Welcome to the SUMTRAIC website

event founded in 2003 by Jan Stöckel

What is SUMTRAIC?
SUMTRAIC is a 2-weeks experimental SUMmer TRAIning Course in plasma physics and, in particular, in magnetic confinement fusion devices (tokamaks). It is organised annually at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Republic (IPP CAS) in Prague. You can find more information in

• J. Stockel, J. Cavalier et al., European Journal of Physics
   

What will I do there?
The centre of gravity of this school lays in the direct involvement of the participants in the processing and analysis of experimental data from the COMPASS tokamak or even in the participation in the experiments, when compatible with the experimental program. Due to the decommissioning of COMPASS, there will be no experiments this year.

• Only one day will be devoted to lectures (how to access data, introduction to the COMPASS tokamak, python lecture...)
• The rest of the time, you will be paired in a group and supervised by one scientist. You will work on a real and relevant scientific topic.
• You will have to present your 2-weeks work the last day of the event in a 10 min presentation

→ You will get a full experience of what a real scientist in nuclear fusion does
 

A word about the COMPASS tokamak?
COMPASS was one of the leading devices among smaller tokamaks in the world, with an experimental program focused on plasma-wall interaction, edge plasma physics, H-mode and runaway electrons. Thanks to its flexibility, it suits perfectly for student education. The tokamak was decommissioned in 2021 but the 10-years extensive database will allow students to work on real experimental data. See here for more information on the COMPASS device.

The tokamak COMPASS at the IPP Prague.
 

When is it?
This year, SUMTRAIC will be organised from August 29th to September 9th and will be focused on data analysis related to the latest research topics investigated at the IPP Prague.
Deadline for application is June 1st and applicants can expect an answer around mid-June.

Cost?

• Accommodation of participants is covered by the IPP of Prague
• A symbolic fee to cover the administrative expenses is set to 50€ per student.
• Traveling expenses to Prague is up to the participants.
   

How to apply?
Applicants are requested to provide a CV, a cover letter and a reference letter. Both the CV and the cover letter should reflect their knowledge about plasma physics and fusion, their level in English, their skills in programming, which programming languages they know and their motivation to participate to the event. Applicants are referred to the registration form page for more details.
 

2021 as an example:
The topics of the SUMTRAIC 2021 reflects the various and advanced fields of reasearch of COMPASS and have included:

• Temporal characteristic of ELMs using divertor probes,
• Fast temperature measurements of ELMs in COMPASS (and JET),
• ELM studies with Lithium beam on COMPASS,
• Comparison of measurements of neutrons using NuDET detectors with openMC modelling,
• Investigation of the energy deposition of runaway electrons on solid material using MonteCarlo simulations.

The 2021 participants in front of the COMPASS tokamak

Similar topics will be available this year, depending on the scientific program selection. The final list of topics for this year SUMTRAIC will be adapted to the number of participants and will be released shortly before the school starts.

→ Here find some feedbacks from some of the last year participants