Due to the current gap in continued funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the NSF Unidata Program Center has temporarily paused most operations. See NSF Unidata Pause in Most Operations for details.
Members | UPC Staff |
Steven Businger, Chair, Univ of Hawaii | Ethan Davis |
Brian Colle, Stony Brook Univ | Ben Domenico |
Kevin Kloesel, Univ of Oklahoma | Ginger Emery |
Anton Kruger, Univ of Iowa | Linda Miller |
Gary Lackmann, North Carolina State Univ | Terry Mitchell |
Kersten Lehnert, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory-Columbia Univ | Russ Rew |
Jim Steenburgh, Univ of Utah |
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Agency Representatives | UOP/NCAR Representatives |
Bernard Grant, (NSF/ATM) | Mohan Ramamurthy, UOP/Unidata |
Leroy Spayd, (NOAA/NWS) | |
Committee Representative | |
Tom Whittaker (Users Committee Chair) | |
Acronym List
Presentations from the May 2011 meeting
Action Items
Administrative Matters: Businger
Tom Whittaker provided a report from the Unidata Users Committee. Some salient points include:
Director's Report - Mohan Ramamurthy
Some important points:
There was a question of the cost of doing business which is about 3%. To what extent does writing proposals impact development time. The success rate for proposals has been quite good.
NSF Report - Bernard Grant
Several topics were covered by Bernard Grant:
Budget Summary - Terry Mitchell
NOAA/NWS Report - Leroy Spayd
Tour of NCSU Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Science Lab - Gary Lackmann
The lab is very well equipped with new computers. The Department has 250 undergraduates and 100 grad students.
Photo 1 (shows Gary at the front of the lab) Photo 2 (shows some members of the Policy Committee and the new computers)
Mid-course Planning - Mohan
The mid-course discussion and review was introduced by Mohan. He discussed the topic of accomplishments and remaining challenges. Short presentations were given by Linda, Ben, Russ and Ethan. (see presentations link) The reaction to Ben's presentation on Data Interactive Documents was very positive and a great deal of discussion followed. It is the perfect time to begin discussing future endeavors for the UPC as we explore ideas for the strategic plan. The next NSF proposal will be due in mid- 2013 and will cover another 5-year period.
Discussion evolved around the presentation by Ben. Several PolComm members indicated that it is time for a change like this. They suggested that UPC should delve into browser based analysis and display and explore what it would take to move in this direction. Many questions about archiving were mentioned. This idea will be discussed at the strategic planning meeting. A Policy Committee member and a Users Committee member will attend Unidata's strategic planning session on 8 June in Boulder. Since the PolComm meeting, Ben has posted a draft white paper with additional details. (Jim Steenburg and Kevin Tyle will attend the 8 June meeting)
Survey Review - Tom Whittaker
Tom led a discussion of the survey results. It was felt that the survey was the right length and that surveys should be conducted on more frequent intervals. The UPC will think about the survey and determine what questions to ask and who will be responding for the next survey. With the proposal coming up, there might be questions we would like to pose prior to the proposal.
CUAHSI collaboration - David Tarboton
CUAHSI is a Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. The Hydrologic Information System is a system that is based on the Internet to share hydro data. There are many collaborators involved in the CUAHSI project, similar to Unidata.
Are there ways to better collaborate?
See presentation for additional information.
Strategic Planning Exercise - Mohan
Unidata is looking at developing an "actionable" Strategic Plan with a road to success. Points discussed by the committee will be shared at the October joint meeting of the Users Committee and the Policy Committee.
Some remarks mentioned by the committee were:
Triennial 2012 workshop - Tom Whittaker
Tom asked for themes for the 2012 workshop. He also suggested a Policy Committee representative be involved in the workshop from the planning to attending the workshop. A poster session was recommended for the next workshop. That helps people who need to present to enable them to attend to be able to do so. We want to attract researchers to the workshop, as well as educators and students.
Action 1: Discussion of triennial workshop during the joint committee meeting in October 2011.
Action 2: UPC should reestablish the orientation for new committee members.
Action 3: Re-post the white paper created by Russ Rew about "Branding" and consider an article in IOS or some publication about Unidata. Here is the slightly revised white paper (6/9/2011).
Action 4: Publish another article on the Web about acknowledging Unidata in publications
Action 5: Policy Committee will provide input for the new Strategic Plan.
Linda Miller
Community Services - Unidata
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000
303 497-8646 fax: 303 497-8690