Last week, CERN openlab hosted the first of three technical workshops in preparation for the collaboration’s next three-year phase, which starts in 2018. These workshops bring together researchers and representatives of leading ICT companies to discuss the challenges that the high-energy physics community and other fields of ‘big science’ will face over the coming years.

Last week’s workshop focused specifically on topics related to data-centre technologies and infrastructures. A workshop on computer platforms and software will take place later this month, with another scheduled on machine learning and data analytics in April.

“There was plenty of in-depth discussion at the first workshop, on topics such as networking, clouds, storage, databases, and data-centre architectures,” says Maria Girone, CERN openlab CTO. “By bringing together a range of perspectives on these topics, we’re able to identify the most beneficial areas for collaboration in CERN openlab’s next three-year phase.”

In September, CERN openlab will publish a whitepaper based on the outcomes of these workshops. With the LHC and the experiments set to undergo major upgrade work in 2019 and 2020, CERN openlab’s sixth phase offers a clear opportunity to develop ICT solutions that will make a tangible difference for researchers at CERN when the upgraded LHC and experiments come online in 2021.

Find out more about our areas of work in our current three-year phase here.