Nathan Getchel

Student

BA Physics student with minors in Astrophysics and Information & Computer Sciences, expected to graduate in Spring 2025. Interests in N-body simulations, data science, planetary science, and exoplanet detection. Experience with troubleshooting and problem solving across a range of technologies (programming, electronic systems, communications systems, personal computers).

Interests: N-body Simulations, Planet Formation, Exoplanet Detection, Planetary Science, Early Universe Cosmology, Data Science

Projects

Simulating the formation of the Earth-Venus system to understand the differences and similarities between the two planets 2024-08-31

I analyzed computer simulations of the early Solar System to investigate the history of the planet Venus. I concluded that Venus likely retained a significant amount of water on its surface in the past which evaporated during a runaway greenhouse effect.

Astronomy Planetary science N-body simulation Python Planet formation Venus

RIO Connect 2023-05-02

My team and I created a web application for students to connect with clubs on campus at UH Manoa.

Web Development Meteor React MongoDB JavaScript Software Engineering

Deriving Properties of the Pleiades 2023-02-02

I determined the properties of the Pleiades star cluster from raw data.

Astronomy Gaia Space Telescope Python Pleiades

Exoplanet Detection 2022-10-07

I calculated the radius of a transiting exoplanet based on the observed light curve of its parent star.

Astronomy Exoplanets Python

See all 5 projects

Essays

What is the Purpose of Software Engineering?

08 May 2023

The Big Picture: What is the purpose of software engineering? Why do we do what we do? Beyond needing to pay the bills, a developer should want to create software that helps people. The specifics of what exactly this means...

Software Engineering Ethics Open Source Software

Planning Cities (and Software)

27 Apr 2023

City Planning Suppose you are designing a city from the ground up. You would have to do quite a lot of planning before you could even begin construction. Maybe you the think the roads should be built first. But wait,...

Design Patterns Software Engineering

Final Project Idea

29 Mar 2023

Overview People who play board games know how hard it can be to find a group that consistently meets on time and stays together. Scheduling issues, flakey group members, and lack of communication are like a plague. Imagine if there...

Software Engineering Meteor

Basic UI Design

23 Feb 2023

Raw HTML HTML alone can be a mess to try and make a webpage with. It’s clunky and unintuitive, and there’s a good chance that any page you design will look like it belongs in the early days of the...

Software Engineering Learning

Benefits of Coding Standards

09 Feb 2023

Intro to ESLint IntelliJ with the ESLint standard has proved to be effective, if somewhat nitpicky. Having style errors show up as big scary red checkmarks immediately makes me think that there is some syntax error that will prevent the...

ESLint IntelliJ

Better Questions Yield Better Answers

26 Jan 2023

Where can we go to ask questions? Stack Overflow is primarily a Q&A website for developers to ask questions and seek input from other developers about problems in their code. But are all questions created equal? Depending on how a...

Questions Answers StackOverflow

See all 7 essays