Liu Ryan midpoint visit pic

Ryan was born and raised on the Big Island in Hilo. He graduated from Hilo High School in 2018 and is currently studying at University of Hawaii at Hilo. Ryan is majoring in computer science, minoring in mathematics and pursuing a data science certificate. After graduating, he hopes to pursue a career with a focus in artificial intelligence. His hobbies include playing tennis, traveling and trying new foods.

Home Island: Big Island of Hawaii

High School: Hilo High School

Institution when accepted: University of Hawaii at Hilo

Akamai Project: Creating a System Status Monitoring Interface for Robo-AO 2

Project Site: Institute for Astronomy, Hilo

Mentors: James Ou and Christoph Baranec

Project Abstract:

The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) is currently developing Robo-AO 2, a next-generation robotic adaptive-optics instrument that will soon be deployed on the UH 88-inch telescope on Maunakea.  In order to support the development, testing, and operation of Robo-AO 2, we created a dynamic system-status monitoring website.  To provide real-time information, the dynamic website needs to provide continuous and reliable communication between the web server and browser.  Using Node.js as a runtime environment, we selected a server-side framework called Express and the Pug templating engine for the client side.  Socket.IO was used to enhance client-server connectivity by providing robust event-based communications.  Since Robo-AO 2 is still under development, one of the goals of the project was to design and implement a modular application that supports the addition of future components.  The result is a webpage that contains sections for each instrument component.  Each section provides real-time telemetry, plus camera imagery and/or analytic tools, depending on the component.