The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) held a workshop on the use of the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System, or EPICS, program at the Ahmad Baiquni Building, Babarsari, Yogyakarta, from June 10 to 14, 2024. The theme of the workshop was “Development of EPICS-Based Instrumentation and Control Systems in Accelerator Research Facilities.” The material was delivered by Dr. Keerati Manasatitpong and Mr. Natthawut Suradet from the Thai Research Institute (SLRI), or Synchrotron Light Research Institute. BRIN is collaborating with the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) to organize the workshop.

To take part in the workshop, participants from universities in the country are given the opportunity to take part in the selection stage after registering. After being declared successful, Ahmad Haris Rasidi, a student from the Physics Department at FMIPA UNEJ, received an invitation to the EPICS workshop along with accommodation which was fully borne by BRIN. “I will take advantage of this golden opportunity to learn more about the EPICS program in industrial control systems,” he said. Haris hopes that there will be a lot of new knowledge that can be brought back to Jember after attending the workshop, of course valuable experience during the five days of training.

In this agenda, it is hoped that undergraduate physics students will get an overview of the use of the EPICS program in industrial control systems. Understanding of networks and hardware needs to be deepened to understand the field of control systems, especially in the field of accelerators. “At the beginning of the event, we have to take a pretest first, then get direct learning through practice, until at the end of the event we are required to take the posttest again,” he said.

The workshop held by BRIN invited several parties, namely from internal and external parties from BRIN. BRIN’s internal team consists of researchers from the Accelerator Technology Research Center (PRTA). BRIN’s external parties who were invited included several state universities, including the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gajah Mada, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Politeknik Teknologi Nuklir Indonesia, dan Universitas Jember.