Minutes of the Steering Board Meeting, 17 June 2008

Present:

Regular Items

• Approval of minutes of SB meeting of April 8^th, 2008: approved
• Pending Actions current as of April 2008
  • Action 32.6 - No progress (Computer Physics Communications, Transaction on Nuclear Science, NIM, EPJ are possible journals)
  • Action 37.3 - Merge with 44.1 and close
  • Action 41.2 - No report
  • Action 42.3 - Pending ; to be reassigned
  • Action 43.3 - Issue to be followed; close this
  • Action 44.1 - remains open
  • Action 44.2 - though web page exists but not on design; remains open
  • Action 44.3 - recontacted OB. Once meeting happens, close this
  • Action 44.4 - Open and discuss under AOB
  • Action 45.2 - Make it a subgroup of SB; still open
  • Action 46.1 - Still open
  • Action 46.3 - Just started - still open
  • Action 47.1 - No progress - pending
  • Action 47.2 - Dennis responded. Makoto, John also prepared, Close this
  • Action 47.3 - Gunter has made a list, to be discussed
  • Action 48.1 - Done; close
  • Action 48.2 - Updated; close
  • Action 48.3 - No progress
  • Action 48.4 - Dennis reported; no progress
  • Action 48.5 - Similar to 47.3; merge
• Report from OB meeting, Lyon June 10^th
  Issues discussed:
  • election of SB representatives
  • FTE in working groups
  • Manpower issue in SLAC
  • resources in each institute (no big change)
  • wish and constraints of INFN to hire people for Geant4
  • IN2P3 representative changed
  • Low energy EM situation discussed (IN2P3 thanked INFN)
  • report different French G4 efforts
  • Geant4 review date proposed (second half of January - OK)
  • Next meeting during Geant4 workshop or teleconference (within fall)

Elections update

• Report of process for election of Low Energy EM working group Sebastian Incerti is the new convener
• Status of Spokesperson Election: report of Nomination Phase Coordinate nomination phase is over - one candidate only, endorsed by SB.
  SB to appoint Election Management team - the same team which coordinated nomination phase (Marc, Peter, Takashi) is suggested. Takashi was not present - to be contacted - if he agrees John/Marc will inform Makoto and SB

Brief progress reports

• Status of developments for the Beta release (Workplan of 2008)
  • Run, Event and Detector Response
  • Tracking
  • Particles and Track
  • Geometry and Transport
    Many of the deliverables in the work plan are in for public release patches. The rest (with exception of B-field related) are in progress
  • Generic Processes and Materials
  • Electromagnetic Standard Physics
    Many new developments - on multiple scattering, Bremsstrahlung of charged hadron
  • Low Energy Electromagnetic Physics
    Working group readjusted with 10 continuing, 2 departing. 27 new potential collaborators. Situation to be assessed and reported to SB (also OB for new institutes)
  • Hadronic Physics
    Many fixes to Bertini cascade model, HEP, INCL/ABLA. Add Fermi momentum to quasi elastic and tuning of FTF model
  • Persistency
    Current code development will be integrated soon. The main code developer leaving by end of this month
  • User and Category Interfaces
  • Visualisation
    Addition of Qt interface. Need full support for visualizing Boolean shape.
  • Advanced Examples
    Some of the earlier WG members to be readmitted to the WG
  • Physics Lists
    Some changes for EM physics lists
• Report from performance task force

The need for a Proposal to support US Geant4 activities

• SLAC has seen severe cut in HEP affecting Geant4 activities All projects in HEP and Astrophysics are micromanaged from Washington. Geant4 needs a proposal to Washington for the US groups (currently SLAC and Fermilab). Proposal to be made in consultation with Geant4 team focusing on a few concrete aspects.