Examining Rock Coatings with LIBS Spectral and Acoustic Data
Done under Dr Nina Lanza, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Purpose: Analyze spectral data collected from the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument and acoustic data collected by the SuperCam microphone on the Mars Perseverance Rover with the following goals:
- Validate the hypothesis that the acoustic data from the SuperCam microphone can detect the transition between the rock coating and the bedrock even when their compositions are similar.
- Figure out the relationships: peak intensity vs. shot (spectral data) and microphone amplitude vs. shot (acoustic data) using data collected from laser shot being fired at a rock, called N6B.
- Programming language: Python
- Learnings:
- I enjoyed learning about the process with which data is collected on Mars and how the instruments work.
- I enhanced my data analysis skills, and learned how to combine two pieces of data that were collected by two different instruments and given in separate formats in order to figure out a relationship between them.
- Highlights:
- I created a formal research poster and presented it to many people at Los Alamos National Laboratory final project review.
Mixing Timescales on Icy Moons
Done under John Marshall, Massachusetts Information of Technology
- Purpose: Did a research project on analyzing data from the ocean currents of generic icy moons with the following goals:
- Figure out the influence of factors such as the rotation of the moon and ocean depth on these currents.
- Figure out the relationship between key parameters that are believed to influence transit times of nano-sized silica particles from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the ocean.
- Programming language: Python
- Learnings:
- This helped me develop essential research skills such as collaboration, analyzing a large amount of data, and breaking a big goal into small steps.
- Learn the basics of rotational fluid mechanics
- Enhance my computational modeling skills.
- Highlights:
- My name is going to be listed as a second author of the research paper written by Suyash Bire, a PhD student I worked closely with during this project.
Photobleaching Effects of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) in Diverse Water Bodies
Done under Dr Cedric Fichot and Xiaohui Zhu, Boston University
- Purpose: Understand the kinetics of how CDOM light absorption properties change when exposed to natural sunlight (a process called photobleaching). Two specific goals here are:
- Get the instantaneous C-PEM via curve fitting in the C-PEM, and
- Extract the primary characteristic of C-PEM via clustering of the C-PEM pixels.
- Software Used: Google Collaboratory, Python Programming including Python Machine Learning libraries
- Research Paper