Speaker
Description
Since 1984 the INFN groups collaborating with Fermilab have been running a 2-month long summer training program for Italian university students. In 1984 the program involved only a few Pisa physics students, but it was later extended to engineering students. Since 2004 the program has been supported in part by DOE in the frame of an exchange agreement with INFN. In 2007 the Sant’Anna School (Pisa) agreed with Fermilab to share the cost of 4 engineering students each year. In 2010-2015 a few students have been supported by the ISSNAF Foundation.
Over the 30 years of its history, the program has involved ~450 Italian students. In 2010 - 2016 Fermilab hosted 180 students in physics and engineering from ~20 Italian universities. With the support of INFN, INAF, ASI, and the Cultural Association of Italians at Fermilab (CAIF), 20 additional students were hosted in several other US institutions: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, HST in Baltimore, SLAC, and the universities of Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Arizona, Colorado Boulder, Purdue, Caltech and Stanford. The training programs spanned from the analysis of collider data (CDF and CMS), to construction of particle detectors and accelerator components, R/D on superconductive elements, theory of accelerators, analysis of astrophysical data, and study of future space missions.
In 2015 the University of Pisa created an ad-hoc Summer School. Fermilab interns are enrolled for the duration of the internship and have to write summary reports published in the Fermilab and University of Pisa web pages. Upon positive evaluation, students are acknowledged 6 ECTS credits.
The program will grow under CAIF management. INFN has granted his sponsorship, and ASI granted support for 3 fellowships in US space science laboratories organised by CAIF. The program is part of the outreach of the EU Project “Muse” (GA 690835).
We report on recruiting methods, training programs, and on final students’ evaluation.
