologies for the blurriness of the images – my camera isn’t the best.
The following images from the control room and station of the ATLAS experiment/detector of the Large Hadron Collider
some more images of the foyer of the control room – I thought the whole process of particle harvesting, acceleration and radiation had a poetic – the language of the ‘cooling’ of the accelerator had a certain other-worldly eroticism to it…
The heart of the ATLAS experiment – plus a detail of the panels that record the ‘muon’ radiation from particle collisions
A mole-eye view of a model section of the LHC
and of course CERN is also where Tim Berners-Lee developed the world wide web – in this corridor:
These are some images of an immersive and augmented video demonstration of the story behind the 1st particle collider at CERN called the ‘Proton Synchotron’ (1959 -). The video is projected directly on the original Proton Synchotron and tells its story in a series of animations and archival film footage – it was a scintillating way to learn about the history at CERN.
These two images are just details from relaxing and socialising at the hackathon at the Port building which the finishing touches of this new building were still be added just before the start of the hackathon – The Port has their own official Facebook page for better images: https://www.facebook.com/theportatcern
I geekishly loved the dining halls there
From a stroll around the CERN complex in the evening sunshine
This lovely statue of the cosmic dancer Nataraja was just outside the halls of residence where I was staying – I had a deep respect for how other narratives and artistic interpretations were an accepted part of the complex fabric of research at CERN. This statue at sunset seemed to move in the way the cosmic dancer suggests…
We had presentations and talks to attend in the evenings
My last glimpse at CERN before flying out from the airport – even the airport was stylish – almost completely constructed of large windows to view the Jura mountains…
The Hackathon @ The Port – CERN
I have just arrived back from participating in an amazing 3 day hackathon @ CERN in Geneva. In this post are some pictures of my team, the project (which is about improving land clearance of mines through improving communication between demeaning dogs and their handlers) and the presentation from day 3 of the hackathon @ The Port 2014 –
An outside view of CERN and a pic of mu team – Pier 83: SMART Dog
Some images of working and discussing:
Images of the presentations (with a prototype for SMART Dog on ‘Viking’)
This was an amazing event not only because of its location and the community it took place in (CERN!!!), but also because the organisers of this event brought innovators in technology and creativity together from across the globe to address some very urgent humanitarian issues. To say it was a ‘very inspiring event’ would be a massive understatement. – photos appear courtesy of Andrey Longinov.
To see our video to raise awareness – please use this link for youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfN31OzoJ0c
