As Artificial Intelligence (AI) transforms higher education, the University of Hawaiʻi is launching a new systemwide office to meet the challenge and establish itself as a national leader. The ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Office of Academic Technology and Innovation (OATI) will guide the integration of emerging technologies and AI across all 10 campuses, serving as the hub for strategy, implementation and oversight in teaching, learning and operations.

Housed within the Office of the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ President, the office will be overseen by Ina Wanca, the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Chief Academic Technology Innovation Officer. Wanca will work closely with campus leaders, ITS and the Institutional Research and Analysis Office and serve as the primary liaison between academic leadership and ITS.

OATI will support the consolidation and alignment of academic technology, advance AI adoption and transformative initiatives across the system and establish governance frameworks to ensure the responsible, ethical and equitable use of technology.

“The Office of Academic Technology and Innovation is a critical step forward in ensuring ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ is not just adapting to emerging technologies but leading their thoughtful and strategic integration,” said ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ President Wendy Hensel. “This office will help us realize the full potential of AI and academic innovation to support student success, faculty excellence, and operational efficiency.”

With AI adoption moving at different paces across ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½’s ten campuses, OATI will create a single framework ensuring all investments, tools, and innovations drive a common vision for teaching, learning, and research.

“This new office turns that shared vision into reality,” said Ina Wanca. “By ensuring equal access to modern tools, building AI literacy for students and faculty and linking innovation to workforce readiness, we will prepare Hawaiʻi’s learners and educators to thrive in the AI era while honoring the values that define our university system.”

OATI will also support the AI Planning Group announced June 25 in developing a university-wide AI strategy aligned with institutional goals.

“With the AI Planning Group and OATI working together, we can align priorities across all campuses and move quickly from ideas to implementation,” said Kim Siegenthaler, Senior Advisor to the President.

The office will also help lead implementation of the $7.4 million, five-year subscription to EAB Navigate360 and EAB Edify, approved by the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Board of Regents on June 16. The platforms use predictive analytics to alert faculty, advisors, and support staff at the earliest sign a student may be at risk. The systems have proven successful in closing student achievement gaps and improving retention and graduation rates.

The University of Hawaiʻi has launched designed to make it easier for students to explore and pursue academic opportunities across ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½â€™s 10 campuses. By centralizing key transfer information, the university aims to reduce barriers and encourage students to stay on track toward graduation—no matter where they begin and complete their ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ journeys.

The new site, available at , brings together critical information and resources in one easy-to-use platform. Whether students are actively planning to transfer or simply exploring program options, the site offers clear guidance, interactive tools and real advice from fellow transfer students.

“Ensuring seamless transfer across the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System is a critical priority and I commend the work of the Academic Advising and Transfer Network (AATN) group for revitalizing this critical resource,” said Debora Halbert, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ vice president for academic strategy.

Serving thousands of students

Transfer students are a core component of the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ student body and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System mission, with 2,314 transfer students matriculating into 4-year campuses in the fall 2024 semester, 48% of whom arrived from another ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ campus.

Students will find information on the steps to transfer within the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System, from two-year to four-year institutions and vice versa. The site also includes details about academic advising, tuition and costs, and links to the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Transfer Database Tool, which helps students understand how their credits will transfer between campuses.

The launch of the new portal is part of a broader initiative involving the Office of the Vice President for Academic Strategy, AATN and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Information and Technology Services, intended to enhance the transfer experience and empower students to be the navigators of their own academic journeys.

It also supports President Wendy Hensel’s vision to ensure a common “baseline standard of care” for all ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ students, and the university’s ongoing commitment to student success, equity and seamless academic mobility.

More than 35 University of Hawaiʻi students from three campuses (ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Hilo and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Maui College) gained hands-on experience tackling real-world challenges at the , held April 4–6, at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹.

Participants formed interdisciplinary teams to build data-driven solutions using Google Cloud AI tools, including Vertex AI. Five challenge topics pushed students to apply diverse skills toward local and statewide resilience efforts, such as climate data visualization, educational content generation, conversational AI and immersive technology for science communication.

The first-place team, Untrained Parameters, created the Hawaiʻi Climate Explorer—an interactive web app that visualizes temperature and rainfall data from the Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal, a project led by ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ experts. The team included PhD students Federica Chiti and Dhvanil Desai (), Fahim Yasir (), Gerardo Rivera Tello (), and master’s student Yada Ponpittayalert ().

“This was an incredible experience, highlighting the potential of large language models (a type of AI-trained model) for multimodal applications, even within a limited prototype developed in just three days,” said Rivera Tello.

BruhMode earned second place with GenEDU, an AI-powered educational content generator. Third place was awarded to Kani, developers of a climate-focused chatbot. TurtleyAwesome, won the Visualization Challenge with Sheldon the Turtle, a 3D AI-powered museum-style guide for climate data.

Prizes ranged from MacBook laptops and iPads to AR glasses and Google Cloud Platform credits.

Hosted by ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System Information Technology Services (ITS), and , the three-day event was led by the ITS Research Cyberinfrastructure team and supported by the National Science Foundation-sponsored , , Google Cloud and the Burwood Group, Inc.

Mentors from ITS, the Burwood Group, and Hawaiʻi Mesonet and Change Hawaiʻi supported students throughout the hackathon, offering technical guidance and real-world insights.

“This hackathon gave students an incredible opportunity to apply cutting-edge AI tools to real-world challenges that directly impact Hawaiʻi,” said ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ITS Director of Research Cyberinfrastructure Sean Cleveland, who led the event and also served as a program mentor. “Their creativity, teamwork and passion for innovation were truly inspiring to witness.”

The University of Hawaiʻi at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ hosted an international cybersecurity symposium, providing students with hands-on exposure to the latest advancements in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). The two-day event in February, held at Campus Center, featured leading experts, industry professionals and researchers discussing the evolving landscape of cyber threats and defense strategies.

“Cybersecurity is key for Hawaiʻi as we work to diversify our economy through research, innovation and technology. This symposium brought together thought leaders from academia, government and industry to tackle emerging cybersecurity challenges while also building global collaborations that strengthen our research capabilities,” said symposium organizer and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ (ICS) Associate Professor Mehdi Tarrit Mirakorli, who also gave a presentation on Volt Typhoon, a hacking group that has infiltrated critical U.S. infrastructure networks. “By fostering these partnerships, we are positioning Hawaiʻi as a hub for cybersecurity excellence and resilience in the Indo-Pacific region, attracting investment, and creating high-skilled job opportunities.”

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ students had the opportunity to engage with leading-edge research and participate in discussions on cybersecurity policy. Presentations from experts highlighted emerging threats and best practices, with an emphasis on securing critical infrastructure, identity access management and the role of AI in cybersecurity innovation.

Derek Garcia, a ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ ICS PhD student said, “It was a great opportunity to learn about cutting-edge research in the cybersecurity field and help expose graduate and undergraduate students to pursuing research as a career path. The plethora of research presented by ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ faculty shows that the demand for cyber research is there, and conferences like this are a great place not only for students to get inspired about potential research projects but also to connect and collaborate with professors to make it happen.”

Interconnected disciplines

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ faculty members across a variety of disciplines showcased their contributions to research and industry collaboration. Assistant Professor Emile Loza de Siles explored the legal implications of AI and cybersecurity strategies, Curt Dodds from the detailed efforts to secure critical astronomy research cyberinfrastructure, Sean Cleveland from Information Technology Services provided an overview of ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½â€™s research cyberinfrastructure resources, Associate Professor Roger Chen discussed transportation security, Associate Professor Christina Karamperidou presented on climate-resilient and cyber-secure data centers, and ICS Assistant Professor Anthony Peruma discussed challenges of securing mobile applications.

“Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ experts highlights the complex and interconnected nature of cybersecurity, ensuring that solutions address not just technical challenges, but also legal, policy and industry-specific concerns,” Mirakorli said.

The Chief Information Security Officer panel, moderated by Westly Group, a venture capital in California, brought together top security executives from Hawaiʻi to discuss the real-world challenges of cybersecurity leadership, risk management and AI-driven security solutions. In addition, industry leaders from companies such as Palo Alto Networks, IBM, Flashpoint and Kry10 participated in expert panels and discussions on emerging cyber threats.

A University of Hawaiʻi project to enhance cyberinfrastructure adoption, capacity and training in the Pacific region earned a .

Cyberinfrastructure refers to the integrated computing systems, data storage and management facilities, advanced instruments, visualization environments and the people who operate and manage them. They are all linked together by software and high-performance networks to improve research productivity and enable breakthroughs not otherwise possible.

Led by the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System, the project will offer services, education and research programs to engage faculty, researchers and students in advanced cyberinfrastructure.

“This cyberinfrastructure initiative is crucial for advancing our region’s technological capabilities and ensuring we remain competitive in the global digital landscape,” said Sean Cleveland, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System interim director of cyberinfrastructure and project principal investigator. “By investing in local talent and encouraging collaboration among institutions, we are not only advancing scientific research and education but also creating a foundation for innovations that will benefit our workforce and communities.”

The project will support collaborative research across disciplines by providing access to computational resources, data repositories and communication networks that will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific and engineering research, scholarship and education. Cyberinfrastructure is the backbone of modern research and innovation, enabling large-scale data analysis, simulations, and collaborative work in various fields, which could potentially lead to the development of better weather predictions, innovative tech jobs and improved healthcare.

This effort is expected to create pathways for increased adoption and capacity of cyberinfrastructure, supporting long-term regional research growth.

“Building human capacity to support advanced cyberinfrastructure is the critical catalyst to sustaining long-term growth in leading edge computational and data centered research throughout the Pacific region,” said ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi. “Collaboration among our partners will effectively extend the beneficial impacts throughout our research communities.”

The project will strengthen regional research capabilities by hiring cyberinfrastructure professionals at partner institutions that will work collaboratively to support cyberinfrastructure needs in the region. The project aims to train and embed more than 200 undergraduates and 15 graduate students that will apply advanced cyberinfrastructure technologies and methods to cutting edge research projects.

The initiative will also introduce more than 100 workshops along with new curriculum modules to increase cyberinfrastructure awareness and skills across numerous research domains. This comprehensive approach aims to cultivate a skilled workforce addressing Pacific regional needs and driving innovation in fields such as life sciences, data science, environmental science and engineering.

Project leaders anticipate that the model of shared cyberinfrastructure expertise, leading practices and strategies developed will be shared with other communities and institutions nationwide, extending the impact beyond the Pacific region.

Also involved in the project are experts and co-principal investigators Helen Turner from Chaminade University of Honolulu, Vincent Dela Cruz from University of Guam and Maytal Dahan and Joe Stubbs from the Texas Advanced Computing Center.

The University of Hawaiʻi (ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½) and (ONI) announced a $120 million, public-private partnership to construct a submarine optical fiber cable system that will connect the Hawaiian Islands and improve and expand high-speed broadband internet throughout the state. The project, the Hawaiian Islands Fiber Link (HIFL), is a key component of , the state’s broadband initiative, a top priority of the Gov. Josh Green administration. Under the direction of Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, Connect Kākou will ensure that people from all walks of life have reliable and affordable access to high-speed internet.

“This inter-island cable system will leverage the once-in-a-generation federal investment for technological infrastructure and position our state for long-term economic growth,” said Green. “The resulting network will be open to all carriers and sufficiently robust to support all manner of telecommunications carrier and enterprise traffic, including anticipated future high-capacity demands supporting healthcare, education, research, public service, commerce, and government uses.”

ONI is responsible for the supply, construction, operations and maintenance of the inter-island cable system. Partial funding will be provided through a federal grant, and the remaining funds will be secured by ONI through private equity and secured debt. When it goes online, HIFL will be able to process a high volume of data with minimal delay and will be the inter-island backbone of Connect Kākou.

“This is just one part of our plan to guarantee the state’s long-term internet connectivity,” said Luke. “Connect Kākou has over $500 million in federal grants, state funds, and private matching funds available as we work towards connecting the unconnected and make sure everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet.”

HIFL will be a carrier-neutral, open-access system with landing sites on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Maui, Kauaʻi, ³¢Äå²Ô²¹ʻ¾± and Molokaʻi that will improve Hawaiʻi inter-island and regional connectivity. The system will have 24 fiber pairs with a design life of 25 years and is expected to be ready for service in late 2026. The project is being overseen by the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System Office for Information Technology with support from the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaiʻi.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Ocean Networks, Inc.,” said Garret Yoshimi, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Vice President for Information Technology and & CIO. “The Ocean Networks team has significant industry experience, specifically working here in Hawaiʻi. It’s an honor for ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ to play an important role in connecting Hawaiʻi to the future.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ and proud that ONI has been selected to build and operate the new HIFL submarine cable system,” said Cliff Miyake, Vice President of Business Development of Ocean Networks, Inc. “The HIFL system will provide critical improvement to the broadband infrastructure for the State of Hawaiʻi.”

In mid-February, University of Hawaiʻi Maui College learned that an unauthorized third party may have gained access to the University’s computer network. ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Information Technology Services officials took immediate action as soon as the incident was discovered.

Experts were engaged to investigate and determine the nature and scope of the incident, which was also reported to law enforcement. The intrusion was isolated to the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Maui College network, which had been protected by a firewall and other safeguards before the event. This event did not impact other networks in the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ System.

Based on the investigation results, the University identified potentially-impacted files and conducted an extensive review of those files to identify any individuals who may need to be notified. ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Maui also emailed current employees and staff alerting them to this incident and instructing them to change their passwords.

Notification letters are being sent out to about 10,500 individuals who may have been impacted, which will include an offer of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services through Experian.

“ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Maui College take the responsibility to protect the data entrusted to the university seriously,” said Garret Yoshimi, the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer. “We are fully committed to protecting students’ and employees’ personal information and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this may have caused.”

Additional steps affected persons may take include:

• Freezing their credit file
• Placing fraud alerts on their account or credit file
• Reviewing account statements and reporting fraud
• Changing passwords and security verification questions and answers
• Ordering free annual credit reports at or by calling (877) 322-­8228.

Current and former ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Maui College students and employees who believe they may have been affected can also call (888) 493-2172 between the hours of 3 a.m.–3 p.m. HST Monday–Friday (excluding major U.S. holidays).

The (RCÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½) has awarded 16 of its employees for their contributions and impact to research at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½.

The awards were based on the following categories:

• Initiative, leadership and resourcefulness in carrying out their achievements
• Impact of their achievements on the project, professional field and/or larger community
• Other variables such as the significance or quality of their achievements

Each individual received a certificate and cash award. Additionally, first-place awardees received $1,000 (shared equally by team members), while second-place awardees received $500 (shared equally by team members).

Team category

• First place: , (Ginger Porter, Umerang Imetengel and Alyssa Shimizu)
• Second place: , ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ Information Technology Services (Michelle Choe, Sean Cleveland, Maria Dumanlang, Jennifer Geis and Jared McLean)
• Honorable Mention: , (Nisa Kelly and En Liu)

Project support staff category

• First Place: , Department of Oceanography, (SOEST)
• Second Place: , Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Honorable Mention: , Cassava Improvement Project,

Researcher/project manager category

• First Place: , Hawaiʻi Center for AIDS,
• Second Place: , Plant Extinction and Prevention Program, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit,
• Honorable Mention: , Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, SOEST

The awards were presented at an event on October 27, at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹â€™s Campus Center Ballroom. A selection committee comprised of Ken Hayashida, Marie Kumabe and Clyde Shiigi selected the awardees.

For more information, visit .

Researchers across the 10-campus University of Hawaiʻi system will be able to process larger datasets and models and accelerate existing workflows with a new intercampus data-storage platform called KoaStore. The platform is being established with a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant.

“KoaStore will help support and power ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ investigators’ research through its high-performance, large size and fast connection to the rest of the world. Further, KoaStore will help enable analysis of data at a scale not previously possible on the Mana high performance computing cluster, allowing larger simulations and discovery,” said Sean Cleveland, principal investigator and associate director of cyberinfrastructure at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ .

KoaStore will be integrated into the and focus on supporting research in the areas of astronomy, atmospheric science, climate science, microbiome and computer and data science.

Serving national and local research

The new platform will also serve the national research community through partnership with the , leveraging existing ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½, Pacific region and national high-speed research networks. This partnership federates national computing resources to offer high-speed storage and shorter wait-times on shared compute resources for ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ researchers.

“The public datasets hosted on KoaStore will make it possible for researchers in Hawaiʻi, across the nation and around the world to use astronomy data produced by the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ (IfA),” said Curt Dodds, IT manager at IfA and KoaStore co-investigator. “We plan to share data from cosmological simulations, a dynamic database of the entire night sky, and machine learning models of the Sun’s atmosphere and distant galaxies.”

Data from the , also known as StePS, a novel astrophysics simulation method, are an example of public datasets available for download through KoaStore.

KoaStore will be integrated with the NSF cloud computing infrastructure and allow researchers to easily span cloud computing environments to support new deep learning and artificial intelligence workflows, visualization and applications.

Additionally, the platform will aid hands-on training in data and computational science for the next generation of researchers and data scientists through a partnership with the and local community to provide workshops and classroom access.

University of Hawaiʻi researchers and students will soon have access to some of the most powerful computing power at their fingertips thanks to a joint project with several universities around the country and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ is part of a newly available national cloud computing resource that allows researchers to access powerful cloud-based environments on demand to explore and understand immense amounts of data from a laptop or tablet.

The NSF supported project is an update to the widely used Jetstream cloud computing system. Jetstream2 provides eight petaFLOPS of virtual supercomputing power, allowing researchers to simplify data analysis, boost scientific discovery and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

“A 1 petaFLOPS (PFLOPS) computer system is capable of performing one quadrillion (1015) floating-point operations per second. The rate 1 PFLOPS is equivalent to 1,000 TFLOPS. To match what a 1 PFLOPS computer system can do in just one second, you’d have to perform one calculation every second for 31,688,765 years,” according to Indiana University.

“Our participation in Jetstream2 ensures our researchers, faculty and students have access to a national-scale cloud computing resource platform to effectively collaborate with their peers and research partners and leverage state-of-the-art technology and techniques to drive science forward,” said Garret Yoshimi, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ vice president for information technology services. “We are grateful to NSF for their generous support in making Jetstream2 a reality for our ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ community.”

Related: ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ part of $10M cloud computing coalition, June 4, 2020

With five computational systems, Jetstream2 spans the nation with partners at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½, Indiana University, Arizona State University, Cornell University and the Texas Advanced Computing Center. The system is designed to be easily used by researchers who have limited experience with cloud computing and to serve smaller academic communities with no previous access to such resources.

The 24/7 user-friendly cloud computing environment provides virtual infrastructure that allows for more access to high-end technologies that enable deep learning and AI techniques. The Jetstream2 system is easy to expand and reconfigure and supports diverse modes of on-demand access. In addition, it extends a broad range of hardware and services that include larger and faster storage systems, graphics processing units, large memory nodes, virtual clusters and much more.

Jetstream2 also supports experimentation and teaching. The system will serve more students than any other NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure resource, better equipping them to fully participate in the evolving STEM workforce.

Additional partnerships with the University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins University and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research will contribute to Jetstream2’s unparalleled usability and support for a broad range of scientific efforts.

Researchers may request several allocation types through NSF’s .