Kasey Matsumoto was born and raised on the Big Island. She studied in Computer Science at UH Hilo before later switching over to Hawaii Community College where she received her A.S. degree in IT this past spring. She loves a good story and in her free time she reads, watches TV shows, as well as plays RPGs. She also enjoys creating digital art and writing stories. One of her major goals is to create visual novels on her own using her art, writing, and scripting skills. She also plans to continue her education and receive a Bachelor’s degree.
Home Island: Big Island
Institution when accepted: Hawaii Community College
Akamai Project: Recording and Retrieving Outreach Statistics through a Web Application and Database
Project Site: W. M. Keck Observatory – Waimea, Hawai’i Island HI
Mentors: Matthew Brown & Shelly Pelfrey
Project Abstract:
The W. M. Keck Observatory Outreach Committee attends public events and invites the public into its Waimea Headquarters to educate the community on Astronomy and STEM disciplines. Various topics and activities such as science talks, hands-on demonstrations, and telescope viewing are provided to small and large groups year round. Information on each event is tracked so that they can be used to help find donors as well as verify that effort is being reported appropriately. Originally, outreach information was tracked through a web application and backend database. The old web application was deemed hard to use as various forms needed to be filled out and it requested inessential information. It also displayed information inefficiently by viewing all events or viewing them by their event status like denied, cancelled, or approved. The Outreach Committee had been temporarily recording information into a spreadsheet but a more efficient solution was necessary. As a database can increase data retrieval efficiency, my task was to create a new web application and backend database that makes recording and retrieving information easier. Instead of filling out multiple forms, outreach event information is entered and updated through a single webform and submitted to be recorded into the backend database. As opposed to viewing information by their event status, outreach event information is displayed based on various categories such as the events requested by a specific organization or the events within a date range. Calculated reports relating to the categories are also displayed on the web page such as the total number of events or participants. HTML and JavaScript, which are client-side scripts, are used to control how the application is presented while PHP, a server-side script, is used to store and retrieve information from the MongoDB database. With this new system, the Outreach Committee will have an easier time recording and updating event information as well as retrieving useful reports.