On Saturday 19 September, from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm, the IN2P3 Computing Centre will be opening its doors to the public for a one-off event to mark European Heritage Days.
On the programme: an immersive experience in scientific computing! Book your guided tour of the Computing Centre and discover the thousands of interconnected servers that contribute to the work of the largest high-energy physics experiments.
Continue your exploration at the CC-IN2P3 Computer Science Museum, one of the few initiatives of its kind in France.
The day will also feature talks on computing and science, fun and interactive workshops in the Discovery area, as well as an exhibition on the exploration of the infinite, from the 1911 cloud chamber to today’s major observatories.
See below for details of the events on offer.
Can’t make it? No worries – you can also join us live on Saturday on Twitch.
Tour of the CC-IN2P3 computer rooms (45 mins)
A national research infrastructure, the CC-IN2P3 is a CNRS computer processing centre that manages the computer data from the largest scientific experiments in high-energy physics. The CC-IN2P3 has two computer rooms housing several thousand servers and automated libraries capable of storing nearly 340 petabytes of data on magnetic tapes.
Come and discover this gem of the CNRS’s computing heritage, normally closed to the public, during a 45-minute guided tour (booking required).
Please note: these tours take place in an environment that can be noisy and subject to temperature variations.
Computer Museum (30 min)
The permanent exhibition at the CC-IN2P3 Computer Museum invites visitors to discover the evolution of computer technology dedicated to science, from the first calculating machines to cloud computing. Visitors learn how the needs of physicists stimulated the emergence of technologies that are widely used today. Explanatory panels and interactive displays trace the challenges faced by the CNRS during the pioneering period of microcomputing.
Among the iconic pieces, the NeXTcube station, which in 1992 hosted France’s first web server linked to CERN in Villeurbanne, occupies a central place. The collection also preserves rare equipment, such as the CHADAC, a microcomputer developed for nuclear physics, which has been carefully restored and preserved.
Discover the museum’s exhibition on a 30-minute tour (booking required).
Conferences (1h)
The CC-IN2P3 will host a series of talks led by experts and partners from the scientific community.
The topics covered will include, in particular, computer science, major research infrastructures and scientific advances.
11.00 am – 12.00 pm: Daniel Charnay, co-creator of France’s first website and former CNRS engineer, will present “From the early days of the Internet to generative AI and autonomous agents”
2.00 pm – 3.00 pm: Viola Sordini, a CNRS researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, will present “The infinitely small and the infinitely large”
Computer Science Discovery Area
How does a computer work? What did the first calculating machines look like? What are Moore’s Law and the binary system? How do you create an algorithm? And how was the very first video game programmed?
During these open days, the Computing Centre invites you to rediscover computing from a new angle through a series of fun and interactive workshops, in partnership with Ambroise Thielley from the ENIAC association, Terra Numerica and MMI Lyon (mmi-lyon.fr).
Lyon, birthplace of the French web
Did you know? In 1992, the first French web server was launched in Villeurbanne, at the IN2P3 (CNRS) Computing Centre, near Lyon. At that time, the web, which had just been invented at CERN in Geneva, was still reserved for confidential use by physicists to exchange data.
Discover the history of this revolution: why and how the web was born, how it differs from the Internet, and what the very first French website looked like. You will also learn about the history of its pioneers in France, Daniel Charnay and Wojciech Wojcik, and admire the NeXTcube station that hosted this historic server.
Exhibition: ‘Exploring the Infinite: From the First Cloud Chambers to 21st-Century Observatories’
How can we observe what we cannot see? From the earliest cloud chambers, which revealed the passage of particles through a fine trail of droplets, to the immense detectors at CERN and the telescopes that peer into the far reaches of the Universe, scientists have continually devised new instruments to make the invisible observable.
This exhibition invites you to discover over a century of innovations, from the first visible traces to the vast quantities of data that now enable us to explore matter, galaxies and the great mysteries of our Universe.
Zone 1: demonstration of a cloud chamber
Zone 2: photographic exhibition on today’s major instruments