Research
Astronomical instrumentation, optical engineering & adaptive optics
Research Interests
I am interested in astronomical instrumentation and optical engineering/sciences, with a focus on adaptive optics.
Publications
Umiamaka, T.M., Barnes, J.E., “Effects of Halo Anisotropy in Simulated Mergers of Disc Galaxies.” In preparation for submission to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Rebuilding the Calibration Setup Process for a High-order Deformable Mirror
June 2024 – August 2024 · Akamai Internship, W.M. Keck Observatory · Mentored by Dr. Charlotte Guthery
- Ported the adaptive optics calibration setup scripts from IDL to Python using agile programming methods.
- Wrote detailed RST/Sphinx documentation for the new calibration setup software.
- Delivered a presentation to adaptive optics collaborators at the W.M. Keck Observatory and at the Akamai Internship Symposium.
Effects of Halo Anisotropy in Simulated Mergers of Disc Galaxies
June 2023 – Present · University of Hawai'i at Mānoa & The Institute for Astronomy · Mentored by Dr. Joshua Barnes
- Ran self-consistent N-body simulations of disc galaxy mergers.
- Extracted the trajectories and tidal fractions of merging galaxies over time.
- Wrote a final research paper on the findings; publication pending.
Machine Learning to Discover First Supernovae with the James Webb Space Telescope
June 2021 – May 2024 · University of Hawai'i at Mānoa · Mentored by Dr. David Rubin
- Used mock data from the Vela Cosmological Simulations database to build a training dataset of images with randomly placed supernovae.
- Trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect Type Ia supernovae in mock images of galaxies and JWST data.
- Presented the CNN's initial performance on mock data at the UHM Undergraduate Showcase.