Context. Until recently, camera networks designed for monitoring fireballs worldwide were not fully automated, implying that in case of a meteorite fall, the recovery campaign was rarely immediate. This was an important limiting factor as the most fragile – hence precious – meteorites must be recovered rapidly to avoid their alteration. Aims. The Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON) scientific project was designed to overcome this limitation. This network comprises a fully automated camera and radio network deployed over a significant fraction of western Europe and a small fraction of Canada. As of today, it consists of 150 cameras and 25 European radio receivers and covers an area of about 1.5 × 106 km2. Methods. The FRIPON network, fully operational since 2018, has been monitoring meteoroid entries since 2016, thereby allowing the characterization of their dynamical and physical properties. In addition, the level of automation of the network makes it possible to trigger a meteorite recovery campaign only a few hours after it reaches the surface of the Earth. Recovery campaigns are only organized for meteorites with final masses estimated of at least 500 g, which is about one event per year in France. No recovery campaign is organized in the case of smaller final masses on the order of 50 to 100 g, which happens about three times a year; instead, the information is delivered to the local media so that it can reach the inhabitants living in the vicinity of the fall. Results. Nearly 4000 meteoroids have been detected so far and characterized by FRIPON. The distribution of their orbits appears to be bimodal, with a cometary population and a main belt population. Sporadic meteors amount to about 55% of all meteors. A first estimate of the absolute meteoroid flux (mag < –5; meteoroid size ≥~1 cm) amounts to 1250/yr/106 km2. This value is compatible with previous estimates. Finally, the first meteorite was recovered in Italy (Cavezzo, January 2020) thanks to the PRISMA network, a component of the FRIPON science project.

Abbas Diab is currently an undergraduate at University of Maryland Eastern Shore pursuing a degree in Engineering with a mechanical engineering specialization. During his senior undergraduate year, Mr. Diab along with a group of undergraduates, worked on several academic and research projects. He designed and built several ground, air, and water platforms for precision agriculture reasons. Currently he holds the position of chair of the ASME UMES chapter.

-Kolb's cycle of experiential learning is a well-known and effective model in education which outlines the process where knowledge is gained through transformative experiences. As students immerse themselves in an active learning framework; acquisition of knowledge results from the combination of participation, assimilation, comprehension and conceptualization of experiential processes in the affective, psychomotor and cognitive domains.In this paper we outline efforts to integrate Kolb's cycle within the framework of several engineering courses with particular emphases on instrumentation, basic circuits, and programming language courses while involving selected students from these courses to develop a microprocessor based environmental monitoring and data logging system (EMDLS). The data acquisition system developed will be integrated to an Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system and an autonomous boat currently under development at University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).In building the data acquisition system, the engineering students not only get exposure to a crossdisciplinary team of collaborating faculty members from engineering, environmental sciences and aviation programs at the university, but also work closely with graduate students involved in the primary research efforts. The undergraduate students have worked closely with the faculty and graduate students and have followed the system development procedure, where they proposed project objectives, identified design requirements, characterized system specifications, sourced all required components, and are currently involved in system fabrication. The final system is based on the Arduino MEGA and has the capability to measure eight environmental parameters including temperature, color, dissolved oxygen, oxidation reduction potential (ORP), pH, and nitrate levels. While anecdotal evidence can be readily observed from the student excitement and informal feedback, formal assessment tools for documenting learning outcomes are being developed to appraise student learning and will be utilized at the end of the current semester.

No abstract

A multidisciplinary team of students and faculty at University of Maryland Eastern Shore have been involved with making biodiesel from virgin and used cooking oils on campus. Biodiesel made with used cooking oil from campus dining services has been used for running farm equipment and a diesel generator to power a campus green-house and ongoing projects related to development of an Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system. The multidisciplinary team at UMES also partnered with Cornell and member universities of the National Bioenergy and Bioproducts Education Program (NBBEP) with support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As part of the NBBEP, the UMES team developed a kit that could be used in K-12 settings without access to elaborate chemistry laboratories to make biodiesel from virgin cooking oil. The school teachers who have used the biodiesel kits in the K-12 settings have indicated that integrating the biodiesel production activity with its utilization in a transportation related activity will make the activity even more appealing to the students and provide richer learning outcomes. This paper outlines the biodiesel kit development efforts, its utilization in K-16 outreach activities integrated with NBBEP and other ongoing K-12 outreach efforts at UMES. The recent efforts in utilizing a biodiesel blend (with heptane and castor oil) that have been reported to work with glow engines, to fly on a model remote controlled fixed wing airplane is also highlighted. The assessment framework and lesson plan for the biodiesel kit were suitably adapted based on the success of the trials, and incorporated in the K-12 outreach efforts at UMES in 2016 summer.