Final Report Summary - ATLASTTH (Observation of the Higgs production mode in the ttH channel at ATLAS)
When I joined ATLAS I also contributed to the experiment itself by developing software required for the operation during the second period of data-taking. Using my experience as software developer I improved an application required for operating ATLAS while collecting data. Specifically the application is responsible for the handling of the online trigger database. In addition to adding all the required new functionalities, I also significantly improved the performance of the application and the code structure in order to increase the maintainability of the application.
Since the Royal Holloway ATLAS group is also heavily involved in other Top quark analyses with PhD students and other post-docs, I also become involved in those activities. My major contribution was the publication of the measurement of the Top pair differential cross section using the data collected in the first data-taking period. Having performed two analysed using the Top group software framework and because of my experience in the trigger group, I was invited by the Top conveners to join the Top group management with the role of trigger contact person. In such role I liaised between the two groups proposing new trigger required by Top analyses and reporting to the Top group any news from the trigger group. Because of this role I become an expert in the triggers used in the very first few weeks of data-taking in 2015 and played a crucial role in the publication of the first results by the Top group using the collected data.
In summer 2015 I also sponsored a summer studentship to work on a study in the framework of the International Linear Collider (ILC), my previous areas of research. I selected and trained a Master student from Italy which worked under my supervision on the analysis of the Higgs boson decaying to two muons. The work was used by the student for her major undergraduate project receiving high praises and later presented by me at the major ILC conference, the LCWS16 hold in Whistler. The proceeding for the presentation is in preparation.
The Fellowship allowed me to resume my scientific career and to join the high energy physics community in an exciting period. The Higgs discovery opened a new era in my field of research and I was able to contribute to increase our understanding of this new particle by studying its associated production with a pair of top quarks. Given the fundamental implication of the discovery, the media have continued to cover anything related to the Higgs boson. Therefore the research I carried out can appeal the interest of the non-specialised public and therefore can create a positive feedback loop, especially with the young public that may be more inclined in following a STEM career.
During the fellowship I directly helped in training several PhD students in using advanced statistical tool such as Neural Networks and Boosted Decision Trees which are tools I used in my analyses. Such tools are at the centre of what is commonly referred to as Big Data as they allow maximising the amount of information extracted from any data sample. One of the students was even offered a job at one company developing one of such tools.
I tried to contribute to the ongoing effort in the physics community to achieve a gender balance. Specifically I selected a female summer student which proved to be the best summer student at Royal Holloway. I also encouraged her to pursue the scientific career and the ATLAS group would be happy to have her as a PhD student after she completes her Master.
In the last few months of the Fellowship I worked with one of the professors in the ATLAS group to expand the research activities of the group by applying to an ITN. The proposed projects are heavily based on the work I carried out and, if approved, will be integrated with the activities of other four European Universities, several companies and research institutes from various disciplines.