Impressions of the HEP Group on an Imperial undergraduate

I have been working in the HEP Group on level 5 for some months now. My first encounter with particle physics was during First Year at Imperial, where a partner and I investigated a theorised supersymmetric Higgs boson with MC data from the Tevatron at Fermilab. This is how I got to know Per, who has been my link to the Group and indeed, the ideal project supervisor. During the last summer, I worked under his supervision within an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme (UROP), doing analysis in T2K. The primary goal of my project was to devise an analysis into the noise hit level upon the ECalorimeters of the Near Detector (ND280). Since then, I have been working in the Group on my BSc proejct about the Comet experiment.

Upon starting the work, the first thing I told myself was: "this particle physics is a tough job!".
This was not least due to the fact that on the first few days, being logged into the Group's linux machines through a small terminal with an even smaller font, I felt my eyes were gradually melting. It was hard for me to grasp that particle physicists actually spend full days in front of bulks of code..!
However, as I learned to get to know the people in the Group, I realised how good they were with computing and code. The first one to standout was Clarence, whom I found out to be a Swede only after weeks when I had thought him to be an Englishman.

Figure 1: Eyes-melting code terminal. Font would not go bigger!  

Not only he was immensely helpful in helping me fix code problems and teach me how to write Bash scripts, but also he seamed to be a genuine computer mogul. He has tried to rebuilt his laptop's hard disk with a screwdriver and some tools and even knows a bit how to programme in Assembly, virtually talking to the computer, in the latter's language. Another "fun fact" with which he managed to amaze me was that apparently GPUs are sometimes more useful than CPUs in performing the latter's job. That is, he suggested using graphics processing units to conduct data analysis - crazy!

On the first day on the job, I was told that I needed to investigate piles of this code to determine where did one data container was filled, and that I needed to modify it. When people entered our office, they were therefore not surprised to find me looking for that needle in the haystack.

Figure 2: Roy during his UROP internship. Somewhere in that haystack hid a container that was filling with neutrino and noise hit data!

The software installation process took only a week (...) but that was fine given it followed a light read of the technical report about the ND280 ECals which was witty, vibrant and thrilling, all at the same time...! Nonetheless, after the preliminaries were over, I was on-the-go, coding and running scripts in linux!

Upon starting to go about the Group's different offices, I started to realise how deeply-cemented was the programming aspect of the work, in virtually everyone. I encountered an ancient debate which dichotomically divided the Group, believed to be so antiquated a debate, to have originated between Plato and Socrates: whether to use EMacs or Vim. As I was firstly introduced to the former, people were flabbergasted when they noticed I opened a new terminal in order to code. I remember I told myself "how far does this go to?" when Phill told me one may write Latex documents using EMacs.
Thereafter, I gradually started moving "to the other side", resulting in being an ardent believer in Vim. But this was only the tip of the iceberg.

As I was getting to know the people more, I understood what a considerable part of their lives comprised of programming. The highlight of that discovery was of course Yoshi, who holds any sort of computer interface in contempt. Indeed, I was dazzled (understatement) to find he was doing EVERYTHING (literally) via the linux command line - including emailing and booking plane tickets. Before that moment I had believed such people only existed in The Matrix but I was proven wrong!

Figure 3: Yoshi about his regular business, reading emails and shopping online. 

This got me thinking on the education one has received from childhood - too many interfaces, not enough programming and command lines. I thought to myself, how good of a programmer would I have been today, had I been introduced to bleak linux command line from birth, instead of my first-ever computer, Comfy.

Figure 4: Comfy, A Computer Experience for the "little ones". 

Considering this, I thought more on whether humanity was endangered by those stupefying baby games, making whole generations unfit to face the Rise of the Machines against us humans. I thought such people as Imperial HEP Group members would partake in the army against that rise, to secure our future on Earth...!

Roughly on a weekly basis, the Group's lovely Phd students, summer students and postdocs, went to Imperial's Prince's Gardens to throw a Frisbee. This was a great way to end a week of facts, figures and code. Nonetheless, the occasional pub crawls proved to be an amazingly enjoyable experience. Most of all, I loved how people from such different backgrounds ended-up working together in the divine realm of particle physics. I thought to myself - that's brilliant, science does bring people together - another proof of its positive force in the world.

A particularly great experience was going to lunch with the rest of the Group. College had temporarily allowed for undergraduate summer students to eat at the SCR, which is regularly closed to us. It served great food for reasonable prices. This was a remarkable opportunity to enjoy good food at Imperial, and coincidentally avoid the usual poison sold at the god-forsaken rat-infested library!

Another routine I particularly enjoyed was the weekly T2K group meetings. Apart from presenting my own progress, I learned a lot from the comments and suggestions made by the other members. Moreover, listening to the work that had been done by the rest was especially captivating and enabled me to have a broader view of Imperial's invaluable contributions to this experiment.

Nonetheless, working in 536, I got to know other people also, thus to hear about the exiting experiments they were working on, like the SoLid neutrino experiment and the Comet muon experiment, which I am currently working on. I also found that a substantial part of the knowledge is shared between people working on different experiments, and that prior knowledge and experience in one experiment may well be useful to be working on others. First and foremost is ROOT, which I find rather cool, whereas I know I am in the minority, as all I have ever heard from other people about it were complaints. In any matter, lovely people from other experiments were able to help me in ROOT and advise on quicker and more efficient ways to go about things.

In general, I had had a wonderful time to be working here during the summer. It was a memorable opportunity to be conducting research in particle physics and more importantly, get to know amazing talented people working in the Group, who were always very helpful and patient to me. I was glad to gain experience of how it is to be working in a physics research group generally and particularly, see what particle physics actually entails. Whilst observing the day-to-day basis of the people here, coding, discussing and presenting, I told myself "I want to be able to do this. I want to know what they know, I want to be able to do fruitful work with them". Indeed, as physicists, I felt that the people in the Group set me an example and consequently increased my motivation to pursue particle physics further. This has led me to conduct my BSc project on Comet and gain more experience whilst being an undergraduate student here. I can just hope to do more work in the field in the future, and wish it to gradually become more fruitful, more useful and more relevant. Without any physics-related wishes, I hope to keep in touch with the dear people here, wherever they or I may be.

Figure 5: Your humble servant posing on level 8's terrace, in front of the Royal Albert Hall .