The first brownbag for the fall 2019 semester was held in March 7, 2019. There were a lot of updates from all corners, and the meeting took place for about an hour and a half. For the context of the project, it was an extremely busy schedule for the engineering modelling team, as they had to finish all model simulations to get the seasonal forecast ready in time.

The meeting first heard from the undergraduate participants, on their invaluable experiences from the Ethiopia summer field visit. For all the undergraduate students, it was their first visit to a new continent! It was decided that they will submit a reflection report based on their visit. Also, interested undergraduate students would be provided with the opportunity to continue research within the NSF PIRE project.

There were discussions on the individual research updates. Genevieve Rigler, an undergraduate student from UConn recently attended a conference in the University of Oklahoma and presented a poster on the PIRE Citizen Science project. Xinyu Lin, another undergraduate student who is committed to doing her thesis with the PIRE project will also continue her research for the next two semesters.

The graduate student team discussed in very detail about the development of the dry season Forecast Bulletin. The social science team from Ethiopia remotely connected for the meeting and provided valuable updates on the feedback they received from the initial forecast dissemination. A few updates to the existing draft bulletin was discussed and accepted. The engineering team talked about their model findings in very brief. Overall it was decided that in the next Brownbag they will continue discussions on inter-disciplinary research, agent based modelling techniques, and on ideas of how to improve the forecast bulletins from now on.

The second brownbag for the spring semester was held in March 7, 2019. Like the previous summer brownbag, this one also experienced less participation. Almost all the social science graduate students were away in Ethiopia for their data collection. 

In this Brownbag, the participation of the undergraduate students was highlighted. As the NSF PIRE project gave the opportunity to a total number of 9 undergraduate students to perform pilot research projects within the scope of the PIRE Water and Food Security Project, they took the time to discuss about their specific plans. The engineering graduate students who were present in the Brownbag discussed with the undergraduates on the feasibility aspects of their research plans. 

The graduate students also discussed about their specific plans for the field visits, with emphasis on the summer school activities and model results. In short, the specific actions performed in the Brownbag was,

• Discussing with UConn undergraduate students regarding their research plans.
• Sharing research ideas and providing a brief understanding on the project goals.
• Discussing engineering model results, social survey feedbacks from field, etc.
• Detailed plan on Summer 2019 field visits and expectations.
• Demonstration of the summer school activities to be held in the Summer of 2019

The first brownbag for the spring semester was held in February 21, 2019. The meeting experienced less participation than usual, since most of the social science researchers were already away in Ethiopia for their data collection. One of the changes in the Brownbag was the inclusion of a broad number of undergraduate students. For the spring 2019 semester, the participation of the undergraduate students was emphasized. The NSF PIRE project gave the opportunity to a total number of 9 undergraduate students to perform pilot research projects within the scope of the PIRE Water and Food Security Project. The Spring semester Brownbag was structured in a way that it helps the undergraduates with their research plan, field visit preparation, etc. The Brownbag is an excellent platform where students from all disciplines and all tiers get the opportunity to interact, talk with themselves and hence allow a greater exchange of knowledge and information.
The specific actions performed in the Brownbag was,

• Introducing the UConn undergraduate students and hearing out from them on their
  research proposals.
• Sharing research ideas and providing a brief understanding on the project goals.
• Brief plan on summer 2019 field visits and expectations.