Nov. 15, 2007

Mark Brooks, Environmental Meteorologist with the State Climate Office, is among the seventeen campus and extension faculty and staff at North Carolina State University that received 2007-08 University Extension, Engagement and Economic Development Grants. The University Standing Committee on Extension, Engagement and Economic Development awarded a total of $169,666 in seed funds to assist NC State personnel in developing strategies that address critical issues facing North Carolinians.

The principal investigators and their projects represent nine of NC State's 10 colleges as well as N.C. Sea Grant and NC State's athletics department. Their proposed efforts will engage students, community partners and experts at NC State and other institutions in addressing critical issues such as affordable housing, small business development, educating farmers about herbicide resistance in invasive plants, health education in minority populations, and nonprofit advocacy.

"These projects represent the diversity of ways NC State faculty reach out to audiences throughout the state," said Dr. James Zuiches, vice chancellor of extension, engagement and economic development, "and we expect many of these innovative pilot efforts to grow as a result of future external funding."

Brooks’ project is titled “Development and Implementation of a Text Messaging Service to enable Greater Distribution of Timely Weather Information to the People of North Carolina.” The State Climate Office of North Carolina (SCO) works closely with research and extension scientists to develop agricultural decision support tools. Data for these tools comes from the NC CRONOS Database, a digital database of high-resolution surface weather observations. Data and decision support tools are currently disseminated via the web, email, and telephone interaction with citizens, however, many rural North Carolina citizens do not have Internet access and could benefit from the climate data services provided by the SCO. This seed grant will support the development of a text messaging service that will enable anyone with a text messaging capable mobile phone to interface with CRONOS and existing agricultural decision support tools. Additional information about all 17 funded projects can be found at NC State's Extension, Engagement and Economic Development Web site or NC State News.

As development progresses, updates will be posted here. We are excited to be able to soon offer this new service to researchers, growers, county extension agents, and all others who may find it useful. We expect to be able to launch the CRONOS Smart Search by Summer, 2008.