By Oliver Boettcher (CERN)
Successful teamwork was at the heart of the FH Aachen visit to CERN on 8th and 9th September. The winning group of this year’s pro8 competition, together with their professors, was hosted by the HL-LHC project.
Earlier this year, HL-LHC Work Package 8 (responsible for the collider-experiment interface) set the students a real-life engineering challenge: how to improve guiding, positioning, and cable connections for the VAX modules and the VAXbox (vacuum models for the HL-LHC). Out of 16 teams, the winners impressed with their structured problem analysis and practical, well-justified improvements.
CERN colleagues rewarded this effort with an intensive two-day program. The group toured the Large Magnet Facility, Cryostat facility, IT String, and the Cern Control Centre. They also visited the BE-CEM Robotics lab, the EN-MME main workshop, and the ATLAS, Synchrocyclotron, and CMS visitor points. A highlight was the live demo of installing a VAX module into the VAXbox — bringing to life the exact challenge the students had worked on.
The visit also gave space for exchange, from informal discussions at the social BBQ evening of the BE-EA group to a presentation from HR Talent Acquisition on CERN’s graduate programs. Several students expressed new interest in a future at CERN.
The educational concept of pro8 gives students at FH Aachen's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics intensive, hands-on experience with teamwork. In his lecture during the visit to CERN, Prof. Arntz, Dean of the Faculty, emphasised that the involvement of dedicated coaches is one of the key success factors. pro8 is not only an example of how teamwork can be embedded in engineering education, but also of how it can shape daily professional practice. His full lecture on pro8 can be found here.
The involvement of HL-LHC in presenting the problem was a fantastic opportunity for outreach, both in terms of highlighting a possible career at CERN, particle accelerators and beyond, and also in engaging future engineers in real-life problems – offering a technical challenge and the opportunity to use teamwork skills that are so often vital in this line of work.
The organisation of the visit was as well a true team effort — thanks to more than two dozen colleagues from HL-LHC and beyond who made it a memorable success!
Figure 2. Group photo of the winning team visiting CERN (left), and a discussion on alignment of VAX modules on the tour (right). Florence Thompson / CERN
Related content
Photo collection of the visit here
Article about the Collider-Experiment interface intervention in the CMS rotating shielding here.