Costa Rican scientists and students will be able to participate in one of the most important experiments in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHCb) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). This will be possible thanks to the admission of the National Council of Rectors (Conare), which represents the 5 public universities in the country.
“We are going to collaborate on the projects that are active at the LHCb from the expertise of each researcher who participates in the collaboration, not only from the area of experimental particle physics they are going to work, but we also have colleagues who are going to enter from the medical physics, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, materials science, computing, among others”, said Federico Muñoz, Team Leader of the public universities team. Likewise, it is intended that as experience is gained as a group and greater responsibilities are taken within the experiment, the national team will directly take charge of project groups, Muñoz added.
On this occasion, the country would be part of the research processes in the field of electronics, data analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, among others. “This project not only represents an important step in the recognition of the scientific work of public universities within the world context, but also represents an honor for Costa Rica, which can contribute to the economic reactivation that the country requires, which is an example of the contributions made by state universities to Costa Rica”, said Rodrigo Arias, president of Conare.
Another of the expected benefits is to give the country access to a source of new technological developments, since Costa Rican specialists in these areas do not have research opportunities at the national level, so that the establishment and success of the Costa Rica- CERN would improve, according to the National Council of Rectors.
Likewise, it would favor the economic reactivation of the country through the investment of resources in national companies, for the development of electronic devices for use in the experiment. In this sense, Costa Rican companies may be suppliers of the components, thus benefiting the scientific community and the private sector.
Finally, this agreement reaffirms the role played by public universities as generators and promoters of scientific research in Costa Rica, as well as their commitment to Costa Rican society in its different fields, according to the president of Conare.
What is the experiment?
The Large Hadron Collider is an engineering masterpiece and the largest scientific experiment to detect subatomic particles ever observed; it propels protons at nearly the speed of light through a 27-kilometre underground ring made up of superconducting magnets with a series of structures that increase the energy of the particles along the way.
These would be the benefits for Costa Rica:
• Exclusive access to emerging technologies not yet on the market
• Boosting high-performance computing in machine learning, deep learning and data analysis
• Economic reactivation
• Opportunity to collaborate in research in fundamental physics
• Strengthening of postgraduate courses in Medical Physics at the National University and the University of Costa Rica, as well as the Master’s in Physics and Engineering.
• Strengthening of the Doctorate in Natural Sciences for Development and the Doctorate in Science and Engineering
• Access to Medipix detector technology
• Projection towards schools and colleges
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