**Preface**

At the turn of the last century, the discovery of the electron,
radioactivity, quantum theory and the theory of relativity opened up a
new realm of physics that led to an explosive growth in Science and
Technology in the twentieth century. Now at the dawn of this century and
a new millennium *new physics* might be revealed again! Over the next
decade or two, an impressive array of scientific instruments at the
Tevatron, RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) and LHC (Large Hadron
collider), LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory) and
SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), to name a few, will usher in the most
comprehensive program of study of the fundamental forces of nature and
the structure of the universe. Major discoveries are anticipated. But,
it is our conviction that the pace of discoveries will be severely
impeded unless a concerted effort is made to deploy and employ advanced
computing techniques to handle, process and analyze the unprecedented
amounts of data. It is against this backdrop that ACAT 2000, the VII
International Workshop on "Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in
Physics Research" was held at Fermilab during October 16-20, 2000.

The first workshop in the series was held in Lyon, France, in 1990 under
the name "New Computing Techniques in Physics Research" and was
organized by Denis Perret-Gallix (LAPP, Annecy). Following this, the
workshop was held in Europe at approximately 18-month intervals. The
ACAT 2000 workshop was the first to be held in the US with the updated
name and with expanded scope. With the new name and acronym our
intention was to emphasize the importance of the advanced analysis
techniques in meeting the scientific challenges of the coming decade.
The workshop also obtained a new logo which was inspired in part by the
T-shirt Richard Feynman helped design for the Thinking Machines Inc.
(Feynman worked on the Connection Machine at the Thinking Machines Inc.
during the summer of 1983; Physics Today, February 1989).

The workshop followed four main tracks: Artificial Intelligence (neural
networks and other adaptive multivariate methods); Innovative Software
Algorithms and Tools; Symbolic Problem Solving and Very Large Scale
Computing. The workshop covered applications in high energy physics,
astrophysics, accelerator physics and nuclear physics. About 200
physicists and computer scientists from all over the world came together
to present their work and to discuss new ideas and initiatives. Besides
the plenary, parallel and poster sessions, the workshop included working
group and panel discussion sessions focused on particular topics -- uses
of C++, Large Scale Simulations, Advanced Analysis Environments and
Worldwide Computing. The working group and panel sessions allowed
informal presentations and vigorous and stimulating discussions.

The recent revolution in computer hardware and software is not only
transforming our everyday lives but also the way we do science. The
key-note address by Dr. Ruzena Baczsy of the U.S. National Science
Foundation focused on the transformation that Information Technology is
bringing to our society and our lives. Dr. Michael Witherell, Director
of Fermilab, in his opening remarks, noted that there is now growing
recognition among physicists that we rely heavily on developments in
advanced computing technology and that innovative scientists often
recognize the need for a revolutionary development before the wider
world understands what it is good for. A special Fermilab Colloquium by
Dr.Stephen Wolfram gave glimpses of his work on "A New kind of Science,"
dealing with cellular automata and the evolution of complex systems.
Perhaps, Wolfram's ideas could be part of a revolution in the making.

## Intelligence on-line and off-line

High energy physics experimenters hope to discover the Higgs boson,
Supersymmetry and/or other signals of new physics beyond the Standard
Model. Finding signals of new physics may be the veritable case of
"finding needles in a hay-stack". Fully multivariate analyses and
advanced statistical techniques are crucial to achieve the physics
goals. The new generation of experiments will present daunting challenge
in data handling at all stages. So, intelligent handling and analysis of
data is required both in real-time applications and in off-line data
analysis. Artificial intelligence sessions surveyed the progress in the
development and applications of adaptive multivariate methods such as
neural networks. Prof. John Moody gave a feature talk entitled
"Knowledge Discovery through Machine Learning" where he discussed some
powerful "learning" algorithms that have been used to discover solutions
to difficult problems in a wide range of fields.

## Innovation is the key!

The usual topic of *Software Engineering* was renamed *Innovative
Software Algorithms* *and Tools* to focus attention on the need to
innovate and to stay on the cutting-edge. A variety of algorithms and
tools for data management, processing and analysis were discussed. The
world-renowned computer scientist Dr. Bjarne Stroustup, the inventor of
C++, gave a feature talk "Speaking C++ as a native" and also served as a
panelist in discussions centred around the "Use of C++ in Scientific
Computing". His talk explained, by way of several simple but striking
examples, how C++ can be used in a much more expressive manner than one
commonly finds. Stroustrup, echoing the comments of Mike Witherell,
noted that the world is slow to catch on to new ideas. He also
emphasized the need for physicists to be involved in the C++ Standards
Committees if they wish to influence the further development of that
language.

## Computations start with symbolism

*Symbolic Algebra,* which was re-christened *Symbolic Problem Solving*
at this workshop, has, over the years, proved to be an effective
approach to complex theoretical calculations. The *Schoonship* computer
program, developed by one of the early pioneers, Martinus Veltman,
helped him and Gerard 't Hooft to develop and verify calculational
methods of non-Abelian gauge theory of electroweak interaction. The
*Schoonship* program, using symbols, performed algebraic simplifications
of the complicated quantum field theoretical expressions. (Veltman and
't Hooft won the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics *for elucidating the
quantum structure of the electroweak interaction*.) The importance and
efficacy of such symbolic, computer algebra programs to perform symbolic
manipulations and precise calculations of physical quantities is now
well recognized. There are now many high energy specific as well as
commercial, general purpose software packages (such as Maple and
Mathematica) available for symbolic calculations. The ACAT 2000 workshop
included feature talks by Gaston Gonnet on "Computer Algebra" and
Stephen Wolfram on "Mathematica" among others.

## Grid for the global village!

The experimental investigations we are embarking on involve thousands of
scientists from across the world. Mining the scientific treasures from
these experiments, over national and international distances, will
present new problems in data access, processing and distribution, and
remote collaboration on a scale never encountered in the history of
science. "Grid computing" is emerging as the infrastructure that will
connect multiple regional and national computational centers, providing
data access and creating a universal source of pervasive and dependable
computing power. Grid computing was therefore the focus for a whole day
at the workshop. Various champions of the grid projects "GriPhyN",
"Particle Physics Data Grid (PPDG)" and "European DataGrid", such as Ian
Foster (ANL), Paul Avery (Florida), Harvey Newman (Caltech), Miron Livny
(Wisconsin), Luciano Barone (INFN), Fabrizio Galgliardi (CERN) and other
pioneers of grid and world-wide computing contributed. These were
augmented by other plenary, parallel and panel talks on very large scale
computing and simulations. Robert Ryne spoke on accelerator physics,
Alex Szalay on astrophysics, Paul Mackenzie on lattice QCD calculations
and Aiichiro Nakano on molecular dynamics simulations.

## Technology Show

A Technology Show was co-sponsored by SGI, Cisco Systems and Fermilab.
The show featured the Reality Center for collaborative visualization, IP
streaming video, IP telephony, wireless LAN by SGI and Cisco, and
hardware and application software exhibits from Wolfram Research,
Platform Computing, Objectivity, Kuck & Associates Inc. and Waterloo
Maple.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Fermilab Director Michael Witherell, our
sponsors, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science
Foundation. We thank Cisco Systems and Silicon Graphics form
co-sponsoring the workshop and the Technology show. We also thank the
American Physical Society and the European Physical Society for
endorsing the workshop. We would like to thank the local and
international organizing committees and in particular Denis
Perret-Gallix, Bruce Denby, Mark Fischler and Irwin Gaines for
extraordinary help. Our special thanks are due to the Fermilab visual
media services headed by Fred Ulrich for help with workshop poster and
other graphics, photographs and video streaming. Last but not least, our
secretarial staff did a fantastic job in the administrative organization
of the workshop; we appreciate their efforts and thank Emily Pahlavan
for co-ordinating the efforts and Mari Herrera for helping with the
proceedings.

As a final note, we would like to inform the readers that the
video-streamed plenary talks are available at the ACAT web site:
<http://conferences.fnal.gov/acat2000/>.

Fermilab Pushpalatha Bhat

April 9, 2001 Matthias Kasemann

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