About

This is Yichen Liu (刘Liú 亦yì 辰chén ). I am an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC), majoring in astrophysics and mathematics and minoring in physics, computer science, and chemistry. However, I spent my first three years at the University of Macau (UM).

At UM, I was a research assistant in Professor Hongchao LIU’s Research Group, focusing on single-pixel imaging and ghost imaging.

At UIUC, I am working in Professor Xin Liu’s research group. My work involves applying machine learning to sky surveys and the spectral analysis of active galactic nuclei (AGNs).

I am an amateur astrophotographer, and I took many pictures of the stars and nebulae. Check out my astrophotography here. I have my remote observatory built in Zhangjiakou, Hebei. It has a 10-inch telescope with a 4/3 format cooling CCD and monitoring devices such as an all-sky camera, and it can capture celestial objects in the B, V, R, I, and H-α, SII, and OIII wavebands. Compared with my hometown, Beijing, the isolation in the mountains provides a good location for astronomical observation. Through the Remote Desktop Service, I can capture the sky anywhere in the world. However, the human impact, for example, from the high-speed railway and the 2022 Winter Olympics, is bringing more and more light pollution. So, I am seeking a better location to rebuild this observatory.

This site’s root domain, “.fit” (or more commonly, “.fits”), is a well-known format of astronomical data. I often use AstroPy, Maxim DL, and Pixinsight 1.8 to work on photometry and astrophotography with those “.fit” files.

Education

  • Bachelor of Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Illinois, US), Aug 2022 – Present
    • Major in astrophysics and mathematics (4.00/4.00)
    • Minor in physics, computer science, and chemistry
    • Enrolled in the LAS Honor Program, Sep 2019 – Present
  • Undergraduate student, University of Macau (Macau, China), Aug 2019 – May 2022
    • Majored in Applied Physics and Chemistry
    • Enrolled in the Honours College, Aug 2019 – May. 2022
  • High School Diploma, High School Affiliated to Renmin University (Beijing, China), Sep. 2016 – Jul. 2019

Publications

  1. Grant Merz, Yichen Liu, Colin J. Burke, Patrick D. Aleo, Xin Liu, Matias Carrasco Kind, Volodymyr Kindratenko, Yufeng Liu, “Detection, Instance Segmentation, and Classi􀏐ication for Astronomical Surveys with Deep Learning (DeepDISC): Detectron2 Implementation and Demonstration with Hyper Suprime‑Cam Data,” MNRAS 526, 1122 (2023)
  2. Yichen Liu, Peixia Zheng, and Hong‑Chao Liu, “Anti‑loss‑compression image encryption based on computational ghost imaging using discrete cosine transform and orthogonal patterns,” Opt. Express 30, 14073 (2022)
  3. Peixia Zheng, Yichen Liu, and Hong‑Chao Liu, “Single‑pixel imaging and metasurface imaging,” Infrared and Laser Engineering 50, 20211058‑1 (2022)

Awards

  • AAS 243rd Meeting Travel Grants, Department of Astronomy, Oct 2023
  • NCSA SPIN Internship (Summer 2023 & Academic Year 23‑24), Aug 2023
  • University of Illinois Dean’s Honor List (2022‑2023), Jul 2023
  • Smart Star Sponsorship for studies at University of California, Berkeley, Jun 2022
  • University of Macau Dean’s Honour List (2020 and 2022), Aug 2022
  • Residential College Summer Programme Sponsorship for studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong university, May 2021
  • Third Prize, China Undergraduate Physics Tournament, Oct 2020
  • National Team Leader at the 2019 European Union Contest for Young Scientists, Sep 2019
  • University of Macau Full Scholarship (2019‑2021), Aug 2019
  • Bronze Medal, International Olympiad of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nov 2018
  • First Prize, China Adolescents’ Science and Technology Innovation Contest, Aug 2018
  • Second Prize, Deng Feng National Contest on Science and Innovation, Aug 2018
  • Second Prize, China National Astronomy Olympiad, May 2018

Last Updated on 10 months by Yichen Liu