Unidata is happy to announce the Community Equipment Award recipients for 2016. Five institutions received funding this year:

• Oregon State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Iowa
• University of Louisiana at Monroe
• University of North Dakota

Unidata offers equipment grants to support a variety of projects

Just a reminder that the 2016 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation is open for new proposals through March 25, 2016. If you're looking for equipment (physical hardware or cloud-based services) to get your Unidata technology project off the ground, we encourage you to submit a proposal.

Created under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, Unidata equipment awards are intended to encourage new members from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the geosciences to join the Unidata community, and to encourage existing members to continue their active participation, enhancing the community process. For 2016, a total of $100,000 is available for awards; proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered.

Unidata offers equipment grants to support a variety of projects

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce the opening of the 2016 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. Created under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, Unidata equipment awards are intended to encourage new members from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the geosciences to join the Unidata community, and to encourage existing members to continue their active participation, enhancing the community process. For 2016, a total of $100,000 is available for awards; proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered.

Editor's Note: Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU) is one of a handful of universities of varying sizes that have incorporated AWIPS II into labs and classrooms in the past two years. MSU's experience shows that incorporating the new NWS technology into the educational mix is both possible and useful even for a small undergraduate program. This article outlines the MSU AWIPS II configuration and discusses some of the adjustments the program made to get the system running smoothly.

Thanks to a Unidata Community Equipment Award grant coupled with some local resources from our university, we (Professor Sam Ng and co-PI Chris Kimmett) at Metropolitan State University in Denver have been able to successfully bring the National Weather Service's AWIPS II forecasting system into the classroom. Professor Ng used AWIPS II alongside Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer as core tools in the Spring 2015 “Weather Analysis Techniques” course for undergraduate meteorology majors, and will continue using AWIPS II in the Fall semester and into the future.

Unidata is happy to announce the Community Equipment Award recipients for 2015. Five institutions received funding this year:

• Plymouth State University
• University of California, San Diego
• University of Nebraska, Lincoln
• University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• Western Kentucky University