Liam was born and raised in Wailuku, Maui. Currently, he attends Arizona State University, where he is studying Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Energy and the Environment. He is heavily involved with the Society of Engineers at school, serving in club leadership and participating in competitions and conferences at a national level. In his free time, Liam enjoys hiking and skateboarding.
Home Island: Maui
High School:
Institution when accepted: Arizona State University
Akamai Project: Improving Vibration Data-Collection and Analysis Processes at DKIST
Project Site: Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, Pukalani, HI
Mentors: Brialyn Onodera & Sebastien Poupar
Project Abstract:
Telescopes are extremely sensitive instruments that require a high degree of positional precision in order to form high-resolution images. Thus, vibrations, both from internal and external sources, are often a major source of telescope image degradation and greatly affect the quality of outputted data. At the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), the opto-mechanical group utilizes a rigorous tracking and analysis process to detect and minimize sources of vibration. However, within the current system, vibration is primarily measured at fixed accelerometer sites, and the general scripts lack a degree of intuitivity that prevents DKIST staff outside of the engineering group from accessing and digesting the accelerometer data. In order to support the scientists and engineers who use the data collected by the telescope, the current MATLAB routines have been improved for broader data collection and comparison, and the processes and results are standardized to create a more user-friendly and accessible database. Furthermore, a MATLAB routine to incorporate PicoScope acceleration readings into the current data analysis process has been developed, and the newly assimilated PicoScope will be used to troubleshoot various sources of vibration within the telescope, functioning as a mobile accelerometer. Overall, we accomplished our goals to streamline both the data collection and analysis process for sources of vibration and to integrate a portable method of data collection via the PicoScope, ultimately improving the opto-mechanical team’s ability to diagnose and treat problematic sources of vibration.