On 5 April 2012, the Physics Department at BZU organized a full-day masterclass in particle physics. The event attracted graduate and undergraduate students majoring in Physics, IT and various disciplines in Engineering.

 

 

 

After a word of welcome by the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Wa’el Karain, the masterclass began with a lecture titled “Introduction to Particle Physics,” delivered by Dr. Kate Shaw, visiting particle physicist from the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).  Sharif Githan, from LIP laboratory at the University of Coimbra in Portugal gave a lecture titled “Particle Accelerators,” followed by a lecture on the ATLAS experiment delivered by Muhammad Alhroob from the ATLAS research group at CERN. Thereafter, a practical lecture on opportunities and scholarships in the field of particle physics in European research centers was given by Ahmad Bassalat from the University of Paris Sud XI in France.

 

During the hands-on session, a team of four lecturers trained the participants to use ‘MINERVA’ software to analyze real data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), collected last year by the ATLAS experiment to study W-boson events by measuring their decay products. The numerical results students found from their analyses were in full agreement with what European scientists found in the actual experiment.

 

 

 

The highlight of the day was a virtual tour that masterclass participants embarked upon inside the ATLAS control room in CERN at the Franco-Swiss border via video conference.  BZU students had the opportunity to engage in a real time conversation with two ATLAS scientists: Dr. Steven Goldfarb, Outreach and Education Coordinator at the ATLAS Experiment, and Dr. Sue Cheatham from McGill University who answered students’ questions. This virtual visit to the ATLAS experiment came only a few hours after the LHC new record collision energy of 8 TeV; thus, the masterclass participants were the first to congratulate the CERN physicists on this achievement.

 

A recorded video of the live webcast can be viewed on the ATLAS webpage:

http://atlas-live-virtual-visit.web.cern.ch/atlas-live-virtual-visit/2012/Birzeit-2012.html

 

This particle physics masterclass at BZU is part of the "Physics Without Frontiers" project, funded by the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy, sponsored by Professor Karain in coordination with Dr. Wafaa Khater from the Physics Department at BZU.