April 23-27, 2007 XI International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research Information Bulletin Contents 1. Welcome 2. Travel and Transport 3. Registration 4. Presentations and Proceedings 5. Conference activities 6. Emergencies 7. Tentative program 1. Welcome Welcome to the ACAT07 workshop. This year it is held at NIKHEF in Amsterdam in the hope that there will be perfect spring weather and Amsterdam will be at its nicest. The ACAT workshops go back to 1989 (they were called AIHENP in those days. The name ACAT came in the year 2000) and have been used to cross fertilize between developments in computer, analysis and theoretical technology. Of course this year it is much inspired by the LHC. This year, the plenary sessions include two presentations on industrial applications. In total 97 talks have been scheduled. Hence there should be lots of interesting information for everyone. On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, Jos Vermaseren 2. Travel and Transport Amsterdam Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is popular throughout the world and is the most varied city of the Netherlands. The 702,000 inhabitants, 550,000 bicycles and 6,800 historic buildings give the city a unique style and character. It is famous for its canals (160 with 1,281 bridges, 2,394 houseboats), gabled houses, museums (22 Rembrandt and 206 Van Gogh paintings) and of course its atmosphere. Amsterdam's old town centre is very compact. The museums, monuments, markets, shopping street and other attractions are generally within walking distance of each other and are all within a few minutes by public transport from the symposium venue. Amsterdam also offers a wide variety of theatres, music halls, etc. in which you can enjoy all kinds of cultural activities. Pickpockets Amsterdam is a safe city, and there is nothing to fear when walking in any part of the city. However, don't leave your belongings unattended. When you're in a bar, restaurant or coffee shop, keep your bag near to you - under the table, between your legs. As in every larger city, beware of pickpockets. Getting around Public transport in Amsterdam is carried out by trams, buses, express-trams, metro (subway) and trains. Within the city limits, these modes of transportation have an identical fare system, and connections can be made without a problem. Amsterdam airport, Schiphol, is not within the city limits, and normal train tickets are required for travel to and from Schiphol.
In trams, tickets can be bought from the driver (likewise in buses), the conductor in the rear of the tram, or a machine in the middle of the tram, depending on the type of tram. However, it is considerably cheaper to buy a "strippenkaart" in advance from a newsstand, in a post office or railway station, or at the GVB office in front of Centraal Station for EUR 6.80 for 15 strips. On most trams you stamp these cards yourself in the yellow machines in the tram: each journey uses one strip plus a strip for every zone you travel in. If you stay within the city centre, which is one zone, leave one strip blank and stamp the second: If you travel over a zone border, such as from the city centre to NIKHEF, you are traveling in two zones, so leave two strips blank and stamp the third. A ticket is valid for one hour, regardless of the number of transits, and children below four years old travel for free. Several people can travel on one strippenkaart, just stamp it for the first person and again for the second, and so on. On some trams there is a conductor: you get on at the back of the tram and the conductor stamps your ticket for you. You should hail a tram to indicate you want to get on. Press the button near the door to open it, if the tram has a conductor you must use the rear door to get on. In express trams, metro and trains no tickets can be purchased, and travelers must ensure they are in the possession of a valid ticket (= a "strippenkaart" with a valid stamp). These can be bought from vending machines or counters in the station, make sure you stamp them in the yellow machines. Public transport runs until just after midnight. After that there is an hourly service of night buses. Other information In April, Amsterdam time is two hours ahead of GMT. In most Dutch restaurants, the kitchen closes at 22.00 hours. Service charges are included in the bill. If you deem the service good enough to warrant a tip, a couple of Euros will be appreciated. Numerous taxi stands are located throughout Amsterdam. You can order a taxi by phoning 677 7777, or 0900-0724. Hailing a taxi is not common in the Netherlands. The towns of Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht and the Hague are not far from Amsterdam, and are easy to reach by train. From Amsterdam Centraal Station traveling times are: Haarlem 15 minutes, Leiden 35 minutes, Utrecht 30 minutes, and the Hague 50 minutes. From Amsterdam, the beach at Zandvoort is easily reachable by train (30 minutes, change in Haarlem).
Most shops in Amsterdam are open from 9.00 to 18.00 hours, Monday through Saturday. Shops in the city centre are also open on Sunday from 12.00 to 17.00 hours. On Thursday evening shops stay open longer, typically until 21.00 hours. How to reach NIKHEF (Kruislaan 409, 1098 SJ Amsterdam) By Car Take the ring Amsterdam (A10). Take exit S113, direction Watergraafsmeer. (From Utrecht/Den Haag after the exit turn left, from Zaandam/Amersfoort turn right). Turn right after the third traffic light and follow the Kruislaan. After the railroad tunnel, NIKHEF is the first entrance gate on the left. From Amsterdam Airport (Schiphol) Take the train from the airport railway station to the station Amsterdam Zuid/WTC. From Amsterdam Zuid/WTC Railway station: Take metro 51 (direction Centraal Station) and get out at Amstel Railway Station. From the Amstel Railway station From Amstel station take the city bus number 40 in the direction Muiderpoort Station. Get off at the gate at Kruislaan 409. From the Muiderpoort Railway station From Muiderpoort station take the city bus number 40 in the direction Amstel Station. Get off at the gate at Kruislaan 409.
From the Central Railway station Take any metro line to the Amstel Railway station and take bus 40. Or take tram 9, get out at the stop Kruislaan and take bus 40 or walk about 15 minutes. Taxi from the airport Approximately EUR 40 for a 20 minute ride. Only take taxis from the official taxi stands. Specifically: do not accept offers for transport made to you in the arrivals hall. 3. Registration The Registration Desk for ACAT07 will be open at 09:00 hours on Monday April 23 rd in the hall in front of the Newton room (Z011). The conference will be opened Monday April 23 rd, at 10.00 hours, in the Newton room. The final session is foreseen for Friday April 27 th in the Newton room, the conference will end at approximately 13.00 hours. Participants are requested to wear their badges during the conference. To participants who have not yet paid: for who have registered before March 1 the fee is 250 Euro, otherwise 275 Euro. The fee can be paid in cash at the time of registration (no checks or credit cards are accepted). Participants will only be registered when the conference fee has been received. The conference dinner is included in the fee. Accompanying Persons Accompanying persons of conference participants can be registered together with the participant. Accompanying persons can join the activities listed in section 5 for the same price as the participants. The price for the conference dinner is 60 Euro per person. Internet services Wireless internet will be available. Instructions will be handed out during registration. 4. Presentations and Proceedings We strive to minimize problems with changing laptops between talks. Presentations should be held in PowerPoint or PDF. Speakers are required to submit and check their presentations at the Speakers desk, situated next to the registration desk, in the break before their talk. Exceptions, such as for Apple's Keynote, are possible, and should be asked for before the session. Information on proceedings will be provided on the webpage: http://www.nikhef.nl/acat07/proceedings.php 5. Conference activities Excursion Conference participants can sign up for an excursion that takes place on Wednesday afternoon. This excursion will consist of two parts, namely a visit to the van Gogh museum (with audio-tour) followed by
a one hour boat trip through the canals of Amsterdam. This boat trip will start near the van Gogh museum and end at the restaurant where the conference dinner will take place. Both parts of the tour are optional and independent of each other. Tickets for each activity can be bought during the lunch break on Monday, and will cost 10 Euro for the museum, and 10 Euro for the boat trip. The organization will provide museum entrance tickets to those who sign up, to avoid queuing. These tickets can be used for one entry at any time during the afternoon (or even the rest of the week). Please use public transportation to reach the museum. The boat trip starts at 17:30, and the precise location will be announced during the conference. Please note that the number of available tickets to the boat trip is limited. Conference dinner The conference dinner will take place in restaurant d Vijff Vlieghen and starts around 19:00. This restaurant is centrally located in the old inner town of Amsterdam. 6. Emergencies Restaurant D Vijff Vlieghen Spuistraat 294 302 1012 VX Amsterdam Tel: (31) - 20-530 4060 For life threatening situation dial 112. In case of an emergency on Science Park please contact the NIKHEF reception at 2000. Outside office hours contact the guard at 6000, for off campus access prefix numbers with 020 592 (within The Netherlands).
The general emergency telephone number in the Netherlands is 112. This will connect you to an operator who will alarm police, medical aid or the fire brigade. Police can be contacted for non-urgent matters via the number 0900-8844. 7. Tentative program Monday 23 April 09:00-10:00 Registration and coffee 10:00 Opening 10:15 Jos Engelen (CERN) "Exploration of the Terascale: the challenges." 11:15 Ronald van Driel (Philips) "Providing HPC resources for Philips Research and partners" 12:00 Les Hatton (Kingston Univ.) "To what extent can we rely on the results of scientific computations?" 14:00 Parallel sessions 15:30 Tea (or coffee) 16:00 Parallel sessions 18:00 Welcome party: Spectrum, NIKHEF 20:00 Close Tuesday 24 April 09:00 Jürgen Schmidhuber (IDSIA/TUM) "Recent Progress in Machine Learning" 10:00 Stefan Weinzierl (U. Mainz) "Automated calculations for multi-leg processes" 11:30 Parallel sessions 13:00 Lunch, Z010 14:00 Parallel sessions 15:30 Tea (or coffee) 16:00 Parallel sessions 18:00 Close 19:30 Meeting of the LOC/IAC
Wednesday 25 April 09:00 Markus Schulz (CERN) "Bootstrapping a Grid Infrastructure" 10:00 Jeroen Vink (Shell) "Computing Challenges in Oil and Gas Field Simulation" 11:30 Parallel sessions 14:00 Excursion 19:00 Banquet: Restaurant d'vijff Vlieghen Thursday 26 April 09:00 Lenore Mullin Theoretical Foundations for Computational Physics: Numerical, Symbolic and Algebraic Computing Grand Challenges: An NSF View 09:30 Parallel sessions 11:30 Round Table discussions 14:00 Introduction to panel discussion: "Critical Issues of Distributed Computing" 15:30 Tea (or coffee) 16:00 Panel discussion 18:00 Close Friday 27 April 09:00 Federico Carminati, Summary session 1 10:00 Thomas Speer, Summary session 2 11:30 Sven-Olaf Moch, Summary session 3 12:30 Closing remarks