The US Particle Accelerator School:
A Wise Investment in Workforce Development
William A. Barletta
Director, United States Particle Accelerator School
Dept. of Physics, MIT and UCLA
US Particle Accelerator School
Introductions:
 William Barletta
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22 years experience with USPAS
governance
On BoG 1993-2005
Chair Curriculum Committee ‘96 – ’00
Board Chairman ’00 – ’05
USPAS Director since 2006
 Susan Winchester
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30 years experience with USPAS
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Part all 50 university-style sessions
USPAS Office Manager 2005 – present
USPAS Assistant Director since 2013
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US Particle Accelerator School
Market pull:
Why train an accelerator workforce?
US Particle Accelerator School
Market pull: DOE accelerators
train future physicists, chemists & biologists
Estimated number of students/year
at DOE/SC accelerator facilities
1500
HEP
~ 50% non-US users
Prior to Tevatron shutdown
1300
NP
6100
BES
FY 2012 data
~ 1400 PhD/yr in physics in US
More than half of facility users are students
US Particle Accelerator School
Market pull:
Maintain U.S. return on investment
 Accelerators serve ~18,000 users of DOE scientific user
facilities
 Cumulative annual operating budget ~ $700M
Their safe, efficient, and cost effective operation is
essential for U.S. leadership in science and technology
 Present construction budgets ~ $100 M per year
 Accelerator R&D budgets in DOE & NSF ~$70M
 Accelerator workforce of ~3000
Train ~ 5 to 10% of this number of persons per year
Note: European numbers are 50% larger
US Particle Accelerator School
Maintain U.S. leadership
Future accelerators for discovery science…
 …Will be challenging to design &build
 …Will be challenging to operate
 …Will need outstanding physicists & engineers to realize
The U.S. must have an
outstanding accelerator workforce development program
US Particle Accelerator School
Core knowledge & skills
of the accelerator workforce
 Physicists: electromagnetics, Hamiltonian mechanics, &
applied mathematics
 Electrical engineers: waveguides, transmission lines &
antennas
 Mechanical engineers: structural analysis, heat & mass
transfer thermodynamics
 Operators: undergraduate & graduate level introduction to
physics, technology, design, & operation of particle
accelerators
 Technicians: basic concepts & hands-on training
Then, specialty courses
US Particle Accelerator School
Categories of historical & present practice
of developing the accelerator workforce
 Self-instruction as part of one’s experimental activities in
an accelerator-based science
 Apprenticeship training after formal education in physics
or an engineering discipline
 Formal academic training in accelerator science &
technology in a university program
 Study at regional or international accelerator schools
Yet only a handful of universities in the U.S. offer formal
graduate training in accelerator science & technology
US Particle Accelerator School
Only a handful of US universities offer
strong accelerator physics programs
 Six major research universities have more than 2 full-time faculty
Even these universities offer only 2 or 3 regular courses
in accelerator physics & technology
 Four universities are initiating structured Ph.D. programs in accelerator
physics
 Ten universities have 1 full-time or multiple part-time accelerator
faculty
A single interested faculty member cannot sustain a program
US Particle Accelerator School
Some root causes
 Accelerator science is inherently cross-disciplinary
 Prejudices:
 Many physics departments view accelerator science as “just
technology”
 Electrical engineering departments have evolved toward
nanotechnology & computing science.
 Practicalities:
 It is very difficult to get the minimum number of students enrolled
in a class for university approval
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Even Cornell, UCLA, MSU, & Stanford offer 1 or 2 core courses
 Interest at individual universities is not sufficient to support a
strong faculty line
 Funding agency support of university-based accelerator research
infrastructure is insufficient to develop new faculty lines
US Particle Accelerator School
Overview of the USPAS
An essential partnership
US Particle Accelerator School
The USPAS Partnership Mission
Laboratories
Universities
Train
for the
Future
USPAS
The US Particle Accelerator School provides
graduate-level training in the science of particle beams
& their associated accelerator technologies
We grant more academic credit in accelerator science
& technology than any university in the world
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS charter for workforce development is
based on strong customer satisfaction
 Constituted as a partnership of sponsoring institutions that fund all
program costs
 7 SC laboratories (FNAL, ANL, BNL, JLAB, LBNL, ORNL, SLAC)
 1 NNSA laboratory (LANL)
 2 NSF funded universities (Cornell, MSU)
 OHEP directly funds the USPAS Office at FNAL (Managing Institution)
 SC reaffirms its 1992 commitment to USPAS governance formula (2010)
 “we have reviewed the school's history, its successes, & promised
benefits of its continuation… if the members of the USPAS Board of
Governors … decide that a given school is needed for training personnel,
we will support that decision.”
 “we will, as a consequence, accept the Board of Governors' collective
judgment as adequate justification for funding the USPAS with the
Federal funds that our programs provide to the respective laboratories.”
US Particle Accelerator School
The consortium funds all session costs
Average level of support is now ~120k$ per year
Why?
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS is an unparalleled source of
workforce development for the consortium
Attendance at USPAS sessions from sponsoring institutions
Labs generally must pay full course tuition for their employees
US Particle Accelerator School
All the labs depend on USPAS courses
(normalized by accelerator budget over 28 years)
This is a very rough estimate
All the labs view USPAS as a community-wide enterprise
Universities also view the USPAS that way
US Particle Accelerator School
Major US universities rely on USPAS
as an essential partner in educating their students
 Universities with strong graduate programs in accelerator physics
provide the largest student attendance at USPAS
 Only Maryland, Cornell, MSU, UCLA, Stanford and now NIU have
strong faculty lines (>2 full time professors)
Accelerator-based science needs several more such universities
to assure an adequate, well trained professional workforce
Even then USPAS will be essential
 Universities with research accelerators
 Emphasize innovation in accelerator science
 Promote undergraduate (UG) awareness
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MSU - 50 UGs annually; Cornell - 60 UGs annually
 Offer exciting opportunities to engineering students
 Encourage student experimentalists to learn about accelerators
US Particle Accelerator School
Universities with strongest accelerator programs
send the most students to USPAS sessions
The universities expect their students to earn credit
US Particle Accelerator School
As required by our host universities
USPAS stresses academic rigor
 2 schools annually hosted by a major research university
 8 intensive university courses run in parallel
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(45 contact hours in 2 weeks)
 Mentored homework sessions
 Graded homework & exams and/or projects
 Balance physics v. engineering, lectures v. hands-on
 Typical attendance per school ~ 145 students
 Scholarships are available for matriculated, for-credit students
 Workload for for-credit students during our courses > 8 hr/day
 50 university-style schools since 1987
 Eight seminar-style schools (1981- 1989)
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS sessions have had broad impact
in accelerator science & technology
 50 university-style schools with >4000 individual students
 >2300 work in the field of accelerator science
or accelerator-based science
 >250 have become well-recognized intellectual leaders in their field
 >160 USPAS instructors have taken USPAS courses
 26 USPAS graduate students have become USPAS instructors
 23 have become DOE program or site office managers
 ~12 DOE-lab accelerator operators receive training every year
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS session format & logistics:
minimize cost & maximize instruction time
Typically:
 School held at a hotel with sufficient meeting space
 ~17,000 sq. ft. in 11 meeting rooms until midnight including weekends
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Labs require staff to monitor rooms after hours => overtime charges
 No need to bus students to & from lodging and meals
 Maximizes student/instructor interaction
 We provide breakfast & dinner to students
 Minimizes time for meals
 Supported students share a room (cost is ~equal to dormitory space)
 We provide textbooks as requested by instructors
 Pay hosting university ~$300 per credit student
 Students may ask hosting university for transcript
We have done detailed cost comparisons of a session held at a lab or on campus
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS covers all areas of central interest
for government, industry & medicine
US Particle Accelerator School
Introductory courses are the biggest draw
Our undergraduate course is essential to undergraduate outreach
We use these data in planning curricula & in choosing venues
US Particle Accelerator School
> 60% of students take our courses for credit
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS has a robust scholarship program
US Particle Accelerator School
Student outreach via scholarship support
Number of students
has been a growing priority of USPAS directors
US Particle Accelerator School
We have increased participation by women
Women now account for ~ 25% of enrollment in Fundamentals of Accelerators
US Particle Accelerator School
Formal student & instructor feedback
improves our planning of future sessions
US Particle Accelerator School
The USPAS consortium
provides 2/3 of our faculty
We thank our instructors for their dedicated work
US Particle Accelerator School
Instructor performance measures up
to that at major universities
US Particle Accelerator School
USPAS Degree Program
Master of Science
in
Beam Physics and Accelerator Technology
from
Indiana University & USPAS
11 M.S. degrees awarded
8 Students are currently enrolled in program
Requirements: 30 Credit Hours with grade point average of B or above
* Attendance at USPAS course counts as IU residence on campus
* IU/USPAS Courses
* Master's Thesis (3 - 9 credits)
* Final Examination or oral defense of thesis
Obviously academic credit is essential to a degree program
US Particle Accelerator School
Moves toward a deeper academic presence
 Under the leadership Prof. Jean Delayen, Old Dominion
University (ODU) is establishing a USPAS-affiliated Ph.D.
 First step: all USPAS courses will be co-listed as ODU courses
 Second step: ODU Masters program
 USPAS Director is an Adjunct ODU Physics faculty
 Stony Brook, MSU & MIT have mechanisms to grant
direct credit for USPAS courses
 MIT now has a “flexible major” in accelerator physics
 Cornell is also exploring co-listing all USPAS courses
 Un. of Chicago is considering co-listing undergraduate
“Fundamentals” & graduate “Accelerator Physics”
US Particle Accelerator School
ODU requested that we poll students on interest
in M.S. in accelerator science
US Particle Accelerator School
Internships
&
Undergraduate Outreach
US Particle Accelerator School
Undergraduate outreach:
Teng Internship at Argonne & Fermilab
 Goal: Engage highly promising post-
junior undergrads to study accelerator
science & technology
 Encourage them to pursue graduate
research & education in these fields
 Interns study Fundamentals at USPAS
 During remainder of summer, students
undertake research project at the labs
 11 Teng interns annually (2008 – 2014)
 USPAS provides advice on graduate
programs
LBNL will start a
Sessler Internship at Berkeley
US Particle Accelerator School
A proposal to enhance the USPAS program:
Expand undergraduate internships
 Establish SC-wide Accelerator Internships
 Encourage students to enter accelerator PhD programs
 Make accelerator students competitive for graduate fellowships
 Suggestion: support ~30 interns/yr at accelerator labs
 Selected & place by regional committees (East, Midwest, West)
 Regional committees find mentors
 Host institution provides logistics
 USPAS host universities provide credit
 Modeled after Lee Teng Program
 Students take for-credit course followed by research internship
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Open to pre-graduate school students
The unloaded cost/student is ~$8k
US Particle Accelerator School
Session Finances
US Particle Accelerator School
Careful planning has kept cost increases
less than inflation for 20 years
Our cost-effectiveness is substantiated by >25 years of experience
US Particle Accelerator School
Flow of funds for USPAS sessions
USPAS Consortium
SC/OHEP
Other support
~30 k$/yr
330 k$/yr
USPAS
Office
Planning
35 k$ per
session
USPAS session
Reg.
(2 or 3 per year)
fees
Participants
Scholarship support
Administration
Course development
Curriculum
Communications
Outreach
University relations
Total session expenses
paid by USPAS office
Registration fee is set as
the marginal cost-neutral
expense per participant plus
10% contingency.
Number of scholarships are
set in the annual 3-year
fiscal plan.
US Particle Accelerator School
Summary & recommendations
 The USPAS has a strong record of return-on-investment
for the DOE accelerator laboratories and OHEP
 Training in accelerator science must continue as a full
partnership among USPAS, national labs & universities,
 For-credit courses are an essential aspect of the partnership
 USPAS attendance trends suggest that student interest in
DOE’s accelerator labs has never been higher
 Taking advantage of the opportunity these students
represent implies expanded DOE investment
 Expanded program of undergraduate internships at labs
 New generation of hands-on training instruments
US Particle Accelerator School
Customer-focused flow of responsibility
for USPAS sessions
SC/OHEP
Administrative
Fiduciary
institution
USPAS Board
Attendees
Executive
Programmatic
USPAS Director
Programmatic
USPAS Office
US Particle Accelerator School