Ari is from Honolulu, Hawai‘i. She graduated from Iolani School in 2024 and is currently pursuing a degree in Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Overall, she is interested in anything related to astronomy and geology. Outside of the classroom, Ari can be found making digital art, gathering trivia, playing the trumpet, or collecting fossils and rocks.
Home Island: O‘ahu
High School: Iolani School
Institution when accepted: UC Berkeley
Site: University of California Observatories, Santa Cruz, California
Mentor: Kyle Westfall
Project title: Testing the Viability of a Zonal Positioning System for the FOBOS Instrument
Project Abstract:
The Fiber-Optic Broadband Optical Spectrograph (FOBOS) is an instrument currently in development by UC Observatories for the Keck II telescope on Maunakea. FOBOS will deploy both single fibers and bundles of 37 fibers (Integral Field Units, or IFUs) fed by microlenses to simultaneously capture spectra for thousands of individual objects in the field. The FOBOS design currently uses the Starbug positioning system, though alternative positioning systems that prove more stable are being explored. For this project, we test a robotic zonal positioning system, which has only been tested using single fibers, not IFUs. Thus, it is crucial to conduct small-scale tests to determine if this system meets the instrument requirements before incorporating it into the instrument design. For these tests, we use the FOBOS demonstrator to simulate an input beam with the same properties as the Keck II telescope. System viability will be determined by comparing the optical performance of a prototype IFU with individual fibers by measuring its throughput and output beam shape. These measurements will be performed on individual fibers before integration into the IFU, after integration, and once more after mounting the IFU in a prototype zonal positioner on the FOBOS demonstrator. Preliminary results will be presented from pre-IFU integration tests. We will present similar measurements after assembling the IFU and after integration with the zonal positioner.