A student at FIT on internship in CERN develops software that controls particle accelerators

It started with an interest in nuclear physics, chemistry and energy, and continued with an internship at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Since March, Silvie Němcová, student at FIT (Faculty of Information Technology), has been working as an intern in a team developing software that is part of CERN's critical infrastructure. “It's a great opportunity for me to combine IT with other disciplines I enjoy, while being part of a project where interesting experiments are being conducted,” she says.

Silvia now works at CERN in the section responsible for power converters. These supply energy to various parts of the particle accelerator complex at CERN. “I am currently working on a project to ensure a quality energy supply for the Super Proton Synchotron particle accelerator. It studies many different particles – from the “normal” ones, such as sulphur or oxygen nuclei, to the study of individual protons. The W and Z bosons were also discovered on it, for which CERN researchers won the Nobel Prize,” says Silvie Němcová.

It is the proximity to unique technologies and knowledge that Silvie considers the greatest benefit of her stay in Geneva. “There are countless opportunities for education. I can go on excursions with expert commentary from colleagues from different disciplines to places where only CERN members can go, there are educational seminars every two weeks, I can use the experimental facilities, the materials available in the library... For me, as an IT student, it is also inspiring to be in the environment where the world wide web was born, a technology without which we cannot imagine everyday life today,” says Silvie.

She adds that in addition to “hard skills”, the internship also pushes her in soft skills. “Living abroad is a very enriching experience in itself. Thanks to my previous experience, the supervisor has enabled me to have complete responsibility for my own project and thanks to this I am gaining valuable experience in project planning, people management, communication with people and decision-making,” says Silvie Němcová.

At CERN, she is currently developing CI/CD infrastructure to help electrical engineers, particularly in the verification of software for programmable logic automata that provide and control the operation of particle accelerators. “The software our group develops is part of CERN's critical infrastructure. The goal is to have a stable CI/CD infrastructure for this software across the entire complex,” she explains.

But it was not enough and Silvie might not have sent the application. “The decision to apply was probably the hardest part of the whole process for me. I didn't think I had a chance at all. Therefore, I would definitely advise anyone interested in any internship, conference or competition not to be afraid. It doesn't matter if you don't have all A's or a lot of friends, the most important thing is to be interested,” she adds with a smile.

(FIT VUT)

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