J.M. Le-Goff

Bio: J.M. Le-Goff is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: User requirements document & Workflow. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 2 citations.

A component based approach to scientific workflow management

Abstract: CRISTAL is a distributed scientific workflow system used in the manufacturing and production phases of HEP experiment construction at CERN. The CRISTAL project has studied the use of a description driven approach, using meta-modelling techniques, to manage the evolving needs of a large physics community. Interest from such diverse communities as bio-informatics and manufacturing has motivated the CRISTAL team to re-engineer the system to customize functionality according to end user requirements but maximize software reuse in the process. The next generation CRISTAL vision is to build a generic component architecture from which a complete software product line can be generated according to the particular needs of the target enterprise. This paper discusses the issues of adopting a component product line based approach and our experiences of software reuse.

CRISTAL : A Practical Study in Designing Systems to Cope with Change

Abstract: Software engineers frequently face the challenge of developing systems whose requirements are likely to change in order to adapt to organizational reconfigurations or other external pressures. Evolving requirements present difficulties, especially in environments in which business agility demands shorter development times and responsive prototyping. This paper uses a study from CERN in Geneva to address these research questions by employing a description-driven approach that is responsive to changes in user requirements and that facilitates dynamic system reconfiguration. The study describes how handling descriptions of objects in practice alongside their instances (making the objects self-describing) can mediate the effects of evolving user requirements on system development. This paper reports on and draws lessons from the practical use of a description-driven system over time. It also identifies lessons that can be learned from adopting such a self-describing description-driven approach in future software development.

Recent developments in crystal calorimeters (featuring the CMS PbWO4 electromagnetic calorimeter)

Abstract: In the mass range of 110–150 GeV the favored process for Higgs boson detection via p-p collisions is via its decay into two photons, which demands a very high-resolution electromagnetic calorimeter. This physics goal plus the Large Hadron Calorimeter (LHC)-imposed design constraints of 25ns bunch spacing and a hostile radiation environment have led the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration to the choice of lead tungstate (PbWO 4 ) crystals. These factors plus the presence of a 4T magnetic field and the relatively low room-temperature scintillation photon yield of PbWO 4 make photodetection a real challenge, which CMS has met via the choice of devices providing gain amplification: Avalanche photodiodes (APD) in the central barrel region and vacuum phototriodes (VPT) in the forward and backward endcap regions. In the past year the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter has entered the construction phase. We review progress in the areas of crystals, barrel and endcap photodetection devices, plans for detector calibration as well as the status of assembly and quality control. We also invoke relevant developments in other crystal calorimeters currently in operation or under development. Crystal calorimeters remain the medium of choice for precision energy and position measurements in high energy physics.