Ohio Supercomputer Center Hosts AliRoot Workshop

COLUMBUS, Ohio (May 19, 2006) — 

The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) is hosting a two-day workshop on "Using ROOT's Virtual Monte Carlo to Simulate the Response Of A Large Ion Collider Experiment Detector System" and "Using Grid Technology, AliEn, to Access and Analyze Large Data Sets." The workshops will be held on May 25 and 26, respectively, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in OSC’s BALE theater and broadcast over the VRVS/Access Grid.

On the first day, attendees will hear a tutorial about using the ALICE Monte Carlo framework, "AliRoot," based on ROOT. Instructors will give an overview of the framework and its usage.

Participants will also learn how to set up and run a simulation, perform reconstruction, visualize the detector and/or data, and set up an analysis. If there’s enough time and interest, creating a new detector simulation will also be discussed. Some ROOT basics will also be covered, and AliRoot will be installed on OSC’s BALE theater cluster for use during the workshop.

On the second day, attendees will learn how to use the Grid, and more specifically, the ALICE grid interface, AliEn, to access and analyze large data volumes. Data generated by the ongoing ALICE simulation production will be used. Instructors will present an overview of the AliEn and Alice data structures and computing model.  Participants will also see examples of how to select data for analysis and conduct an analysis in either batch and/or interactive modes.

Both workshops will give attendees plenty of hands-on exercises and system usage. Some examples of using Parallel ROOT, PROOF will be provided. AliEn will also be installed on the Bale theater cluster, but access to the ALICE data will require both a valid grid certificate and an account on the CERN LXPLUS computer system.

In conjunction with the course, a tutorial on installing AliRoot and Alien will be held at The Ohio State University’s (OSU) new physics research building in room PRB2127 on Wednesday, May 24.  Participants will also be assisted with installing and setting up ROOT, Geant3 (possibly Fluka), AliRoot, and AliEn, (possibly PROOF) on their own laptops, or via ssh, their home institution's machine.

Programming experience is necessary to attend this workshop, and attendees need a DOE grid certificate (for U.S. citizens), or a certificate from a national certification Authority. To become authenticated on AliEn, attendees will also need a CERN AFS computer account.

Registration for the workshop is limited.  To register or get more information, write trn-contact@osc.edu,  call 614-292-0890, or visit http://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/notices/.

About OSC
OSC is Ohio's high performance computing, networking, and research center. The Center provides scientific computing, networking, educational outreach, and information technology resources to state and national high performance computing and networking groups. OSC empowers its academic, industrial, and government partners to make Ohio the education and technology state of the future. More information about OSC can be found at www.osc.edu.