Maria Nikolaitchik, Dr. Tim Canty, and Katie Lehman installing the Van Munching weather station. 
Ava Puschnigg and Dr. Tim Canty doing maintenance on the Atlantic station. 
UMD Undergraduates and Dr. Timothy Canty pose for the second station deployment at the UMD Golf Course. 
Bennett Vitek prototyping new instruments in the lab. 
A view from the roof of the Atlantic building, where our first station is deployed (circled in red). 
UMD undergraduate Ethan Heidtman poses with the Golf Course Station. 
(Left to right) Logan Nocket, Dr. Timothy Canty, and Maria Nikolaitchik mount the A.V. Williams Station 
UMD undergraduates and Dr. Timothy Canty pose for our thirds station deployment.
Mesoterps is UMD’s very own campus environmental monitoring network, designed and run by students. We set up weather stations across College Park to collect real-time data on temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, and more. By putting stations on rooftops and in open spaces, we’re able to see how the weather changes across campus from one spot to another.
At its heart, Mesoterps is about learning through experience. Students don’t just read about weather instruments; we install them, program the Raspberry Pis that run them, and design the tools to share the data. Along the way, students gain real-world skills in coding, instrumentation, teamwork, and problem-solving.
The data is also used outside the classroom. UMD Facilities Management and the Office of Emergency Management rely on Mesoterps observations to monitor conditions on campus and support their daily operations. This makes the network both an educational tool and a practical resource for the university.
Our Hardware
Each Mesoterps station is a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station, equipped with sensors that measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and rainfall. The station connects to a Raspberry Pi computer running Weewx, an open-source software for weather-data collection.
We are currently planning to add particulate matter sensors, a CO2 sensor, and a black bulb globe thermometer to our network.
Our Team
Leadership
Dr. Tim Canty, Faculty Advisor
Katie Lehman, Project Manager
Ava Puschnigg, Web Development
Students
Olivia Griffith
Bennett Vitek
Jason Youm
Jake Kaufman
River Stanford
Jenna Strauch
The interactive station map and weather station webpages were developed by Malcolm Maas. The widget for NOAA weather alerts was developed by Jason Youm and Malcom Maas.
Funding
We’d like to thank the following organizations for providing funding for the project:
- The MADE CLEAR Partnership
- Brammer Technology
- The University of Maryland Department of Atmospheric Science
- UMD Sustainability Fund
Contact Information
If you are interested in learning more about UMD Mesoterps, please contact us at mesoterps@umd.edu.