In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the Unidata Program Center for the month of April, 2019.
A Special Plea for Your Participation
This month, we'd like to draw your attention to Unidata's two governing committees: the Users Committee and the Strategic Advisory Committee, both of which will welcome new members this fall.
Unidata's governing committees serve as a vital conduit for information on the needs and requirements of community members, help build consensus on future directions for the Unidata Program, and establish standards of involvement for the community. As the Program moves into our next five years of National Science Foundation funding, it is more important than ever that we have the strong community guidance that has helped make the program useful to the broad geoscience community.
The Unidata Users Committee is the primary mechanism for gaining scientific feedback on the effectiveness of Program activities in the educational community. The Unidata Strategic Advisory Committee provides a “Big Picture” perspective, helping the Unidata Program better understand data and technology trends within the university geoscience community. Both committees benefit from the viewpoints of educational institutions of all sizes.
It's imperative that the Program form a clear and accurate picture of the needs of the broad range of educational institutions we serve. To do this we need input and perspectives from colleges and universities small and large, with student populations that represent the breadth of the geoscience community. You can help Unidata meet the challenges of serving our — your — community by nominating someone (yourself?) to help bring the varied perspectives we need to our governing committees. See the two articles below for more information on how to get involved. And thank you for your help in continuing to make the Unidata Program a useful partner in geoscience education and research!
Unidata Committee Nominations Open
The Unidata Program Center is seeking new people to serve on Unidata's Strategic Advisory and Users Committees. This is your chance to make a difference on behalf of the Unidata community. Nominations are due by June 20, 2019, may be made by any community member, and self-nominations are acceptable. This position will be for a three-year term beginning with the fall 2019 Committee meeting.
Wanted: Student Representative for Unidata Users Committee
The Unidata Users Committee is seeking nominations for a Graduate Student representative to join the group of nine university faculty members currently serving on this committee. Nominees should be Graduate Students who use Unidata software, hold a strong interest in the Unidata program, and have an interest in learning how a community-based program like Unidata is governed. Nominations are due by May 31, 2019, may be made by any community member, and self-nominations are acceptable. This position will be for a two-year term beginning with the fall 2019 Committee meeting.
On the Developer's Blog
Unidata Program Center developers write regularly on technical topics on the Unidata Developer's Blog. The ongoing MetPy Mondays series put aircraft turbulence reports on a map, did some polynomial fitting, and explored the pathlib filesystem path module.
Governing Committee News
Unidata's Users Committee met 21-22 March 2019, in Boulder, Colorado.
Unidata's Strategic Advisory Committee met 16-17 April 2019 in at Pensylvania State University in State College, PA.
The next meeting will be a Joint meeting of both committees, tentatively scheduled for 1-3 October 2019 in Boulder, CO.
