The Sheraton Waikīkī’s conference venue was packed with middle and high school students, including many from Maui Nui, for the 17th annual Hawaiʻi STEM Conference on April 15th and 16th. Organized by STEMworks™, a program of Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the 2-day event is the program’s largest student career awareness and teacher professional development event of the year. The 2026 conference welcomed a total of 612 attendees from all across the state despite moving to a smaller venue due to the closure of the Hawaiʻi Convention Center. Many of the workshops were standing room only, showing the high demand for engaging, industry-led STEM education opportunities among both students and teachers.
One of the highlights of the conference this year was the interactive exhibit hall, referred to as the “playground.” Over 30 companies and organizations tabled in the playground, representing a wide range of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) career pathways and educational opportunities, including healthcare, engineering, computer science, aviation, ocean science, and natural resource management.
Students and teachers benefitted from the expertise of over 60 STEM industry guest speakers who led 38 student sessions and 9 teacher workshops. Keynote addresses were also presented by Caitlin Sarian, a global cybersecurity expert known as @cybersecuritygirl online, and Maile Miyake, a graphic designer and entrepreneur from Kauaʻi.
In light of this year’s conference theme, “Navigating Change,” many guest speakers focused on helping students learn about artificial intelligence (AI) tools and how to use them effectively and responsibly. One student attendee commented, “I learned about how AI can be used for chatbots and to improve our time efficiency when it comes to repetitive actions.” Another student shared, “My favorite session was creating a custom AI. It was cool to be able to create an AI that I could make do anything.”
Over 40 industry professionals also joined the students for an hour of speed networking. Students were encouraged to ask the professionals about their careers, educational backgrounds, and paths to their current roles. One teacher observed, “The best part of the event is being able to take my students to experience avenues of career choices connected to STEM. It was great to see how much they took in from this conference.”
Students traveled from all islands to participate in the event, with 196 of the 366 student participants coming from Maui County, including Molokai and Lānaʻi. Among the 82 teachers at the conference, 50 were from Maui County. STEMworks is proud to offer financial support to neighbor island students and teachers for travel costs thanks to the program’s many donors, grant funders, and event sponsors.
More information about the Hawaiʻi STEM Conference can be found online at https://www.hawaiistemconference.org/ and on Instagram @STEMworks.
