The 2014 Unidata Equipment Awards Program

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation

The NSF provides the Unidata Program Center up to $100k in equipment grant funds each year. In alignment with the Unidata 2018 proposal, the Equipment Awards Program is designed to broaden participation and promote the use of Unidata tools and systems (e.g., THREDDS, NetCDF, IDV, GIS connections) to support education and research on various aspects of climate studies (e.g., diagnostics, change and impacts), by providing grants to be used in the procurement of new computers and equipment including upgrades to existing classroom and laboratory equipment.

This year, special consideration was given to proposals that included one or more of the following:

• Installation of a prototype AWIPS II standalone EDEX server and CAVE client, coupled with the Unidata LDM, to test data ingest and display both locally, and using the CAVE thin client to connect to remote servers
• Implementation of or pilot projects with remotely-accessible storage systems for geoscience data (“cloud-based storage”)
• Implementation of or pilot projects with remote server-based data analysis or visualization systems (“cloud-based analysis”)

A Request for Proposals was sent out on January 15, 2014 with a March 14 submission deadline. A review panel met on April 1 at the Unidata Program Center to review the 13 proposals that were received. The Panel recommended that seven proposals be funded. The following six proposals were awarded grants:

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - “Linux Server in the Cloud” - Dr. Curtis N. James

Metropolitan State University of Denver - "Enriching Meteorological Education in Undergraduate Courses Using Real-Time, High Resolution Datasets at Metropolitan State University of Denver" - Dr. Sam Ng

Pennsylvania State University - “AWIPS II Prototype Testing Equipment for a Standalone Experimental EDEX/LDM/CAVE System for Penn State and Unidata” - Dr. Charles F. Pavloski

San Jose State University - “Acquisition of AWIPS II EDEX Server and CAVE Client in a Synoptic Weather and Analysis Classroom” - Dr. Sen Chiao

University of Iowa - "Improving Visualization and Access to Radar Data Using Unidata Tools for Flood Prediction and Mangement" - Dr. Ibrahim Demir

University of Missouri - "Increasing Access to AWIPS II in the Unidata Community and at the University of Missouri" - Dr. Patrick S. Market, Dr. Bohumil Svoma, Dr. Anthony R. Lupo, and Dr. Neil I. Fox

Congratulations to all of the recipients and a special thank you to the Review Panel and the NSF for making the Equipment Awards program possible.