Plant Instrumentation & Control

The Plant Instrumentation & Control team provides design, development, and operational support for systems used to acquire data from and to control experimental devices at PPPL and beyond. The team is responsible for critical electronics, firmware, computing hardware and software used to operate fusion devices and their supporting systems. The team also helps develop software to analyze these large and complex data sets enabling other engineers and scientists to glean meaningful information and further our understanding of stellar phenomena.

Specifically, the I&C Group:

• Supports control, timing, and data acquisition systems for NSTX-U, LTX and other PPPL experiments

• Assists physicists, engineers, and diagnosticians in developing new system designs, fabrication, installations, and maintenance

• Develops and supports real-time machine protection, plasma control and diagnostic systems for PPPL and experimental devices all over the world

• Provides the “front end” of computing for NSTX-U, focusing on subsystem and diagnostic interfaces and the support of daily experimental operations

• Develops custom hardware solutions including those used to control both experimental and general infrastructure devices

• Centralizes and integrates control and monitoring of PPPL plant systems and provide operator interfaces

• Applies computer science techniques to improve the design and implementation of physics concepts

• Provides audio/visual monitoring of the NSTX-U experimental facility

• Provides and supports a control room where experiments are conducted.