Certified Training Helps CERN Unlock the Mysteries of the Universe
HMS Networks is delighted to announce that it has just delivered important network training that will help maintain continuity for vital systems at the CERN Laboratory – home of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
The importance of the PROFIBUS networks to operations at CERN led its engineering department to seek more detailed and practical information on exactly how PROFIBUS works. This investigation led it to HMS Network’s UK office, which put forward its five-day Certified PROFIBUS Installer / Certified PROFIBUS Engineer course, delivered by Peter Thomas and Kyle Leviseur.
HMS Networks has recently expanded its operations in Professional Services and intelligent network diagnostics, and has employed Peter, now Market Unit North PI Training Manager for HMS Networks, to deliver these important PI-Certified training courses for PROFIBUS and PROFINET to HMS Networks’ customer base. These expansions also give HMS Networks access to a range of diagnostic tools to help its customers deploy reliable infrastructures for industrial networks, including PROFIBUS, PROFINET, and other industrial Ethernet standards.
According to Peter: “Despite all the space-age acronyms and high-tech particle physics, the entire facility still relies very heavily on PROFIBUS for some of the essential services, including maintaining the all-important vacuum control in the various particle-acceleration beam pipes. In this instance, the facilities team at CERN wanted a deeper understanding of the PROFIBUS infrastructure used on site and how they could manage and maintain it more effectively.”
“It was a pleasure delivering the course to highly qualified and enthusiastic engineers from several countries. They certainly took it all in and asked lots of questions. This is the second time I have been asked to deliver training at CERN, the first time being for PROFINET. Both visits were incredible experiences and I feel very lucky to have been asked.”
CERN’s engineers had this to say about the course “I would like to highlight the excellent competence of the trainer in transmitting the knowledge as well as the content of the course. Undoubtedly, a company to take into account when teaching industrial communications courses at CERN.” Another engineer thought it was “one of the most useful and organized courses I have ever taken”.
David Bradley-Folley, Managing Director at HMS Networks UK concludes: “With the increased investment HMS Networks is putting into our Professional Services and network diagnostic portfolio, HMS Networks is now arguably the leader in the delivery of network products, services and training across Europe. We are also delighted to announce our extended credentials as a PI (PROFIBUS and PROFINET International) Competency Centre and also a PI Training Centre.
NOTE: The 27 km-circumference Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. Sited on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, it uses superconducting magnets to push protons or ions in a vacuum to near light speed, before colliding them at points around the machine; it is where the existence of the Higgs Boson particle was confirmed in 2012 as part of their ongoing quest to answer some of physics’ – and indeed life’s – big questions about the fundamental building blocks of the universe.