CERN played host to a meeting of First Tuesday Suisse romande, a network for innovation and technology in French-speaking Switzerland, in September. Some 250 people came to the laboratory to learn about the latest developments in Grid computing technology. Topics covered Grid development at CERN and in industry, including an insight into the emerging field of Grid economics and an example of how Grid technologies are having an impact in the medical arena. The event also marked the company Hewlett-Packard joining the CERN openlab for DataGrid applications, other sponsors of this industrial collaboration being Intel and Enterasys Networks.
Now in its fourth year of operation, First Tuesday Suisse romande was founded to provide a forum for entrepreneurs, investors and all those interested in new technology. Its Geneva meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month, and take the form of a few short presentations followed by an informal networking session. CERN’s director for technology transfer and scientific computing, Hans Hoffmann, plans to host more First Tuesday events at CERN. “The Large Hadron Collider project,” he explains, “is a goldmine of technological innovation, ideally suited for the kind of networking events First Tuesday holds.” This first event was broadcast on the Web to ensure a wider international audience could benefit.
