What is an Operator?

If you're reading this then you probably just recently joined Ops, so welcome!

The role of the operator is varied and can be hard to briefly summarize, so this page will ideally un-briefly summarize what you can expect to do on many average days. This will also focus on the actions mostly taken by newer operators, so don't be surprised if some of the more experienced ones have a different work flow.

Why do we have operators?

The primary purpose of operators is to directly interface with the accelerator, it's our job to make sure the beam and greater machine are in a desirable state. Operators have many unique privileges when compared even to the physicists who work here, so we are often asked to change things to better suite what they need out of the accelerator.

An operator always needs to be in the control room whenever beam is being sent, if all of us leave when beam is being sent it's a big safety issue, so we often operate under a 24 hour shift. This also means that we are the best choice to monitor things overnight while system experts are at home.

When you consider these two points, you'll start to see why the role of the operator can be challenging, we have our fingers in many pies of many flavours, yet we only have limited contact with most of them. If the Lithium Stripper causes us issues and prevents us from running, we're trained to understand the basics of what could be happening, but it's a challenging piece of equipment that we only interact with in a superficial way. We need to know enough about how it impacts beam to fix smaller issues or troubleshoot when there's no clear reason for problems, but we also need to do this with many other systems.

All of this to say, operators need to know a little about a lot of things. This can feel frustrating or overwhelming at times, especially when in a high pressure situation, but you'll pick up a lot of this with time and experience, whether it be a systems expert or another operator, never shy away from asking questions about what something is or how to do an action that was asked of you.

Basics of Operating

The most basic and common task that we do is work with the Chopper. The Chopper is a very powerful electrostatic that can ramp very quickly, it redirects beam from going further down the beamline. It is the main way we control whether beam is being sent, despite the beam travelling a decent distance from the source, where they start off, to the Chopper, it's not being sent to any measurement device or experiment, so we wouldn't refer to this as “sending beam”.

We control the Chopper with computers that have “ftc” written on their labels. We have 3 different networks, you're probably reading this on one that says “ofc” on it now. “ftc” machines can be used to control most of the accelerator, until you get out of ARIS, but don't worry about that now. Ignoring a lot of technical information about the computers, there are different pages that control or display different things. One page is “MPS Operator” and this is where we control the Chopper. There are large, clearly labelled buttons that allow us to “Stop Beam” or “Start Chopper”, there is some confusing language regarding the Chopper, normally when an Operator refers to the Chopper as “being on” or “starting” that actually means they're turning it off to allow beam to travel further down the beamline. “Stop Beam” then powers on the Chopper and “Start Chopper” actually turns the Chopper off and allows beam to continue along.

Being On Shift

There are three different shifts you may be scheduled on. Day: 7:00 am - 3:00 pm, Afternoon: 3:00 pm - 11:00 pm, or Night: 11:00pm - 7:00 am. Eventually, you will begin doing weekend shifts. These consist of nine consecutive days on, including the weekend, which will be two 12 hour shifts. Before or after starting weekend shifts though, you will have three work days and the weekend off, which is a nice way to prepare or relax for these shifts.

Each shift can vary in how they feel throughout the time you're here. Day shifts are typically quite busy, afternoons are busy in that first half usually and a bit calmer towards the end, and night shifts can be calm, but due to it being so late you'll need to be prepared to solve issues or call people early in the morning. All this being said though, shifts can vary depending on what is happening that day. Day shifts may be slow but afternoon could be packed, vice verse. The point of this is just to inform you of what to kind of expect when you are here during those first couple of weeks on shift. As said above though, don't worry to much about this as time goes on because you will eventually experience each shift yourself.