The Cooperative Institute for Climate & Satellites-Maryland (CICS-MD) hosted its fifth annual science meeting this month in College Park. The three-day event featured presentations and discussions regarding CICS research and science initiatives, with topics ranging from snowfall rates to lightning mapping.
Representatives from various CICS partner organizations also participated in the meeting and shared updates on their research and programming.
Cooperative Remote Sensing Science & Technology Center (CREST) assistant director Shakila Mechant, based at the City College of New York, emphasized ways in which her center collaborates with and empowers students.
“We have been able to impact more than 700 students,” Mechant said. “77 percent of these were from underserved and underrepresented minority communities.”
CICS, now in its eighth year, is a research institute which supports NOAA efforts. The University of Maryland (UMD) Earth System Science Interdisciplinary (ESSIC) administers CICS.
The institute is highly valued by UMD, CICS executive director and ESSIC interim director Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm stated in his opening remarks. Efforts to renew the cooperative agreement with NOAA are expected to take place during the coming year, as the institute itself nears its tenth year of operations.
“Cooperative institutes…have unlimited growth potential,” Miralles-Wilhelm said. “There’s really nothing stopping us from growing.”
