CMS DAS Pre-Exercises

General Information

These exercises cover the basic software skills you will need for the CMS Data Analysis school. The lessons are short and targeted, intended to get you up and running in just a few days. The material is taken from longer-format tutorials, for example:

  1. The CMS WorkBook
  2. Hands-on tutorials (HATS), covering all aspects of CMS data analysis such as physics object reconstruction (tracks/electrons/muons/jets/etc.), trigger, generators, statistics, machine learning, ...
  3. The HEP Software Foundation's training center
  4. List of all previous schools
All students should aim to complete the pre-exercises with the same laptop they'll use during the school. The goal is to setup your computing environment ahead of time, so you can dive into the real material on day one of CMSDAS. Advanced participants (i.e., those who have spent time on LHC experiments already) may not need to complete the pre-exercises as thoroughly, but please do read through everything to make sure everything works (e.g., accounts, certificates, and environments).

What: A series of pre-exercises to exercise all the needed tools with the laptop participants will bring to CMS DAS, so that they can be ready to go from the beginning of the school.

Who: All participants of the CMS DAS schools.

Where: This training will take place online.

When: Asynchronously from November to mid-December, before the school starts in January.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with internet access for which they have administrative privileges. Acceptable operating systems include Mac OS, Linux, or Windows (preferably not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.). The setup page will have more information about any additional pieces of software that must be installed or any accounts which must be obtained.

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Instructors: David Yu , Gabriele Benelli , and Marguerite Tonjes

Helpers: David Yu , Garvita Agarwal , Gabriele Benelli , Hichem Bouchamaoui , Roy Cruz , Tamer Elkafrawy , Lingqiang He , Andrew Loeliger , Tetiana Mazurets , Carlos Perez , Richa Sharma , Ali Eren Simsek , Marguerite Tonjes , Daniel Wilbern , Raymond Wynne and Irene Zoi

Mattermost chat: The PreExercises channel will be available once you join the CMSDAS@LPC 2025 team. Direction for how to join this Mattermost chat team can be found on the setup page.

Contact: Please email cmsdasatlpc@fnal.gov for more information or assistance.

Prerequisites

Before going any further, please follow the instructions on the setup page.

Schedule

Setup Obtain the necessary accounts (warning: may take up to 4-6 weeks)
00:00 1. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 1: Unix basics How do I get started with Unix?
How do I navigate the filesystem?
How do I manipulate files and folder?
00:30 2. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 2: Using the cmslpc cluster Learn how to use the CMSLPC cluster
00:40 3. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 3: ROOT and python basics
01:40 4. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 4: CMSSW basics
02:40 5. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 5: Using the grid
03:40 6. CMSDAS Pre-Exercise 6: Using git How do I setup git on my computer/cluster?
How do I collaborate using GitHub?
04:10 Finish

The actual schedule may vary slightly depending on the topics and exercises chosen by the instructor.