sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[Spencer Klein <srklein AT lbl.gov>]

Ming:

I'd like to hear more from Dave, but both of these seem a bit risky.  
Will LANL guarantee the engineering rate, even if no one retires?  If 
not, this cost saving is unlikely to survive a careful review.

And, 'free labor' is only free if it is available when needed, and 
willing & able to do the work needed.  During the construction of the 
STAR TPC, we relied a lot on 'free' labor from various universities.  
This did not work out well.   We could not get people when we needed 
them, and, in at least one case, the person was unsuitable.  In the end, 
we had to use a lot of LBNL technicians; this put a big hole in the budget.

Budgeting for success makes me nervous.

Spencer



On 2/2/17 09:39, Ming Liu (ming AT bnl.gov) wrote:
> Hi Leo,
>
> Dave Lee can comment more later, the reduction is mostly coming from
> reducing LANL engineers¹ labor rate (assuming someone retires but comes
> back to work as a contractor, as Dave Lee does) and reducing some of the
> high cost labor in several areas, such as installation etc, using more
> ³free" university labor.
>
> Cheers,
> Ming
>