The Workshop for Accelerator Operations (WAO) 2025 in Saskatoon, Canada, was hosted by the Canadian Light Source. Some of the ISIS Crew and operations management attended, and presented posters, presentations and participated as panelist.

Many ISIS systems currently run on the FINS (Factory Int​erface Network Service) protocol which has now been deemed obsolete. The FINS interfaces are to be replaced with CIP (Common Industrial Protocol). No hardware interface between Vsystem and CIP currently exists so the decision to convert ISIS Controls to EPICS rather than develop a new interface was taken.

​The transition process began back in 2019 with an evaluation period on the ISIS Front End Test Stand, after this period the main effort began in 2021 during the ISIS long shut-down. In November 2022 TS1 had been fully transferred to EPICS control a​​nd work on the remaining systems began. The projected completion date for all systems is August 2026.

​Their mission is for neutrons and muons to advance knowledge and improve lives. Their vision is that ISIS will lead the way in the innovative development and exploitation of neutron and muon sources, science, instrumentation and technology. ​

During the workshop, the ISIS Accelerator Technology Division:​ 

Gave three presentations:

• Michael Julian: 'The Role of Engineers as Operators at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source' under the How We Do Business topic
• Sinje Caldwell-Steffen: 'Training for Complexity: Operator Development at the Neutron and Muon Source, RAL (Harwell, UK)' under the Training, Digital Twin, Flight Simulators topic
• Bryan Jones (ISIS) & Vince Winter (from Diamond): 'Introduction to WAO 2027' as we will be hosting the next WAO in 2027 in Oxford

Presented three posters:

• Chris Esplin: 'Upgrade of the ISIS Control System from V-Systems (Vista) to EPICS'
• Oghenesuvwe Ogagiyovwe: ' Using Operational Tools for Particle Accelerator Equipment Reliability: Case Study of the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source'
• Bryan Jones: 'Performance Metrics and Analysis Tools for the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Chaired one of the breakout sessions – Training: Sinje Caldwell-Steffen

Sinje was also an iInvited panelist for the "How We Do Business" Panel Discussion.

"It was a fantastic workshop, with many great presentations and posters, which sparked then very interesting conversations afterwards between the participants. It was also very exciting to visit the Canadian Light Source (and how clean it was!)," says Sinje. "As always, seeing all these wonderful people from all over the world with the same goal and passion of operating an accelerator (big or small) was inspiring. I hope, we can implement at least 2-3 of the hundred ideas we brought back on how we can improve things even more here at ISIS."