Abstract
For the next decades, the CERN Large Hadron Collider will remain the prime international facility for high-energy physics research. In order to explore the frontier of knowledge on the structure of matter, its constituents and interactions, state-of-the art technology has been developed by multinational teams of scientists and engineers. We intend to continue to pursue a strong, cutting-edge research agenda in fundamental science. We will investigate some of the most relevant challenges in high-energy physics by exploring the consequences of proposed new theories beyond the Standard Model and studying heavy ion collisions to probe the production of the quark-gluon plasma. This program will involve both theoretical and experimental physicists and engineers into a joint enterprise to leverage the country's research standards in the field and increase the impact of Brazilian physical science. We also have a great deal of expertise in high performance computing with the successfully operation of the BR-SP-SPRACE Tier-2 of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, the only official WLCG Tier-2 in Latin America. The present proposal extends the realm of activities of the SPRACE group in order to leverage our participation in the CMS experiment, empowering the Brazilian group to meet the challenges of LHC upgrade. The new action front of SPRACE includes the deployment of a scientific instrumentation laboratory to work in unison with industry to undertake daring R&D projects. The extension of SPRACE activity to include instrumentation, hardware and electronics in its agenda is quite timely. Brazil, the world's sixth largest economy, must propel its scientific and technological capabilities to an international level of competitiveness. Traditionally, the absence of a strong interaction between academia and industry has been one of the largest hindrances for the growth of innovation in the country. Furthermore, Brazil's bid to become an Associate Member of CERN requires a bold initiative from the Brazilian groups to strongly boost their participation at the LHC. We foresee two major areas of impact with the deployment of SPRACE's instrumentation laboratory: microelectronics and optoelectronics. Both areas are of strategic importance for the country's development. We have established strong partnerships to achieve our goals. The R&D on optical links for high-speed data transmission in a radiation-hard environment will be developed in association with PADTEC, one of the most important Brazilian optoelectronics company. The participation in the upgrade of the CMS pixel detector will be carried out in association with the INFIERI project, a FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Networks, which gathers participants from France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. SPRACE proposes also a consistent program of education and public outreach. We plan to extend the reach of the annual CERN MasterClass event to other campuses from UNESP in the state of São Paulo, based upon our previous experience with schools from São Paulo metropolitan area. A new version of the successful SPRACE Game will be released with new features such as saving partial achievements and a mobile companion. A new version of the chart "Elementary Structure of Matter" will be release containing the new advances in the area such as the discovery of the Higgs boson. SPRACE will also pursue a consistent program for the technology transfer. CERN has a long history of knowledge and technology transfer in different areas (accelerator and detector technologies, information technology and distributed computing), which is an integral part of its mission. Our goal is to explore as much as possible all possibilities of innovation that will arise from our interaction with the European laboratory. (AU)
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