Login

51st SLAC Summer Institute (SSI 2023)

7–18 Aug 2023
SLAC
America/Los_Angeles timezone

Support

Practical Info

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

  • Access and Site Information 
  • Lunch
  • Wireless Network
  • Travel & Directions
  • Ground Transportation

Access and Site Information

All SSI conference attendees who are non-SLAC employees or affiliates will need to complete the online access form.

All visitors/ attendees driving in are required to show a valid photo ID (e.g. passport, driver's license) in order to enter SLAC. Visitors staying at the Guest House will be issued a guest card to further ease the access check. The SLAC Main Gate is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

All lectures will be held in the Kavli Auditorium (Building 51). SSI2023 badges are required during the conference. Q&A & Tutorial sessions are held in the Redwood Room in the ROB (48).

Stanford Guest House is located on SLAC site (building #49). It is the first building on the left after turning left from the guard gate. Parking in front of the Guest House is designated for the registered guests.   There is a cash ATM located at the Stanford Guest House lobby. 

Parking at SLAC is free, and you can grab any open parking spot except the disabled space and space labelled Government cars only. In case you have trouble finding parking spot near the central campus area, Parking lot G (campus map grid 28D) always has plenty of open spots and still just 5 min walk to Kavli Building. 

 

 

LUNCH On Site / Near SLAC

SLAC Cafeteria is located on the 2nd floor of the new SUSB building (#53) is open for  lunch on week days. Sand Hill Kitchen in the Quadrus complex across from SLAC is open for lunch on weekdays. The Sharon Heights shopping center near SLAC is less than a 10min walk and includes restaurants, a gas station, bank, 24 hour Safeway supermarket, deli, bakery, CVS and Starbucks. 

Stanford Campus Options

Once in a while it may be a good option to take the free Marguerite Shuttle to Stanford campus for the various dining options there combined with a campus stroll. The SLAC line operates between week days ~7am-9pm (see schedule). The various Stanford dining place are described at the Stanford Dining page, and also shown on a special version of the SLAC Line map. Among the large Dining Halls with many stations, only the Lakeside and Arrillaga Family Dining Commons are open for the summer. Arbuckle Pavilion is another good option. Most of these places have a summer closing time of 2:00pm which only leave a rather short time window after SSI morning lectures. 

Off Site Options

Disclaimer: While the relatively few places near SLAC are easy to point out, there are 200+ restaurants in Palo Alto and Menlo Park area which are within 15min of drive, and many are good lunch places. The list here is therefore from a rather limited sampling knowledge to just point out a few more commonly known around SLAC, while you should consult more general guides such as Google Maps, or yelp which have more reviews for many places (also check Palo Alto, Portola Valley). If you are really interested in the broad range of restaurants but challenged by transportation, delivery by Uber Eats or Door Dash  for a collective order may be another option. 

Extending topic to dinners, the above disclaimer applies even more strongly as it becomes a rather subjective choice. For  those who really don't want to think about it, there are some specific recommendation lists you are welcome to consider:

which maybe not all up to date, as some places such as Round Table Pizza, Hunan Gardens and Zibibbo are now closed. 

Note that US restaurants (and shops) list item price before tax and a 9% sales tax will charged on top of the listing price. In addition, tips to services are not included in the price in most cases and you are expected to "voluntarily" add roughly 18% of the total cost before tax as a tip in case of sit-in dining at restaurant served by a waiter/waitress (their wage largely come from that), which can be cash left on the table or written in to credit card bill.

 

 

Wireless Network

There are several open access wireless networks at SLAC:

  • "Visitor" is available at most locations around SLAC campus. Just a very simple registration at first use with no approval needed will let you connect.
  • "Eduroam" is also available at many locations on SLAC campus. This would require the Eduroam certificate which most visitors already have from their own home institutions. In particular, all CERN users have a readily avaiable CERN certificate option. Since the Eduroam network was installed more recently, it may have stronger signals and more bandwidth at places they are available.
  • "Stanford Visitor" is acceisible from the Guest House rooms that is adminstrated by Stanford. Access speed is limited to 5 Mb/s.

More detailed information on the wireless network at SLAC can be found here

In case you find your Guest House room wireless speed somewhat slow during off hours when Kavli building or SUSB lobby area are not reachable, you can always go to the Computer Center building (#50) with the lobby open 24 hours.

Travel and Directions

Flights to Bay Area

The Bay Area airports, San Francisco International (SFO) in particular, operate direct flights to and from many international airports around the world daily, as well as most major cities in the US. San Jose International (SJC) and Oakland International (OAK) airports also host flights to many US destinations and some limited international destinations. In case of inbound flights requiring a hop from another hub airport, it is generally better to have an long international leg directly into the Bay Area airport, as a hop within the US has the drawback that you must go through US immigration at the first US landing (port of entry), pick up your checked luggage to go through customs, then recheck the bags. The long US domestic legs also only offer very simple paid meals/snacks.

Local Maps

Ground Transportation

Local Airport Access:

 

 

From SLAC to SFO:  The SLAC to SFO drive route also includes a convenient slip-off from 380 just just before the airport to El Camino then along San Bruno Avenue where there are many gas stations for car refuel. You can simply continue on San Bruno Avenue to car rental return as shown. I280 traffic is normally quite good so that the 25min time estimate is OK for off peak hours. For rush hours you may need at least 45min to1 hour. However, you need to budget in time for rental car refuel, return and air-train to terminal etc.

 

Car Rental:

Rental cars provide an effective local transportation option favored by many regular SLAC users, which will give you more flexibility, and sharing the rental car between a few people will make this even more cost-effective given the discount rates available to SLAC visitor (described below).

Most major rental car companies have many outlets including all major airports (SFO rental car center has many rental vendors altogether in one central building nearby which is very conveniently reachable by air-train). There is a Discount Rental Car Program with Enterprise associated with SLAC which can be used by SLAC visitors, although still worth search for other deals as they can sometimes do better. The Enterprise deal also applies to renting at e.g. Stanford Oaks outlet near SLAC. You should check your institutional travel rental insurance policy. If you have similar policy like Stanford covering both basic and collision damage waiver then you don't need any additional insurance. In case you do need adding insurance, you should ask at the rental desk at airport pickup. There is also the Stanford Zipcar option for very short period rentals.

Other Ground Transportation:

The shuttle system (see list below) has been probably the most popular means of transportation between SLAC/Stanford and airport for travelers until the emergence of Uber and Lyft. Commercial shuttle cost one way ~$30, while regular cabs can be ~$80. However, you need to reserve in advance and allow some extra time for the shared commercial shuttles which may need to do pickups/drop-offs on the way. There has been more regular use of Uber / Lyft by SLAC travelers these days and your dedicated uberX ride between SFO-SLAC has a competitive fare of $38-50 and can call a ride any time without reservation. Uber/Lyft are not allowed to pick up passengers at lower arrival level of SFO so that you need to go up to departure level upstaris to meet your driver there.

CalTrains cannot directly reach SLAC, but can be a useful option for trips to SFO or downttown San Francisco (but need to transfer to BART system at Millbrae), for those staying in downtown Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City hotels close to a CalTrain station. Palo Alto CalTrain is also a major hub for Stanford Marguerite shuttle system (see below). From CalTrain Station to SLAC is not walking distance. Uber/Taxi may be more viable options when out of Marguerite shuttle operation hours. 

From San Francisco Airport: From San Jose Airport:
Super Shuttle (650) 558-8500 South Bay Airport Shuttle (800) 548-4664
Sam Trans Bus (800) 660-4287 Santa Clara County Transit (800) 894-9908
Cab Service (650) 361-1234 Yellow Cab (650) 361-1234
CalTrain (800) 660-4287 CalTrain (800) 660-4287
Barron Limousine (408) 257-7794  
Reliable Rides (650) 573-1482  

Local Transportation around Stanford:

Marguerite Shuttle (Free shuttle around Stanford) has a SLAC Line with stops at the Guest House and between Kavli and ROB inside SLAC. For those staying at hotels just out of the Marguerite shuttle service area, the Santa Clara Transit VTA bus system serves along El Camino Real with line 22 passing in front of Stanford. From Palo Alto CalTrain station you need to take lines N/O or X/Y for change to/from SLAC line at Central campus. From California Avenue, Line SE meets SLAC Line near Governer's Corner. Due to the exchange and many stops, you need to check schedule cacrefully to see how long the whol trip takes. The SLAC Line has limited capacity so that this is not meant to carry the bulk of participants for a major meeting at SLAC. The complimentary Stanford Guest House shuttle is also available evenings and weekends when the Marguerite is not.

Powered by Indico v3.2.7