Control Sheet Cosylab’s Newsletter Volume 26
ISSN: 1855-9255
April 2016 Table of Contents
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Cosylab Experts: Introducing Rok Šabjan
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Embedding a Self-Managed Team at PSI-SwissFEL
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News
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The Picture Board
This issue features the first in a series of articles introducing our experts, starting with Cosylab co-founder and EPICS guru, Rok Šabjan.
We talk to Tom Slejko who is leading the Cosylab Team at PSI-SwissFEL.
Cosylab is the Best Slovenian Employer of the Year 2015 in the category of mediumsized enterprises (50 to 250 employees).
Our regular feature.
Cosylab d.d., Teslova ulica 30, SI-1000 Ljubljana, SLOVENIA Phone: +386 1 477 66 76 Email: controlsheet@cosylab.com URL: www.cosylab.com
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Cosylab Experts: Introducing Rok Šabjan by: Frank Amand (Cosylab)
Cosylab is the world leader in big physics control systems with experts who have a vast experience gained over the years by working on a variety of different projects. It is our mission to help labs and people with their control system challenges, whatever these may be. To make sure that you hit the ground running, our team of experts is always on stand-by, ready to come to you at a moment’s notice. Since it’s likely you’ll meet them at some point in a town near you we’d thought we’d give you a head-start and allow you to get to know them before they get to know you. This issue features the first in a series of articles introducing our experts: Cosylab co-founder and EPICS guru, Rok Šabjan. Control Sheet: Rok, for how long have you
business development. I continued as an EPICS trainer though. I did about 10 weeklong EPICS trainings worldwide and afterwards many CODAC trainings for ITER. I have a very good overview of the EPICS framework, architecture and toolset.
been with Cosylab? Rok: Hmm, let’s see. I was here (as cofounder) when we established Cosylab as a company in 2001… but there’s also a part before that. I worked with Mark Pleško at the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia as a high-school student as early as the summer of ’96. Yes, I was still in high-school then [smiles]. I spent a month experimenting with GUIs with Tcl/ Tk during the time Mark was evaluating technologies for the control system for the ANKA light source [1]. So wow, that’s 20 years this year!
Now being almost full-time in another role (apart from the said trainings), I can say I have phased out of technical work. Control Sheet: Do you still follow technol-
ogy trends? Rok: I do to an extent, but Cosylab cer-
Control Sheet: After high-school you went
on to get a degree in physics at the University of Ljubljana. Do you think this work with “Cosylab avant-la-lettre” influenced that decision? Rok: Physics has always been my favorite subject, but I’m sure the experience helped; it was a pleasant experience and I got a real feeling for what I could be doing with a physics education. Control Sheet: In your first years at Cosyl-
ab you did software engineering, right? In what areas did you build up expertise? Rok: In the first few years, I did Java pro-
Rok šabjan, EPICS Guru
gramming, specifically GUIs for the ANKA control system. After the ANKA project, I switched over to EPICS. I was the first person in Cosylab to learn EPICS, to use at projects at PSI. I got a more in-depth understanding about device and subsystem control in this way. I evolved from filling a developer role to becoming a project manager, which I did for about 5 years. After that, my technical involvement dropped quite a bit and we trained many good new EPICS people, so I switched to
tainly does! It has not just followed the trends in accelerator controls over the years, with which we have built a wide set of technologies and expertise, but we also contributed to creating them. We also have very in-depth knowledge of particular technologies. For example, what Matej Šekoranja is doing with EPICS v4 communication protocol called pvAccess [2], I can, from my own EPICS days, appreciate as really cool stuff. Control Sheet: We heard you got a MBA
along the way. Why did you do it and we wonder if there are any insights from that which you can apply in your current work? Rok: It was an old wish of mine. Having been educated in physics, I was always
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in some awe about the business side – those people looked like magicians to me. However, I haven’t learned about any silver bullets, that’s for sure! What I did learn is that people are people, so soft skills matter a lot and that any situation can be handled. Apart from more general functional knowledge about doing business (finance, accounting, marketing etc.), I’d say the module on communication is of practical use on a regular basis. I don’t find myself a changed man, at least not for worse, if that’s what you’re asking [laughs]. Control Sheet: Can you tell us a bit about
your life on the road? What does a typical day visiting labs look like? Rok: Well, it depends… ha, that’s my MBA
you see: always start your answer with “it depends” (laughs). Seriously, it depends. If it’s a lab I’ve not visited before, it’s a typical get to know each other, try to learn and absorb as much as possible in a short amount of time. If it’s a place I regularly visit, it’s different. I already know a lot about them and their projects, so I can ask direct and specific questions about how the plans are evolving, and what issues have come up in the meantime. And of course, I’d highlight things that we know from experience that are important to consider at the stage their project is in and how we could help. Every situation is different and offers different possibilities for collaboration. Some people ask me for technical advice (e.g.
Control Sheet which technology or tool to use, how to architect a certain design or if I know if someone has already solved this problem), some people have the skills and expertise, but lack the man-power for their upcoming project and they do not have time to sort that out themselves. There are also groups that do not even know how to start and what is needed to be successful with the project. Those, we can help the most. Certainly, there are also situations where there is not much to do, at least for the moment. But is always nice to say hi to old friends. [smiles] Control Sheet: When you engage with customers, are there certain no-no’s, things you learned would not help the customer and as such you stopped doing? Rok: Well, in the early days on the road I’d have this pitch prepared in my head of what I wanted to tell the customer. That’s stupid. Now I listen first, to really understand their situation. It looks like plain logic but the mistake is easily made by a beginner. I hope I learnt well from my “humble beginnings” [winks] And you know, here the technical tool-kit comes in handy. I can understand problems in different fields and varying scopes: deepdown from system quirks to big-team management issues. I have a more holistic appreciation of the problems, if you want. Control Sheet: Do you like this work?
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high energy days where it’s natural to open new doors, connect with new people. And there’s the occasional day where I’d naturally be more reserved and well, in that case you have to stretch yourself a bit when on the road with a full agenda of meetings. Going off to a retreat to do some reflection on your own is not really an option then, is it? Control Sheet: Do you see it (this work)
evolving? Rok: I see a growth, yes. Along with our companies’ growth, we are dealing with larger scope projects and bigger challenges on the customer’s side. I expect that trend to continue over the next few years. What would be interesting is to apply what we learned (technically, projectwise and business-wise) to new areas, not just big physics or medical markets. Control Sheet: Last question, you were the
first “Rok” in the company but you’re not the only one anymore … to put it mildly. Confusing to the customers? Rok: hehe, by the last count we’re 8 now… yes, that confuses some people. So, we took a group photo during the last Christmas dinner and we plan to make T-shirts, just for us, I hope this will help. Unfortunately, there was one Rok missing in the picture – we are so many and we travel a lot, so it is virtually impossible for all of us to be in a same place at the same time. [laughs]
Rok: In short, yes, I like it. There are these
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Frank Amand, Belgian, joined Cosylab in 2011. Previous work experience includes 12 years with Royal Philips in Belgium and the Netherlands in a variety of software engineering related roles. His technical expertise lays in the domain of human-computer interaction, GUI design and usability. He is currently Cosylab’s Head of Marketing.
REFERENCES [1] http://www.anka.kit.edu/ The Cosylab Roks: Vintar, Štefanič, Šabjan, Gajšek, TavČar, Jugovic, Košir. Missing is Hrovatin.
[2] http://epics-pvdata.sourceforge.net/
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Embedding a Self-Managed Team at PSI-SwissFEL by: Frank Amand (Cosylab) and Tom Slejko (Cosylab)
Control Sheet talked to Tom Slejko on the work of his team at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen in the north of Switzerland. They are helping the local controls group of Markus Janousch with their control system integration project for the new SwissFEL machine. Tom’s Cosylab team is, on the one side, embedded: they are full-time on-site in this period right before commissioning, while, on the other hand, they are fully self-managed: all they need is a brief description of what needs to be done and Tom and his team will take it from there, working towards a deliverable that can be formally accepted by their customer. Control Sheet: Hi Tom, before we look into the specifics of what your team is doing, can you quickly sketch the overall SwissFEL project and its current status? Tom: Sure. SwissFEL is an X-ray laser. It’s the next large research facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute and it’s a new, cutting-edge machine in addition to the 3 existing machines which are a high intensity proton accelerator (HIPA), the Swiss Light Source (SLS) and the superconducting proton cyclotron (COMET), used for proton therapy but I shouldn’t deviate too much. Construction on SwissFEL began in April 2014 and right now things are being prepared to start commissioning the injector. One key feature of SwissFEL will be its extraordinary brightness, which means high intensity combined with sharp focus and narrow spectral range. X-rays produced by FELs have a brightness 12 orders of SATmagnitude higher than those produced by synchrotron light sources. When complete, SwissFEL will allow scientists to observe ultrafast changes in matter because of its short pulses, around 10 femtoseconds, and short wavelengths of around 0.1 nanometers.
Control Sheet: Wow :). Additional question here. Is there anything that sets SwissFEL apart from other FELs? Tom: Without going into detail, in comparison with other projects that are able to produce hard X-ray pulses, e.g. the LCLS at SLAC and the European XFEL at DESY, SwissFEL will be more compact and cost-effective. The novel injector has a really low emittance, which allows for a shorter LINAC with a simpler design. Regardless, it’s altogether a very complex machine of 740 meters! Control Sheet: We’re guessing that the control system will have a complexity to match. Can you tell us a bit about how you fit into that project? Tom: It’s fair to say we work in a very compatible manner with the local controls group. We assist the controls group with their day-to-day operations and development as well as support the same internal customers: diagnostics, beam dynamics, timing and synchronization, low level RF and other groups. We provide a wide range of services: developing device support, configuring IOCs, developing high-level applications, a lot of synoptic overview screens and the list goes on.
I believe that our team has adapted very well to how things are done at PSI, both culturally as well as technically, where we have adopted existing PSI systems and development environments to allow for a seamless transition from Cosylab to PSI developers. In other words, we have adapted our standard development practices in a way that they are compatible with PSI’s. Control Sheet: So it’s a wide range. Do you also have your specialty areas? Tom: One of the bigger undertakings was definitely the development of the SwissFEL timing system. We were involved in development of device support, assisting PSI with SAT [siteacceptance tests] for timing hardware as well as the development of the SwissFEL timing master setup. In all of these tasks, we had a very close collaboration with PSI’s timing expert Babak Kalantari. This has been very beneficial for everyone involved, as, in addition to getting things done, everyone working on the project also got a chance to expand their knowledge.
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We were able to offer our wholesome EPICS expertise and Babak shared his in-depth knowledge of accelerator timing systems.
lecting all relevant information in one place, including decisions that might otherwise be omitted from the official documentation.
Another area is Simon Ebner’s beam synchronous data acquisition. Here we developed a standalone serialization library for their BSDATA (beam synchronous data acquisition serialization protocol) as well as EPICS IOC modules that allow for easy addition of beam synchronous data acquisition to existing IOCs.
Once the tasks are completed, the PSI personnel can review them and accept, i.e. close them, or reopen them for rework. It might sound like an overly formal, bureaucratic system, but in practice it causes almost zero overhead, since the majority of correspondence moved away from signed documents and emails into JIRA…
A third area is all things related to motion control. Here SwissFEL opted to standardize around Delta Tau’s Power PMAC, Power Brick. Cosylab has a long standing partnership and years of experience with Delta Tau systems.
Control Sheet: Surely people are happy when you take over bureaucratic tasks, like writing requirements :)
Control Sheet: Can you tell us how you work; is there a specific process you are following? Tom: We have weekly meetings with all group leaders where I sit in as the team’s representative. There we merely define what needs to be done and what are the priorities. Our team then takes it from there as far as our tasks are concerned and we work as autonomously as possible. But, of course coordination with other PSI teams is often needed. Implementation-wise, we use JIRA to track progress of individual tasks and to log key information and decisions. For example, during the development of application ‘X’, we’d gather the requirements by talking to different people at PSI and prepare our design proposal. The internal customer then reviews it, by simply entering comments in JIRA. This allows us to have a very clean interface with the customer, but it also enables us to log data in a traceable way for review at a later stage, e.g. when the original developers are no longer on-site. The same process is followed throughout the whole development cycle: col-
Tom: True! It’s a burden we lift from people’s shoulders :) Many perceive writing formal requirements as quite difficult and tedious, especially for many smaller tasks. It might even make them steer away from subcontracting, feeling that it’s just all more work. It’s my strong belief that quite the opposite is true: in the mediumand long-term, this disciplined formalization saves rework big time. A control system is not the accumulation of man-hours spent writing lines of code, it’s a managed system! An additional benefit of having the Cosylab “externals” team gathering requirements with end-users directly is that it allows the injection of ideas and best practices we have collected over the years from hundreds of other control systems assignments we have completed. That’s a massive time-saver. Control Sheet: Talking formal processes, are you describing a “waterfall” process here? Or do you work iterative as well? Tom: At times, the only way to clarify requirements is through iteration. A partial design and implementation reveals the ins and outs and allows us to define an improved set of system
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requirements. When working like this, we often try to rely on tools that allow for very short development cycles, for example, Python. Cosylab is used to working with vague requirements and knows how to get to a solution in the most effective way. Here I would say the on-site presence is a major plus; it allows for instant feedback and faster turnarounds. It is very common for us to develop a quick, proof-of-concept over a couple of days and then present this to the customer and iterate over that. Customers appreciate being presented with more than one option for what can be done, and here we can bring a lot to the table. Control Sheet: It sounds to me you’re using Agile in the sense of Pro-active. Tom: And it sounds to me, you like big and fancy words! It’s simple. We work with the customer to decide about what is the next logical chunk of work that needs to be done to help the project move forward. That’s huge added-value in a complex integration project, as it is by no means trivial. We’re simply user-driven, on the lookout of what users are in need of at any point in time and ready to help. Control Sheet: Tom, thank you for your time!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Frank Amand, Belgian, joined Cosylab in 2011. Previous work experience includes 12 years with Royal Philips in Belgium and the Netherlands in a variety of software engineering related roles. His technical expertise lays in the domain of human-computer interaction, GUI design and usability. He is currently Cosylab’s Head of Marketing. Tom Slejko joined Cosylab in 2009 as a software developer, and then moved through the ranks of control system engineer, control system architect and now project leader and architect for the PSI SwissFEL project. Tom’s professional interests include distributed real-time control systems, Linux kernel and embedded development. In his free time Tom enjoys paragliding, motorbikes, hiking, climbing and anything else that spikes his adrenaline levels :)
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News
Excelling at Leadership The daily Slovene newspaper, Dnevnik, has selected Cosylab as the Best Slovenian Employer of the Year 2015 in the category of medium-sized enterprises (50 to 250 employees).
We can’t say it better than the Se- field and a relaxed corporate cullection Board said it, so here are ture. With a clear leadership stance, their words: Cosylab fulfills its vision of global “In the Knowledge Society of the progression through an imagina21st century, Cosylab represents a tive and efficient system for the good example of how to manage growth of the organization and its talent. Unburdened by having to people. keep up appearances with how a company “is supposed to be run”, the founders of the company have transposed the virtues of academia into the business environment and have thus created a level-playing
Cosylab supports an unexpected collage of corporate practices, such as rewarding individual contributions to the success of the whole, rewarding loyalty - years of service in the company, measuring suc-
cess by keeping track of how much project managers have contributed per period to the growth of production, and the “Academy” process, through which a Team has the privilege and the responsibility of accepting or rejecting a potential co-worker. All these practices contribute to the growth of Cosylab’s unique organizational culture, which fosters undisputed market results: continuous business and people growth, market-segment leadership and profitability.”
Cosylab deputy CEO, Igor Verstovšek (4th from left), listens as the award citation is read out.
The Picture Board
The Cosylab “Skipper” spotted in a rare moment without his laptop, enjoying some tranquility in Japan.
If necessary, our field engineers can also turn up in ties.
Cosylab d.d., Teslova ulica 30, SI-1000 Ljubljana, SLOVENIA Phone: +386 1 477 66 76
Email: controlsheet@cosylab.com
URL: www.cosylab.com