Ashlyn was born and raised on the island of Oahu where she graduated from Kailua High School. She is currently pursing a dual major in Computer Science and Marketing, complemented with a minor in Mathematics at Aurora University (AU) in Aurora, Illinois. Ashlyn is passionate about exploring the diverse career paths in Computer Science and continuing her learning in the field through hands-on experience. She is a member of AU’s women’s soccer and track and field team. Outside of school and athletics, Ashlyn enjoys hanging out with friends, drawing, and going to the gym.
Home Island: O’ahu
High School: Kailua High School
InstitutionĀ when accepted: Aurora University
Project Site: University of California Observatories: UCO, Santa Cruz CA
Mentor: William Deich
Project Title:Ā Replacing Keckās WebKTL GUI Toolkit with a Modern Web Framework Integration
Project Abstract: The University of California Observatories (UCO) developed the Keck Task Library (KTL) keyword-value system for instruments built for use at Keck Observatory and Lick Observatory. KTL services are utilized to display nearly all live telemetry and transmit commands from clients to the control system. Furthermore, these services enable observers to interact with instrument systems using simple commands and to monitor instrument status through a graphical user interface (GUI). UCO engineering interfaces, which are essential during the several-year period during which an instrument is developed, tested, and initially deployed at Keck Observatory, have relied on WebKTL, a UCO-developed web-based interface for KTL services. WebKTLās user interface toolkit composes web pages directly in HTML, an unnecessarily tedious process in the modern era. To address these concerns, this project aims to provide custom React-based GUI components to work with KTL keywords, replacing low-level HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. By using React, users will be able to more efficiently create web-based interfaces due to the simple and user-friendly GUI design, enabling any member of an instrument-building team to also create their own GUIs. As an additional benefit, it will replace AJAX communications with the WebSocket standard, which will streamline server and client communication and replace polling with real-time messaging. Overall, this project enables both experts and non-experts to install and use a simpler version of Keckās complex infrastructure through component based GUI implementations and KTL keywords.