Second COFI Advanced Instrumentation and Analysis Techniques Summer School

Dark Matter and Celestial Neutrinos: Solving the dark matter puzzle and determining and understanding the properties of neutrinos are, arguably, the most pressing issues in fundamental physics. It is an integral part of the “Window on the Universe” research areas included in NSF’s 10 Big Ideas and are identified as priorities, for the next decade and beyond, in the May 2014 report produced by the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5). In addition, the need for a bigger investment on instrumentation is now well recognized as crucial and CPAD (Coordinating Panel for Advanced Detectors) has been created by the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society. These big challenges in fundamental physics come with opportunities and strong requirements on the development of innovative instrumentation, unprecedented computational capabilities and continuous work on theoretical models. As a results, this subject requires an interdisciplinary approach involving innovation on instrumentation and analysis techniques, theoretical development and requires experimental data from multiple sub-fields of physics, astronomy and cosmology. In order to succeed, we need to bring these groups together and train the next generation to work across fields from the very beginning. Our plan is to hold a long workshop (9-days) design to provide a strong training and wide exposure on the instrumentation being develop for Dark Matter Searches and Non-Accelerator based Neutrinos. The meeting will also include lectures on Advanced Analysis Techniques and summary talks on the relevant Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. The goal of the ‘COFI 2nd Advanced Instrumentation and Analysis Techniques Summer School’ is to provide senior PhD students, postdocs (and colleagues changing the emphasis of their research) the insight needed to develop and execute future experimental projects with capabilities well beyond our current abilities and the requir