This September 2025 Observatory Sciences was proud to be a gold sponsor of the 20th ICALEPCS (International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems) conference in Chicago. Five members of OSL attended: Alan Greer, Ulrik Pedersen, Emma Arandjelovic, Thomas Ives, and Bryn Roberts. The conference was held at the impressive Palmer House Hotel, with plenary talks and the conference dinner taking place in the Grand Ballroom.
Prior to the conference two days of workshops were held. OSL’s Thomas Ives co-led a workshop on Tango Controls (shown in the photo to the left), providing attendees with an overview of Tango along with hands-on examples to try during and after the session. Other workshops attended by OSL members included the one day EPICS collaboration meeting, a Bluesky workshop and a workshop on advancing AI/ML in control systems.
The main conference offered a valuable opportunity to keep up to date with developments at facilities across the world and the software tools they use. These included facilities such as SKAO and Diamond Light Source with whom OSL works closely. Each morning began with a keynote talk offering an interesting and different flavour of talk to the rest of the day. These offered insights into fields adjacent to ours, ranging from robotic intelligence to the scientific imaging techniques used to uncover the original appearance of ancient sculptures.
Poster sessions were also held most afternoons with both Ulrik and Emma presenting posters on their ongoing work for SKAO.
Throughout the conference we met with many of the 520 attendees at the OSL stand in the conference hall. This was an opportunity to meet with collaborators, clients and new contacts. Here, we discussed the developments at the conference and explained the work and training that OSL provides.
