Introduction to Geant4

February 26 to March 2, 2001
Universitiy of Michigan

Welcome to the Geant4 Course

[Participants] [Transportation] [Schedule] [Software] [Location] [C++]

Background

Geant4 is a software toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through material objects. It is used by high-energy physicists to model and design particle detectors such as the ATLAS detector for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Geant4 is also of use in the areas of nuclear physics, accelerator and space physics, medicine, and bio-physics. More information about Geant4 can be found at http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/asd/geant4/geant4.html

A week long introductory tutorial on the use of Geant4 was given at the University of Michigan the week of 26 February to 2 March 2001. The tutorial was a mixture of lectures and hands-on laboratory exercises. The tutorial was presented by Andrea Dell'Acqua of CERN, who is an expert on Geant4. Dell'Acqua was one of the members of the design team for Geant4, and he has taught courses on Geant4 several times in the past.

Familiarity with C++ was assumed, but the course began with a "review" of C++ to make sure that all participants had the same basic background. Prior knowedge of Geant4 or Geant3 was not required, but several participants were in fact already familar with Geant.

The lectures were recorded and will be available soon on the Web Lecture Archive at CERN.

For more information about this course contact Eric Myers <myers@umich.edu>.

Participants

Name Affiliation/Expt E-mail
Kagaya, Tsuneo Univ. Michigan/Spin Physics kageya@umich.edu
Lamb, Charles Univ. Michigan/Nuclear Engin. clamb@umich.edu
Leonova, Maria Univ. Michigan/Spin Physics leonova@spinbud.physiscs.lsa.umich.edu
Lin, Ali Univ. Michigan/Spin Physics alilin@umich.edu
Loch, Peter Univ. Arizona/ATLAS loch@physics.arizona.edu
Mikus, Georg Univ. Michigan/D0 gumikus@umich.edu
Morozov, Vasiliy Univ. Michigan/Spin Physics morozov@spinbud.physics.lsa.umich.edu
Myers, Eric Univ. Michigan/ATLAS myers@umich.edu
Nozar, Mina Jefferson Laboratory nozarm@jlab.org
Ojha, Indrani Vanderbilt Univ./PHENIX ojha@vanderbilt.edu
Perez, Jose Univ. Michigan/Nuclear Engin. jmperez@engin.umich.edu
Peters,Charles Univ. Michigan/Spin Physics peterscc@umich.edu
Schubnell, Mike Univ. Michigan/HEAT and SNAP schubnel@umich.edu
Sullivan, Clair Univ. Michigan/Nuclear Engin. cjbranch@engin.umich.edu
Vetter, Philip Univ. Michigan/MiniBooNE pvetter@umich.edu
Wang, Ting Univ. Michigan/HEP Theory tingwang@umich.edu

C++ Preparation

First of all, don't sweat it too much. If you are familiar with programming you just need to get yourself up to speed on the particulars of C++ and object oriented programming. How you do this depends on your particular background.

If you are already familiar with programming with C, then an efficient way to learn the added features of "C with classes" (C++) is to read

C++: The Core Language,
by Gregory Satir and Doug Brown
(O'Reilly, Inc, 1995)

If you don't know C, but you are familiar with Fortran, you might try

Scientific and Engineering C++,
by John J. Barton and Lee R. Nackman
(Addison-Wesley, 1994)

Alternatively, a good algorithm for selecting a book is to go to a good bookstore with many books on C++ (e.g. Borders in Ann Arbor) and look through several of them until you find the one that speaks to you.

An on-line course in C++ exists on the webcast server at CERN, called C++ for Particle Physicists by Paul Kunz (also known as the BaBar C++ Course). No prior knowledge of C is assumed. If you are not familiar with webcast then you may want to look at this course just to see how it works, since we will be recording the Geant4 course for the Web Lecture Archive at CERN.

Schedule

Click here to go to the latest version of the schedule.

Lecture Slides

These are the powerpoint slides used in the lectures:

Software

Here are links to software used in the course or instructions on how to use the software.

Location

1180 Media Union - Teleconfrencing room A (for Lectures)
3368D Media Union - Intel Training Room D (for Laboratory)
University of Michigan North Campus
2281 Bonistell Blvd
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Transportation

Out of town guests who are staying at the Bell Tower: a van will pick you up at approximately 8:40 AM on Monday to take you to north campus. Anybody not staying at the Bell Tower should contact Eric Myers <myers@umich.edu>, 647-5463.

The Detroit/Wayne County Airport (DTW) is only 30 minutes away. Shuttles run about every hour, or more frequently, and will take you right to your hotel. The cost is about $25. Their desk is near the baggage claim in the Northwest terminal.

U-M buses will run every 20 minutes between central and north campus, but we will also have a shuttle van between the hotels and north campus for the lectures.

Housing

We suggest that you book a room in one of the hotels near the central campus:
Campus Inn 734-769-2200
The Bell Tower 734-769-3010
The rates are slightly higher than hotels farther out, but you then do not need to rent a car. Both are within walking distance to both the central campus area and downtown Ann Arbor.

This project has been made possible with support from:
UM ATLAS Collaboratory Project National Science Foundation Web Lecture Archive Project
CERN Home Page