Visit had three objectives:

1) Help improving the setup of the computing cluster
2) Investigate possibility of KU joining ATLAS as an Associate Institute (or another experiment at CERN if more fitting)
3) Understand how serious KU or Nepal in general is about the possibility to create a PhD program in HEP (and join ATLAS via a University Cluster)

Brief overview of the two weeks: Hans already nicely summarize our activities

Outcome of the discussions and personal impressions

Presentations from faculty of KU and Dhilikhel Hospitel

The computing cluster would certainly help them advance in a large number of research projects, from fluid dynamics, environmental modeling, medical data analysis, computing itself, education. I think the people behind it (first and foremost Rajendra) are very enthusiastic and will keep moving it forward. We should continue to support them with expertise and possible exchange of people.


Meeting with KU VC Ram Makaju on Monday

The VC was very enthusiastic about our visit, and took a great interest in our message. Certainly he acknowledged the importance of establishing a well-working Computing facility for KU and was happy to support it. He also thinks that fundamental research is important if you want to develope a knowledge-based society. My impression though was that he did not want to go as far as to establish a HEP curriculum. About a partnership with ATLAS/CERN on the assiciate university level he remained rather vague. However, he realizes that an associate with CERN would certainly shed a positive light on the science in Nepal. One of his major worries in general is the brain train that he observes in the country.


Visit to NAST on Friday

On the prospect of a partnership between Nepal Universities (KU primarily) and CERN the NAST visit was very positive. We were surprised that they were unaware of the agreement that had been signed between CERN and Nepal (President?). We handed them a copy. There was absolute willingness to financially support an exchange of students. They also felt that establishing HEP in Nepal would be a worhtwhile endeavor as the association with CERN would boost the international acknowledgement that Nepal is serious in fundamental science. We agreed that an exchange should take place between NAST (Wainer has the name of the woman that I thought would be the person to talk to) and Emmanuel.


Personally I think the next two steps are:
* Continue supporting the computing cluster and think about possible ways to associate KU with ATLAS (e.g. in TDAQ)
* Start an exchange between CERN and NAST to discuss possible ways NAST as a national agency can move forward to tie Nepal closer to CERN