The Turin working group deals with the design of on-detector electronics to acquire the signals of innovative detectors, such as the Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD), i.e. the new generation of gas detectors that exploit the microscopic paths tracked by the particles inside them.
As we leave footprints when walking on the snow, and it is possible to reconstruct the path we have followed, so the particles passing through the detector (called tracker) deposit energy along the entire path. To be measured, the energy deposits are transduced into electronic signals and the tracks of the particles can be reconstructed from the signals data acquisition chain. These pieces of information help to identify the particles already well-known or to conclude that they are particles never identified before (hopefully!).
Some of us develop software to extract the particle track information from the detector by applying well-defined mathematical and geometric relationships.
The MPGD detectors will be used in future accelerators, where very high acquisition rates are expected, to obtain position measurements with excellent spatial resolution. For this reason, both the electronics and the software must be appropriately designed and finalized to the goal of obtaining the desired information in the best possible way.
The young people will be involved in hands-on training, testing the performance of electronic chips and probing cards, that are the state of the art of electronics for particle detectors. They will also be able to detect particles using the simulation tools of a real experiment!