Subject: Proposal draft and questions for meeting tomorrow
From: Kate Scholberg (schol@budoe.bu.edu)
Date: Sun Feb 13 2000 - 13:26:46 EST
Hi SNEWSers,
You can find a preliminary draft of a proposal to DOE for some SNEWS support
at http://hep.bu.edu:/~snnet/wg/proposal_draft.ps
Thanks to everyone who contributed. Please note: the draft was cut down
substantially from its original version (based on some advice I got about who
would likely be looking at it). I cut a lot from the detector sections,
including a lot of information that people sent me; but please don't feel
that your effort was wasted. I think we should prepare a longer document
with expanded materials and make it available on the web (and which might
eventually get turned into a paper).
Note that you can check out (and contribute to) the draft from the repository
on kaboom with cvs (let me know if you need instructions or help with this).
This material is available to any SNEWS collaborator making their own funding
proposal to whatever university, agency, etc. Please feel free to use it in
original or modified form.
There are some issues that we should consider at tomorrow's meeting; please
bring any comments, thoughts and suggestions. Here are my notes:
-- I have not yet included an author list. The proposal will go through B.U.,
and funds (if we get them) will be administered via our DOE program here, but
they are intended to benefit everyone in the SNEWS collaboration. I propose
that the author list include the members of the working group, i.e. more or
less anyone now on the snnetwg list, plus advisory board members.
-- I was advised that it would be appropriate to ask for equipment and
travel funds, but not personnel.
-- The "Required Equipment and Costs" section is not yet written in stone.
In some cases I think we need to think a bit about exactly what to ask for.
There are 3 main classes of things that we are asking for:
* Timing test equipment: this is more or less what we discussed with Rob
Douglas, and it's the bulk of the request. The proposal asks for a
calibration system with GPS receiver+atomic clock+TIC, plus travel. Any more
ideas? Possibly we could ask for a duplicate system? (this maybe overkill)
* New computers to use as servers: currently written down is one replacement
for kaboom (which is getting old and creaky), plus two new ones (including
one for SNO perhaps.) Should we request for more sites? Other ideas?
* Communications equipment: for this it's less clear what we want to do.
The proposal outlines laptops and cell phones, but I'm not sure whether this
is the best thing (and there are differences of opinion here). In the
proposal there's also a description of on-call SNEWS physicist shifts, but
I think we need to think about what to do for that, too.
There are two main communication needs:
1 -- Individual experiment collaborators need to be able to check their own
experiment's alarms in real time. If these are bogus, they should be
withdrawn from the SNEWS coincidence.
2 -- For the case of a real SNEWS alarm, a SNEWS sub-group person should be
able to check that everything is OK with the coincidence code. This really
needs to be a SNEWS code expert (currently, this means either Alec or me,
although we'd be very happy if other sub-group members became experts).
One could argue that SNEWS funds should not be used for #1, which is an
individual experiment responsibility (and many experiments are already set up
for realtime checks-- e.g. MACRO beepers and cell laptops, SK 24-hour shifts).
What do you think? SNO and LVD people, what do you already have (or will
have) set up?
As for what kind of equipment is needed, here are some issues
and possibilities:
-- A cell phone is certainly needed. We will need to be able to talk to
each other and astronomers. There should a voice connection separate
from any cellular data connection; from experience on MACRO I know that in
the case of an alarm you want to be able to look at a screen and talk to
people at the same time.
-- I think that a laptop with a cellular connection would be the nicest
thing to have; for #1, it's useful to be able to look at histograms, see full
screen printouts, have multiple windows open, etc. For #2 graphical displays
are not needed, but full terminal capability is desirable.
One can argue that this isn't necessary and that some simple text beeper
device (like MACRO's) or a web-capable cell phone or something, which can
just display summary information, is sufficient. Nobody (while on
shift duty) will ever be more than a half hour away from work or home where a
full screen display is possible, although this is arguable.
Some shifters may not already have their own computers at home and may need
one, but probably most do (Alec and I both have them already). Some people
may already have their own laptops, too. We worry a little that reviewers
will look at the proposal and just think we want to buy ourselves some
laptops -- so we should take an inventory.
So here are the questions to think about before the meeting tomorrow:
-- What do we want to ask for for communications equipment? Laptops,
web-capable cell phones, beepers?
-- What alert checking is already set up (or planned) for SNO, LVD? Are
additional funds needed?
-- What about the SNEWS shifts? (as opposed to individual experiment alert
shifts). Are members from other experiments willing to become code experts
and share shift work? How many such people have their own laptops, or at
least computers at home?
-- What about connectivity? Some of these cell devices will only
work in metropolitan areas: what about Sudbury, LNGS, other places?
See you all tomorrow,
Kate.
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