undergraduate research

Attending AMS 2015 in Phoenix

MESAS students Warren Pettee and Thomas Winesett and I will be attending AMS 2015 (#AMS2015), along with many others from UNC Charlotte. I heard the count was about 8 undergraduate students from the Meteorology Program. Professor Casey Davenport and I will be the faculty representation at AMS – she and I make up 50% of our Meteorology faculty! Dr Davenport and I are also going to be a the AMS Career Fair with a big green UNC Charlotte table. We’ll be talking to anyone interested in learning more about the graduate and undergraduate programs in Atmospheric Sciences, Geology, Earth Sciences, and Geography at UNC Charlotte. Should be fun! Especially if we put out Andes mints.

For presentations, check my publications page for PDFs of the posters, but here is the summary with some images.

Thomas is presenting his poster twice, once at the AMS 14th Student Conference, and once at the AMS 7th Conference on the Meteorological Applications of Lightning Data (MALD) on Monday.

Thomas's AMS 2015 poster

Thomas’s AMS 2015 poster (co-authors are myself and Dr Dan Cecil, NASA MSFC)

Warren is presenting research about his version of WRF and how it performs for the February 2014 Snow Event in Charlotte at the Student Conference.

Warren's AMS 2015 poster (co-authors are myself and Professor Matt Eastin)

Warren’s AMS 2015 poster (co-authors are myself and Professor Matt Eastin)

I am presenting my paper, recently accepted for publication in JTECH, at the 20th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography on Monday.

My AMS 2015 poster for the 20th SatMet conference.  Based on a paper that will be published at JTECH

My AMS 2015 poster for the 20th SatMet conference. Based on a paper that will be published at JTECH

Undergraduate students scouring internet for global warming articles

UNC Charlotte undergraduate research

Categories: Group News

The Meteorology Program here at UNC Charlotte is embedded in the Geography and Earth Sciences Department. We have solid core of undergraduate Meteorology BSc majors and coursework in the major is mostly supported by 4 faculty – Dr Adams, Dr Eastin, Mr Shirley, and myself. What has impressed me since I joined the faculty has been how often undergraduates are involved in research and independent study as they prepare for life after college.

I’ve been working with an undergraduate Meteorology major named Daniel Cunningham since July 2012 on a project about global lightning distributions – which is related to my fire research. Daniel has been working hard to keep up with coursework and the research project all year, and his efforts culminated in a nice finish in his senior year. He won 1st place for departmental research projects at the UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Conference! Here’s the department announcement. Daniel presented a poster called “Extending the Time Series of Satellite-Based Lightning Observations” – here’s a key figure he made with Panoply explaining what he did.

Global lightning map before D. Cunningham's research (top) and after (bottom).  Northern latitudes were completely missing before his project started.  Evaluation of the results are the next step.

Global lightning map before D. Cunningham’s research (top) and after (bottom). Northern latitudes were completely missing before his project started. Evaluation of the results are the next step.

This research has helped in many ways. Daniel was accepted into the University of Alabama Huntsville Atmospheric Sciences graduate program starting Fall 2013, he has picked up programming skills (Matlab), learned about statistical models of physical phenomena, learned how to mathematically explore large data set, how to make figures, and finally how to put together a prize-winning poster. Here is the UNC Charlotte announcement. Undergraduate research is how I got started on my long path to the faculty position here at UNC Charlotte. Perhaps not coincidentally, that undergraduate research was about lightning – I’ve returned to my roots.

Congratulations to Daniel. Also, on the theme of undergraduate research, three of our meteorology majors in total walked away with top awards. Brandy Stimac works with Dr Adams and Dr Eastin. Ricky Huff works with Dr Adams. Undergraduate research is strong in the Meteorology program! I’m looking forward to seeing graduation this year. I think the class size is about 10 students, and about 5 will go to graduate school, and 1 will be working to be a K-12 science teacher. Again, good numbers to see!

Charlotte Research Scholars 2013

Cross-posted from a campus-wide announcement. I participated as a CRS mentor in Summer 2012 and have volunteered to participate again this summer. Please let me know if you’re interested in working on a project – this is a great chance to get paid to do research and learn valuable skills. Apply now – it’s not a committment and it’s certainly NOT a guarantee that you’ll even get the funding. 60 applicants will be selected from a pool that I would guess would be about 200 students. Maybe more. Application is here and is due by 5:00 pm on Feb 25.

……………….START ANNOUNCEMENT……………………….

Attention rising seniors, you can now apply for the 2013 Charlotte Research Scholars summer program.

The Charlotte Research Scholars (CRS) program is sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, Graduate School, and Charlotte Research Institute. It will provide 60 UNC Charlotte undergraduate students funding to participate in a 10-week research program. Scholars receive one-on-one, faculty-guided research training, and participate in weekly professional development sessions to better prepare them for graduate school and a future research career. The program culminates in the Summer Research Symposium, held on August 1st in the Student Union. Additional details are below.

Application deadline: 5:00 pm on February 25, 2013
Program length: May 28 to August 3 (10 weeks)
Eligibility: Undergraduates with a minimum GPA of 2.8 and between 50 and 110 credit hours by spring 2013
Compensation: Scholars will receive a $4,000 fellowship
Application: Apply here

Frequently Asked Questions:
How much time are scholars expected to commit to their research project?
Scholars are expected to work full-time for the entire 10-weeks. They will spend approximately 3-4 hrs/week away from the project in order to participate in professional development activities.
How will the scholars be selected?
The CRS steering committee will attempt to match the most qualified students with research projects that are of interest to them. To facilitate this matching, students will include a ranking of their preferred project choices in their application. If a match is identified, the faculty member will be contacted to see if there is interest in the applicant. In addition, feel free to indicate any preferences for particular students that you might have in the text of your email (not the submission form).
Whom do I contact if I have additional questions?
Dennis Livesay, Associate Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics (drlivesa@uncc.edu).