I have worked with Professor Eggl conducting research since the beginning of the Spring Semester of 2022. During my time with Professor Eggl, I have worked on two projects. The first project I worked on was with Professor Eggl's contacts at the University of Washington and is called Trailblazer. Trailblazer is an open data repository for astronomical images that have captured satellite streaks. I worked mainly in backend data upload processing. Users would upload photos in the form of Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files. Unfortunately, the organization of these FITS files and whether important data is present is entirely dependent on where the files originated from. I was tasked with writing code that would parse through the data present in the file, and upload the data to our database. You can visit the demo site for Trailblazer here. The second project I am currently working on is a satellite ephemeris generator. The main goal of this generator is to take orbital elements for satellites from NORAD and predict where these satellites would be in their orbit at a certain time. The purpose of this project is to tie in with Trailblazer, by being able to identify the satellites that appear in the pictures uploaded based on their position at the time the picture was taken. For this project, I am currently constructing an API to retrieve the orbital elements of satellites and creating a database to hold the information for the satellites. These projects are both Python based.
I worked with Professor Huy Tran in his research group during the Fall Semester of 2021. I began my work in his research group through a mentorship program offered by the university (AE 298), where I was assigned a graduate student mentor to work with on their research project. My mentor's research project was investigating the possibility of improving human-machine collaboration. Most of my initial work was reading publications related to our topic and to design an experiment to collect data. The experiment that we designed involved Human in the Loop Reinforcement Learning. Normally, this would require the user to explicitly give feedback on the system. However, this constant explicit feedback is taxing for the user. We decided to use implicit feedback instead. The implicit feedback from the user would be measured via an EEG headset measuring the brain activity of the user to find what we defined as Error Potentials (ErrP). Upon detection of these ErrP's, or lack thereof, a positive or negative reward would be awarded to the system's machine learning algorithm. While working on this project, I was tasked with developing software that would process the raw EEG data from the headset and detect our defined ErrP's for the use of the machine learning algorithm for our system.
Extracurricular Activities
I have been a member of the Illinois Space Society (ISS) since the beginning of my Sophomore Year. Since I have joined ISS, I have been a member of the Large Rocketry Team. Every year, the Large Rocketry Team submits a rocket to the annual Spaceport America Cup, which is an intercollegiate rocket competition. Our goal for the 2022 competition was to have our rocket reach the Kármán line, which few submissions have done in the past. The Large Rocketry Team has several subsections that focus on different parts of the rocket. I worked in the avionics sub-team, which focused on the electronics bay for our rocket, and I specifically focused on developing software for our electronics bay. While working as part of the avionics sub-team, we collaborated with other sub-teams, such as the controls team, to implement certain code. Some of the code I developed were linear algebra functions for the controls team and attitude control functions.
I pledged and initiated into Sigma Phi Delta's Delta Chapter at the University in the Spring Semester of 2022. Since being initiated, I have been voted in as one of four recruitment chairmen for the fraternity. As a recruitment chairman, I work to recruit new engineering students to join with the goal of furthering connections between engineering students on campus. We also work with the heads of recruitment for our sister sorority, Alpha Omega Epsilon, to plan joint recruitment events.
Jobs
I worked as a Resident Advisor for University Housing during my Sophomore Year, working in Allen Hall. As a Resident Advisor, my main purpose was to serve as a resource for about 60 incoming freshman and transfer students living at Allen Hall. For many of my residents, it was their first time living on their own, living with a roommate, or living in a new country. I was their first point of contact in this new environment for them as they began the next chapter of their lives. As a Resident Advisor, I also facilitated programs for my residents. These programs were meant to foster relationships between residents as well as incorporate the Illinois Residential Experience. While serving as a Resident Advisor, I facilitated iConversations (iConvo's) with my residents that followed the theme provided by the University. These iConvo's focused on welcoming students to the University, and addressing important topics to the University, such as mental health. These iConvo's were a way for me to check in with the residents, as well as create relationships with them. I also conducted routine nightly checks throughout the building for the safety of residents, staff, and others.
I have been working as a tutor since the beginning of my Freshman Year. I have been remotely tutoring students in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics. Most of the classes that I have taught are Calculus, Algebra, Geometry, Mechanics, and Python, but I have also taught some Linear Algebra and Java.