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Summer student at CERN
By Carolina Lindqvist
Last summer I spent as a summer student at wonderful CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneve, Switzerland. It can be a challenge to work abroad, but it was not that difficult to find a place to stay, and the language barrier was quite low. There is a hostel at CERN and you can survive most situations using English. Of course, a rented apartment and knowing French or some other language can be a nice asset. At CERN you will meet other students and employees from all around the world, you get to know other cultures and maybe some words in a new language. The international atmosphere, and everybody's enthusiasm towards their work and research was amazing to see every day!
If you wonder what a non-physicist can work with at CERN, the answer is: You name it. There is a place for everyone, there is even an own fire brigade at CERN. Regarding IT, the physics experiments produce around 15 PB data each year. All this is stored and can be processed in the global computing grid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing). Each LHC (http://home.web.cern.ch/about/accelerators/large-hadron-collider) experiment has their own computing resources, software for specific tasks are tested and developed, the CERN systems (for example the library services, or the login system...) are developed further. There is always something to do! For a summer student, CERN OpenLab is a great chance to take a step into the professional world of IT. It is a collaboration between CERN and partners from the IT-industry where brand-new technology is tested and used.
What did I work with then? This summer I spent in the OpenLab cloud storage group where my task was to improve the test framework. The cloud storage contained around 400 nodes, with a total of 0.7 PB of storage space. My work concerned, for example, benchmarks, and developing a monitoring software. I learned Python, and lots about hardware and the quirks of benchmarking. The summer student programme contained a presentation about my work, and many exciting visits. We spent a day at EPFL visiting the Blue Brain project. The summer student lectures are also worth mentioning, there are lectures on physics and IT. In the physics lectures held by top-researchers you can learn about the most current findings, and also earn basic knowledge on physics. The IT lectures are held by professionals from CERN or the industry.
As a whole, my summer was great! It was a pleasure to walk my way to the office, and solve some problems each day. In the afternoon I could attend a lecture, and learn news from the world of particle physics. During the weekend, we could go hiking in the mountains or rent a car and visit a place nearby. Once we went to a chocolate factory! I got new friends from around the world and lots of good memories!
So, don't hesitate to send your application (deadline will be as soon as January 31). :)
Any questions, if I can be of any help, can be sent to carolili(a)cs.helsinki.fi
~ Carolina
---- Your 3 different chances ----
Link to HIP summer internships: http://www.hip.fi/?page_id=778
Link to CERN OpenLab: http://openlab.web.cern.ch/
Link to CERN summer student internships: http://jobs.web.cern.ch/job/10946
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Sini is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the CS department, currently working on usable security in the Secure Systems group.
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