Maui Economic Development Board, Inc.

AMOS Conference Update: technical papers available online

February 17th, 2010 · AMOS, Technology

There’s a status report on the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) and studies analyzing factors and consequences of the February 2009 collision of the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 satellites.

A team with the Air Force Research Laboratory outlines research strategies for space systems that expand capabilities for national security. Other research groups expand on projects for image optimization, photon capture and optical modeling. A team with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency discusses light patterns in analyzing the condition of nonfunctioning satellites and space debris.

Those reports and dozens more presented at the 2009 AMOS Technologies Conference held in September will be, for the first time, accessible online along with abstracts and conference program information.

“The conference is providing access to the papers as a service to the technical community and to enhance communications among the scientists and researchers involved in these fields,” said Sandy Ryan, AMOS Conference Program Director with Maui Economic Development Board.

“At the same time, these reports can provide insights to science writers and the public on the technology and research being conducted in areas that are of general interest – such as the ability of Pan-STARRS to characterize Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects.”

The AMOS – Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies – Conference, presented by the Maui Economic Development Board, was conceived by the Maui branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory in 1999 as a way for researchers involved in space surveillance, optical systems development and imaging enhancement to share information on their work and develop collaborative partnerships.

It has become a premier international conference on space situational awareness and imaging technology, drawing more 640 participants last year to the 10th annual conference on Maui. The 11th annual conference is scheduled for September 14 to 17.

With the growth in interest, the AMOS Conference is providing online access to proceedings of conferences held since 2006. Papers from prior conferences also can be purchased on CD.

While many of the papers are narrowly focused on technical elements and incremental research developments, there also are presentations on projects of general public interest such as the analyses of the satellite collision that was the subject of international attention when it occurred, or the development of Pan-STARRS for tracking asteroids that could collide with Earth.

Pan-STARRS (PS-1) is a prototype telescope installed at the Haleakala summit to locate and identify asteroids and comets that may approach Earth, developed by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. It includes the world’s largest digital camera, a 1.4 gigapixel imaging system, as part of a project designed to have four separate 1.8-meter optical systems surveying and mapping large swaths of the sky.

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In Business on Moloka’i

February 16th, 2010 · Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Molokai

Entrepreneurship promotes economic diversity in face of setbacks

When the owners of Moloka’i Ranch shut down their operations, unable to win land use entitlements they were seeking, it was only the most obvious setback to the Friendly Isle’s economy over the past two years.

With tourism traffic impacted by the weakened national economy and the closing of Aloha Airlines and ATA, small businesses on Moloka’i that relied on the trickle of visitors to the island also shut down. At the same time, costs increased — for electricity because of rising fuel prices and for water and wastewater services provided by Moloka’i Ranch utilities.

But the Moloka’i community is displaying a resilience that defies any perception that the island’s residents are divided, uncooperative and uninterested in bolstering their economic future. A Maui Economic Development Board study, “Entrepreneurship and the Future of Moloka’i,” finds that the setbacks in efforts to establish a commercial tourism and real estate base have allowed the community to diversify its economic options.

While the diversified businesses are struggling with high costs and soft markets, there is a confidence that the community can collaborate on development that meets the community’s needs and respects the community’s concerns.

“Entrepreneurship and the Future of Moloka’i” was drafted by MEDB researcher John Harrisson with the assistance of the Moloka’i Chamber of Commerce and support from the County of Maui. It involved interviews with 83 Moloka’i business owners, managers and entrepreneurs to establish the level of economic activity on the island and to gather data on key issues of community attitudes and obstacles to economic development.

The report can be found at www.medb.org and through the Maui County Office of Economic Development.

“The data, opinions and insights gathered will provide a framework for building on the economic base in place on Moloka’i with businesses and opportunities that generate community consensus,” said Jeanne Unemori Skog, MEDB president and chief executive officer.

The study identifies major obstacles to business development on the island — high cost of electricity, shipping costs and untimeliness of barge arrivals, cost of fuel, limited air traffic and high ticket prices for visitors to the island.

But the entrepreneurship report also finds that the Moloka’i community sees opportunities in the obstacles.

Agriculture is still seen as a potential economic resource, but given the costs for shipping products to markets, the focus is on specialty products that fill niche markets rather than lower-value commercial crops like pineapple or potatoes.

Opportunities are seen in products such as organic papaya or native Hawaiian plants, or specialty processed products such as taro chips or dried fruits. The entrepreneurship study notes several successful farming operations, including biotech seed companies as well as Moloka’i Plumeria, a family-size farm that markets fresh flowers on the Mainland.

Obstacles to visitors seeking to go to Moloka’i also can be a plus, by fulfilling one of the key concerns for Moloka’i residents — that tourism satisfy the needs of the community as well as the interests of the visitor. The 100-visitor-a-day limit on visitor traffic to Kalaupapa is cited as an example of a desirable way to limit visitor impact.

Conversely, the community also saw a need for Maui County and State government agencies to be more responsive to their needs, with the survey of entrepreneurs finding “a strong consensus. . . that overall the County exerts a dampening effect on business activity.” The criticism focuses on permitting for new facilities.

“My administration recognizes there are legitimate concerns in the business community over delays in processing permits,” Mayor Charmaine Tavares said. “My directors have already made changes to streamline the process and have been directed to take further steps to implement needed changes and establish standards to make the administrative processes more efficient and effective for all of the county’s businesses.

“As the entrepreneurship survey found, there were steps taken to improve services on Moloka’i with a new staff person to handle permitting assigned to Moloka’i last year.”

Maui County Council Chairman Danny Mateo, who holds the Moloka’i Council seat, said the report points to deficiencies in government efforts to foster appropriate economic growth on Moloka’i while it provides direction on steps that need to be taken in areas such as better air transportation options and more responsive government services.

“This is an important starting point for Maui County and the State in responding to the Moloka’i community’s goals of economic development that meets the community’s needs and preferences, as opposed to the needs and interests of offshore investors who are not part of the Moloka’i community,” Mateo said.

“We appreciate Mayor Tavares’ comments that she understands the community’s concerns over county permit processing. We expect the administration will support County Council efforts to authorize personnel and establish criteria for providing county services more efficiently.”

The study notes dissatisfaction with what survey respondents saw as inadequate educational offerings in the public schools and at the Moloka’i Education Center of Maui Community College.

Appeals for more educational programs and training in science, technology, engineering and math fields validate MEDB efforts to promote STEM education in schools on Molokai and throughout Maui County, Skog said. In just one area of STEM education, MEDB’s Women in Technology program and Ke Alahele Education Fund supported Molokai’s FIRST LEGO League teams that were recognized for their achievements at the Hawaii State Tournament held Dec. 19 on Oahu.

Comments from the Moloka’i business community also suggest government agencies are seen more often offering handouts rather than a hand up.

“An observation offered by some respondents during the survey process was that while some degree of government support was helpful, the history of government assistance on Molokai can act as a disincentive, and that receiving entitlements on an extended or ongoing basis can inhibit motivation to pursue entrepreneurial activities,” the study says.

“The Maui Economic Development Board, through the Focus Maui Nui program, initiated efforts to engage the Moloka’i community in planning its future,” Skog said. “MEDB will continue to work with Maui County and the State to support the community’s efforts to overcome challenges to entrepreneurship and develop new business opportunities that the community identifies as what it wants and needs.”

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Engineering Education

February 5th, 2010 · Education, STEM, Technology

WIT-supported middle-school program has students excited over STEM

2nd place pasta bridge winners from Maui Waena Justine Hoylman, Kayzel Rose Tabangcura, Rose Vakalahi, and Justin Collado (hidden) prepare their pasta bridge for competition.

One goal is to engage their middle-school students in technology, engineering, design and mathematics. Another is to get them involved with students from other schools, not just as competitors but as peers.

Meeting those goals and seeing their 7th- and 8th-graders excited about what they can accomplish just makes it more satisfying for the teachers involved.

Kalama Intermediate science teacher Maggie Prevenas said she hopes the teachers and Maui Economic Development Board can build on the pilot “Engineering in the Middle” project.

Supported by MEDB’s Women in Technology with funding from Maui County and the U.S. Department of Education, it’s a Maui-based version of the Junior Engineering Expo held annually on Oahu by the University of Hawaii College of Engineering.

The concept of an educational development competition in engineering for middle-school students was developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, with engineering professionals and students assisting.

At the University of Hawaii-Manoa, the statewide Expo has teams of middle-school students designing and building structures such as toothpick and popsicle stick bridges that are judged on design and weight-bearing capability. Professional engineers and UH engineering student clubs assist teachers in instructing student teams on elements of structural design.

In past years, Women in Technology funding has supported students from Iao Intermediate, Kalama Intermediate and Lanai High & Elementary School to compete in the Honolulu Expo. But Prevenas said the cost of travel to Oahu limits participation by Maui District schools.

“The engineering symposium put on by the University of Hawaii provided organizations and engineering clubs that were really helpful and provided meaningful experience for the kids,” she said.

“But not every school in the Maui District could afford to participate. When you have funds for schools being cut and the cost of travel is going up, it is only going to be more difficult. So we thought we might be able to create a program here on Maui.”

Engineer & judge, Daron Nishimoto from PDS Technologies, inspects the construction of Kalama School’s Coleson Costales’ (1st place winner) toothpick bridge. Advisor, Maggie Prevenas is pictured on the right looking on.

Supported by MEDB’s Women in Techology program, Prevenas said science teachers from Kalama, Maui Waena and Iao schools put together Engineering in the Middle, with Women in Technology providing the materials, instructions and hosting a competition Jan. 29 at the Donald Malcolm Center.

“Women in Technology will continue working with these science teachers in promoting STEM education projects in their classrooms and in their schools,” Program Director Leslie Wilkins said. “Their ability to set up and implement the Engineering in the Middle pilot project in such a short time is a testament to their commitment and enthusiasm as professionals. Our dedicated teachers are the most valuable community resource that Women in Technology has/and will continue to encourage and support as an essential component of the MEDB mission of strengthening the STEM education base in Hawaii.”

At Kalama, Prevenas teams with Davilla Riddle to recruit their students for the project. Science teacher Holly Stockwell set up an Engineering Club at Iao Intermediate as an after-school project for students to participate. Teachers Kelly Cole and Vanessa Cannon organized teams at Maui Waena Intermediate.

Stockwell explained that the Maui District science teachers are acquainted through professional development classes and began to discuss among themselves options they had for promoting science, technology, engineering and math education in their classrooms.

Participation in the extracurricular program is entirely voluntary for the students who spent time during lunch breaks and after school to work on their projects for the Engineering in the Middle Extravaganza. The program involved three design events — a popsicle stick bridge or a toothpick bridge, which were built at school and transported to the competition, and a spaghetti-marshmallow device constructed at the competition to be tested for weight-bearing capacity.

During lunch, the students were introduced to a panel of local engineers who shared how they got their start and why engineering could be for them. These professionals represented various areas of engineering like civil, environmental, renewable energy, physics, and mechanical.

(L-R) EIM Advisors, Holly Stockwell (Iao) and Maggie Prevenas (Kalama). Background, students prepare their bridges for competition.

Kalama 8th-grader Ethan Finberg said he was encouraged to participate by his teacher and parents, but finally became involved only a few weeks ago in designing and building a stick bridge and designing his spaghetti-marshmallow structure.

“I wasn’t prepared or anything so I was working on it for a whole week and in the middle, I changed my mind on the design,” he said. “All I learned the whole week is that triangles are the strongest shape.”

He said he likes to design things but preparing for the competition mostly was fun.

“My parents think I should go into architecture. This week, I just had fun building things,” he said.

A 7th-grade team from Iao Intermediate, Temoani Keahi and Amanda Barr, appeared to take the competition a little more seriously as they carefully constructed their spaghetti structure.

Keahi took the lead on design, although she said, “We put in different ideas and tried them out. We had fun trying different things.”

“I like to build things,” Barr said.

Neither was prepared to declare their future as engineers, but that’s okay, a goal of the program is to build awareness that STEM careers are among many future options.

“If we can excite the kids to get into engineering, that’s great,” Prevenas said.

But she said that’s not the only purpose for the teachers who volunteer their time to provide their students an opportunity to explore design and engineering ideas outside of the classroom.

“It gets them to develop creative problem-solving skills. It’s teaching them constantly to bend the rules and engage in innovative thinking,” she said.

Iao School’s Stockwell said she sees significant growth among the dozen students in her Engineering Club.

“They’re learning a lot of problem-solving skills. They’re learning to work together, how to cooperate, teamwork. They’re testing the materials and learning about differences in materials.

”It’s getting them more involved in school,” she said.

Cole said her students met during breaks in the school day to design and build the structures for the competition.

“I really didn’t have to do much. They’re seeing what it takes to be an engineer. There was a lot of self-learning,” she said.

“It’s been wonderful. Other students seeing what they’re doing have been asking to be involved. We’re getting more kids interested. They see it’s fun and it’s free.”

With the success of the pilot program, initiated in October with the parts all put into place only in December, Prevenas said the teachers are hoping to expand Engineering in the Middle to other schools in the Maui District next year — with support from Women in Technology. She hoped the Maui District program will include students from the outlying schools in Hana, Lanai and Molokai.

“That would be awesome,” she said.

Extravaganza Results:

ALL AROUND SCHOOL WINNER (based on highest school average from judging scoring sheet) – Iao Intermediate School

PASTA BRIDGE

• 1st place: Kalama School – Sara Suzuki & Caitlyn Cole

• 2nd Place: Maui Waena – Kayzel Rose Tabangcura, Justine Hoylman, Justin Collado, Rose Vakalahi

• 3rd Place: Iao School – Amanda Barr & Temoani Keahi

TOOTHPICK BRIDGE

• 1st place: Kalama School – Coleson Costales

• 2nd place: Kalama School – Ethan Finberg

POPSICLE BRIDGE

• 1st place: Maui Waena – Justine Hoylman

• 2nd place: Maui Waena – Justin Collado

• 3rd place: Kalama School – Jamielynn Moniz & Persuasion Kawailima

Engineer/Judges:

Audrey Chihara, Brown & Caldwell

Mathew McNeff, Maui Electric Company

Daron Nishimoto, PDS Technologies

Fiona van Ammers, Ronald M. Fukumoto Engineering, Inc.

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Maui SBDC gets a new look

January 6th, 2010 · Business Development

Small business assistance agency relocates in Maui R&T Park

Cost-cutting is a way of life for business around Hawaii and the nation, but cutting costs doesn’t mean cutting services for the Maui office of the Hawaii Small Business Development Center.

The Maui SBDC has moved to a new location in the just opened Park Plaza complex, Suite 213, across North Holopono Street from the Maui Economic Development Board’s Ke Alahele Center in the Maui Research & Technology Park. The office formerly was in the Maui R&T Center on Lipoa Parkway.

An open house held Dec. 17 introduced new staff members – Senior Business Consultant Fred Rickert, formerly vice president/ treasurer with Maui Land & Pineapple Co., and Research Librarian Christine Pawliuk, formerly with Hawaii Pacific University. Administrative Assistant Pat Diaz remains with the office.

There is no change in the purpose and services offered by the SBDC Network in Hawaii, which provides one-on-one counseling by experienced and knowledgeable business professionals to assist entrepreneurs, as well as setting up workshops, seminars and online training for entrepreneurs in starting up and running a business, managing personnel and dealing with changing market strategies.

Through Pawliuk, the Maui SBDC office can assist business people in finding information in the Hawaii Business Research Library to understand market trends and community growth patterns when they are preparing business plans and forecasting sales. The Hawaii Business Research Library has electronic research tools to support its new focus on providing business research assistance.

Pawliuk, who holds a master’s in library science from the University of Hawaii, can also assist in locating information and links on government programs and grants for which local small businesses can compete.

Rickert has more than 30 years of experience in financial and strategic planning for business and public agencies. Prior to joining ML&P, he was chief financial officer for the Port of Oakland and was a senior financial executive for shipping companies Sea-Land and American President Lines.

The new Maui office of Hawaii SBDC Network will provide a knowledgeable and experienced staff to assist small businesses while it remains conveniently based in the Maui Research & Technology Park, said Maui Economic Development Board President Jeanne Unemori Skog.

The Park Plaza is the newest business facility to open in the Maui R&T Park, offering condominium offices for sale.

“The SBDC, an agency supported by the federal Small Business Administration, is a capable partner with MEDB in promoting business development on Maui,” Skog said. “It can assist the start-up ventures in finding opportunities with federal agencies operating on Maui as well as the technology businesses that are locating on Maui and in Hawaii – providing strong support to MEDB’s effort to foster healthy economic growth in Maui County.”

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Applying yourself

December 30th, 2009 · Careers, Technology

HighTechMaui Holiday Career Fair offers information for kama’aina to come home

The goal is to fit potential employees to job openings.

The Maui Economic Development Board’s 8th annual HighTechMaui Holiday Career Fair on Dec. 28 provided more than 230 hopeful job seekers with information about what it takes to qualify for technology-based positions.

With 10 major tech operators, Maui County and University of Hawaii/Maui Community College offering information and advice, there was much to be digested — even for those who are in the process of upgrading their technical qualifications to meet employers’ requirements.

Looking over the flow of people visiting the employer tables, Maui Economic Development Board Program Director Leslie Wilkins observed there appeared to be a wide range of job seekers reflecting the economy and demonstrating the value of the Holiday Career Fair.

“The HighTechMaui Holiday Career Fair attracted the full spectrum of job seekers — from college students researching future options and internship to very seasoned professionals who have been affected by the economic downturn,” she said. “Our goal is to connect local companies with kama’aina talent. The Career Fair has proven to be a successful strategy in achieving that goal.”

Wilkins directs MEDB’s Women in Technology program, the lead sponsor for the event, in partnership with Kama’aina Careers and The Maui News, with support from the County of Maui and U.S. Department of Labor. The Holiday Career Fair held at the Ke Alahele Center in the Maui Research & Technology Park is just one of the ways for individuals trained in science, technology, engineering or math to get information on professional opportunities available on Maui. Others include the High Tech Maui site, the kama’aina come home site or directly from company Web sites.

Lianne Yoshida, Human Resources Manager for the Maui High Performance Computing Center, said the crowd seemed to include more older professionals looking for positions rather than large numbers of college students checking out their options with graduation ahead.

“We have one position open and we have a number of internships we are offering,” she said.

MHPCC has participated in the Holiday Job Fair since its inception and has a number of employees recruited through the event, she said. Success can be a matter of timing.

“It depends on the positions we have. Sometimes we have positions that are easy to fill; sometimes the requisites are so narrow, it’s difficult to find an individual with the specific skill sets,” she said.

A recruiting team with Lockheed Martin was offering opportunities throughout the corporate operations, focused on internships available at four supercomputer centers LM is managing for the Department of Defense under the Next Generation Technical Services contract awarded last year. LM is collaborating with the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program Office, also represented at the Holiday Career Fair by Dr. Susan T. Brown from the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program, to provide internships to underrepresented students in the STEM community.

Michele Sauer, LM Senior Business Development representative, said their recruitment offerings expanded on the options offered within Maui Nui, providing students a chance to gain experience as interns while learning how they could fit in Lockheed Martin’s work settings. The effort had Mark Cooper, LM Chief Technical Officer, recruiting for several intern positions in Lockheed Martin’s DoD programs on the Mainland.

“It’s a try-before-you-buy on both sides. You learn whether this is the kind of work you want to do; we learn whether you have the technical capabilities we need,” Sauer said.

Under the NGTS contract, LM is managing supercomputer centers in Mississippi, Ohio and Maryland, but Sauer said the company also has internships available in its Oahu operations for students in computer science and physics.

Maui-based LM representative Chancy Hopper said the company is supporting a number of programs in all of the military commands that will be utilizing interns in 2010 – with the selection of interns to begin in January since the positions will require security clearances.

 Typically, Hopper said, an intern will be assigned to a mentor and a project, such as development of a software application for a system that LM is developing for a military program.

“It will give the student real experience in a workplace. They will prepare the assignment, do a presentation and learn what the outcomes are,” she said.

At the same time, she said the Hawaii operation does expect to be filling permanent positions as well, for technicians as well as for higher-end professionals.

“We’re familiar with what kinds of opportunities Hawaii need,” she added. “For what we’re doing here, we’re looking for anybody with engineering or physics, or some kind of business management skills.”

Boeing Site Coordinator Jerry Cornell said the company’s Hawaii operations will utilize a range of skill sets, from technicians and operations specialists to physicists, although he acknowledged much of the job growth will be on Oahu, where Boeing anticipates a significant demand for aeronautical technicians with the assignment of an F-22 squadron.

Cornell had high expectations for students attending UH-Maui Community College, noting that the UH-MCC campus is preparing to offer a four-year bachelor of applied sciences degree in engineering technology, emphasizing application over theory. The degree program will be offered beginning in fall 2010.

“It will provide students with the knowledge they need to do the work, although it will be very math intensive,” he said. “We’re very excited about the prospects of being able to hire students out of the program. We expect their students are going to be very competitive.”

That information emanating from the Career Fair may be what potential students such as Jon Matsui need. Matsui said he attended to learn most about the options available in the fields of information technology to build on the training he’s received with the Hawaii Air National Guard.

Through his military service, including deployment to Iraq, the Pukalani resident is eligible for education benefits and he said the fair provided basic information on what kind of work might be available in the field – and what further education he will need to attain the work he wants.

“Information technology is what I’ve done before. It’s what I want to do,” he said. “I just really haven’t had the opportunity for more training before.”

Similarly, William Schutte of Makawao said he understood better what educational routes he needed to take to become eligible for the careers being offered by tech companies.

“I learned what I have to do,” he said.

Jena Miller, a freshman majoring in industrial engineering at California Polytechnic University, already knows what she needs to do as well as what she wants to do and learned there were plenty of options among the companies at the Career Fair.

“I knew I wanted to be an engineer,” she said. “I thought of industrial engineering because everything involves industrial engineering. It’s designing, it’s working with machinery. It’s analyzing systems to improve efficiency. I really like it.”

The Baldwin High School graduate added that she felt she was well prepared for the engineering curriculum she is facing at Cal Poly by the advanced courses she was provided at her high school.

She also may be well timed for openings in the job market. Rob Judge, a project engineer with Goodfellow Brothers, acknowledged there are few immediate positions, but the company is expecting openings to occur in the year to come.

The civil construction company also offers internships.

“That’s really the best way to get to know someone, to see how they work with you,” he said.

“We are looking for engineers, which is a high tech profession,” said Carmel Patterson, Goodfellow Human Resources manager.

An applicant long out of high school and college, Michael Roberts of Pukalani, said he found he has fewer options as an experienced operations manager for utility systems. He was laid off after more than 40 years with utility companies in California and Maui.

Still, he had long conversations with several companies that may have had openings outside of Maui.

“I thought it was good, all the people are right here. You can talk to them and get answers,” he said.

Chemistry teacher Terry Lane, left on the sidelines with the Department of Education trimming rather than hiring, said he wasn’t offered any positions, but he thought there may be opportunities with companies such as Monsanto, which did have an information table, or other biotech businesses on Maui for whom the HighTechMaui table was able to provide him with contact information.

“There are some people I will need to contact,” he said.

Mary Gates, an information technologist on Maui because her husband was assigned to the island by the Air Force, said she was advised of several different openings in technology companies, and remained hopeful.

She had a broad range of experience in programming and security for IT systems, but she said she lacks expertise in any specialty – while it appeared positions now available required specialized knowledge.

“I’m hoping they will make more of my experience even if I don’t have the specialized skills,” she said.

8th Annual HighTechMaui Holiday Career Fair

Participating employers in the 2009 Holiday Career Fair were:

Maui High Performance Computing Center

Monsanto