The fb88 of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Teani Arakawa was announced on the 2023 United Soccer Coaches Division II Women’s All-American Third Team on December 7.

Arakawa had a successful season being selected for the 2023 United Soccer Coaches All-America Third Team, United Soccer Coaches All-West Region First Team, D2 CCA All-West Region Player of the Year, D2 CCA All-West Region First Team and PacWest Conference Player of the Year.

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fb88 of Hawaiʻi at Hilo player Jazylnn Ellis and player Kalique Mitchell were selected as KTA Super Stores Superstars of November.

Jazylnn Ellis

In the Vulcans final two games of the year, Jazlynn Ellis capped the 2023 season with six points, contributing on all four of UH Hilo’s scores.

Ellis was named Pacific West Conference Newcomer of the Year along with All-PacWest First Team, D2 Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region First Team and United Soccer Coaches All-West Region Third Team honors.

Kalique Mitchell

This season, Mitchell has started all eight games and got the Vulcans rolling in the season opener with 21 points in a second-half comeback victory over Simon Fraser.

Through the month of November, Mitchell averaged 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game with 11 total steals. The senior forward led the Vulcans twice in points and also tallied two double-doubles.

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The fb88 of Hawaiʻi released its 2024 schedule on December 7, a 53-game slate that includes a 36-game home schedule beginning February 16 with a four-game series against Ole Miss.

The ‘Bows own the nation’s fifth longest active home winning streak at nine games, after sweeping its final three home weekends of 2023 and winning 11 of its last 12 home games. The ‘Bows finished with their best home record since 1998 at 19-7 and turned in their second straight top-five Big West finish at 18-12 in conference play.

The Rainbow Warriors will play their first four weekend series and 15 of their first 16 games overall at Les Murakami Stadium.

Spring 2024 schedule:

February 16–18—Ole Miss
February 23–25—NC State
February 28—at UH Hilo
March 1–4—Holy Cross
March 8–11—Rice
March 15–17—at CSU Bakersfield
March 22–24—San Diego State
March 28–30—UC Irvine
April 2—Hawaiʻi Pacific
April 5–7—at UC Davis
April 9—at Santa Clara
April 12–14—at UC Santa Barbara
April 16—Chaminade
April 19–21—Cal Poly
April 26–28—at UC San Diego
April 30—UH Hilo
May 3–5—CSUN
May 9–12—UC Riverside
May 17–19—at Long Beach State
May 23–25—Cal State Fullerton

(Home games in bold)

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A fb88 of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� graduate student with expertise on the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Northern Philippines has been recognized for his research in East Asian anthropology. Yi-Yu Lai, a PhD candidate in , has won the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Paper Prize from the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA).

“Combining rich historical research with transnational ethnographic fieldwork, the paper offers rare insight into interactions between Indigenous movements and their impacts that go beyond national boundaries,” wrote the SEAA judging committee. “This paper demonstrates new directions in East Asian anthropology that engage with multilingual, multicultural and transnational possibilities.”

Lai said he was grateful to receive the prize, because—while there is much literature on Indigenous solitary activism that focuses on tensions and negotiations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples—his case study examines the factors contributing to the growth of activism between Taiwan and the Northern Philippines, ultimately providing insights into the transnational ties among Indigenous movements.

“I’m very happy about this recognition, because international solidarity really matters for both scholars and activists,” said Lai. “In this case, solidarity is used to develop new modes of inquiry, to expand the understanding of Indigenous politics, and to proliferate beyond the limits of states.”

Born and raised in Taiwan, Lai has been studying Indigenous activism and the cross-border relationships between Indigenous Taiwanese and the Indigenous peoples in the Cordillera of the Philippines since 2014. His works center on Indigenous politics, political violence and conflict resolutions.

Lai is particularly interested in how political violence and activism affect Indigenous peoples’ ways of life and their interactions with larger society.

He earned his BA and MA in anthropology at the National Taiwan fb88, and is a research affiliate at the Cordillera Studies Center at the fb88 of the Philippines in Baguio (UPB).

The title of Lai’s paper is “Why Does International Solidarity Matter? Parallelizing Circuits of Indigenous Political Movements between Taiwan and the Cordillera of the Northern Philippines since the 1980s.” UPB’s College of Social Sciences will publish the paper as a chapter in the upcoming book, Reader on Indigenous Studies in the Philippines.

fb88 of Hawaiʻi at Hilo ‘s Teani Arakawa and Jazlynn Ellis were voted among the best in the west as the pair landed on the 2023 United Soccer Coaches All-West Region Teams released December 5.

Arakawa was named to the All-West Region First Team and Ellis to the All-West Region Third Team.

Players were nominated and voted on by coaches who are members of the United Soccer Coaches College Services program. The United Soccer Coaches All-America Teams will be unveiled this Thursday.

Both were also previously selected to the 2023 Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region First Team.

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The fb88 of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents aims to select the next president of the 10-campus system in June 2024, according to the process approved by the regents during a five and half hour long meeting on December 7. The process includes hiring a search firm with access to Hawaiʻi expertise and/or Hawaiʻi focus by January 31, 2024 to conduct a national search and recruit candidates. The recruitment process will run through April 15, followed by an evaluation period and the official selection in June. The new president would begin in fall 2024, replacing current President David Lassner, who announced in September that he will retire in 2024. The regents acknowledged that it is an aggressive timeline and will adjust it if needed.

“This is one of the most important positions in Hawaiʻi, and we know that a lot of people have strong, oftentimes, opposing opinions, even among the regents, on what unique skill set the next president should possess and how to identify that person,” said BOR Chair Alapaki Nahale-a after the meeting. “Where we as regents are united is that we want what’s best for the fb88 of Hawaiʻi. We are excited to launch this process to bring all perspectives together to make the right choice and bring someone who can build on President Lassner’s legacy.”

The board also decided that every regent will serve on the selection committee, and the UH President position will retain its UH ����ԴDz� responsibilities. However, the regents officially noted that they intend to consider removing the UH ����ԴDz� duties from the president’s responsibilities to allow the president to focus on the 10-campus system. Non-academic duties at UH ����ԴDz� were transferred to the president during a two-phase reorganization and . The reorganization eliminated the UH ����ԴDz� chancellor position and established the UH ����ԴDz� provost, who is responsible for all academic areas of UH ����ԴDz�.

The regents also committed to a listening phase to provide opportunities for stakeholders—faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, other constituencies—to share their views on a new president. This phase of the search will include a survey and other forums open to anyone who wants to participate.

The board will hold a special meeting on January 4 to determine final details including the makeup, function and selection of the advisory group. The advisory group will consist of representatives from stakeholder groups including faculty, staff and students.

The selection process details were finalized during deliberations on the report by the Presidential Selection Process Permitted Interaction Group. The group of five regents met in compliance with the state’s Sunshine Law to develop the report.

The technical and creative work by students in the fb88 of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�’s (ICS) was showcased to the campus community, capstone project sponsors, industry professionals and defense sector representatives in December.

The ICS project day, hosted at the Campus Center Ballroom, featured 24 poster presentations. Among the projects included 23 students working in teams to build 10 software systems for their sponsors (U.S. Army, Hawaiʻi Digital Health Lab and more). Students who were part of the CyberSecurity Service Provider Internship Program showcased their work, as well as the three winning teams from the 2023 Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge.

“We love to show off our students’ work. This is the culmination of their experience with the ICS department,” said Department Chair and Professor Scott Robertson. “I think it shows outreach, that they are working with the Department of Defense, with other companies, and there are many possibilities for them as they move forward.”

Solving real world problems

One project by students Mahie Crabbe, Christine Nakano, Kristine Rivera and Taryn Takebayashi helped the Army Reserve create a centralized talent marketplace to efficiently advertise critical job vacancies. They worked with Lt. Col. Mark Lee, 9th Mission Support Command talent manager, and created a web application featuring a secure login, role-based access and databases for users, job vacancies and resumés.

“I believe it was a great experience for our whole team,” Takebayashi said. “We learned a lot of different technologies that we utilized to put together this project.”

“My interaction with students has been phenomenal. This is our first semester that we’ve had interns as part of our hānai program,” Lee said. “We are very pleased to have two teams that are presenting their problem sets. It was very nice to be able to have a positive experience working with the students helping to solve real world problems in the Army Reserve.”

Possible future opportunities

Greg Hester is the chief technology officer for software technology company Ulu HI-Tech, which does a variety of work including running the HOLO Card program for the City and County of Honolulu. He is also president of CIO Council of Hawaiʻi. One of the goals of the council is to improve the IT workforce in the state.

“I’ve definitely been inspired today and I’ve also made some connections that I think I can leverage for what we’re doing in the CIO Council, and also maybe push for internships for some of those students,” Hester said.

Showcase student-led groups

At the ICS project day, representatives from ICS-affiliated were also present to showcase their work.

“All software engineers know that to get a job you have to practice technical interview questions, basically they want to see if you have the technical skills to do the job. Those can be very rigorous,” said Alyssia Chen, ICS graduate student and PANDA (Programming and Algorithms) organization president. “At PANDA, we help students prepare for them.”

Roma Malasarte, junior computer science major, is part of SWITCH (Supporting Women in Information Technology Computing Hawaiʻi).

“We encourage students to join our club so that we can support women in tech,” Malasarte said.

For a list of the ICS student organizations, .

The event concluded with special awards: best poster presentation, certificates of recognition to the Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge winners and certificates of recognition to student club members. There were also hula and ballroom dance performances by ICS students.

The ICS department is housed in the UH ����ԴDz� .

Rainfall estimations on Oʻahu can be more accurate by combining Hawaiʻi’s two main types of rainfall observations, radar and rain gauge, according to a study by fb88 of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� researchers. Current observations are based on one or the other, where specific weather stations are checked (rain gauge), or weather radars are observed to view patterns. The study is an effort to better understand Hawaiʻi’s complex weather patterns and hydrological consequences.

Like most of the world, Hawaiʻi is experiencing more extreme weather, yet often lacks adequate data. By bridging the gap between radar and gauge data, experts can now gain a better understanding of the complex rainfall patterns in mountainous tropical areas across the state, as well as the inherent uncertainties associated with various storm types and structures when simulating streamflow.

The new dataset, which stemmed from combining radar and rain gauge data, also creates better synergy across disciplines. Meteorologists and hydrologists can deepen their understanding, leading to more accurate assessments of flash flood risks, urban planners can test their plans and products against rainfall data, and emergency responders can be more prepared for natural disasters.

“The significance of this research is not only for its immediate benefit to resource managers, weather forecasters and emergency managers, but also for its potential to jumpstart new scientific advances in atmospheric and water sciences,” said Thomas Giambelluca, director of the UH ����ԴDz� .

The study, “,” was published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology. It was conducted by in the ’ and the in the .

Better preparation, resilience

Radar rainfall observation provides rain rate over a large spatial area within a specific time frame (~every five minutes) but struggles with accuracy, while rain gauges provide “ground truth” values (information from direct observation and measurement), but only measures at limited point locations.

Recognizing the need to combine these two observation types to collect more accurate data, the UH ����ԴDz� researchers built off of (hourly rainfall data available ), and merged the two main types of rainfall observations to create a detailed hourly gridded rainfall dataset for Oʻahu. This incorporation of two data sources is also known as kriging with external drift (KED), allowing the researchers to refine rainfall values estimated only by a single instrument.

“With this developed and validated KED method, we are advancing Hawaiʻi’s capacity to better prepare and build resilience when facing climate extremes,” said Yinphan Tsang, co-author of the study and principal investigator of the Tsang Stream Lab.

This research offers valuable insights into the performance of the KED method across various storm types, such as tropical cyclones, cold fronts, upper-level troughs and Kona lows, to accurately estimate rainfall in these scenarios for flood forecasting and impact applications.

“The validated KED hourly rainfall dataset is an especially valuable tool for ongoing research on extreme weather impacts and water resources in Hawaiʻi,” said Giambelluca.

Two students, Cherryle Heu and Roderick “RJ” Tabalba, have clinched the grand prize in the (AGU) . Their user-friendly data visualization tool is aiding Hawaiʻi ranchers in navigating the challenges of drought.

Heu, a master’s student in the and Tabalba a PhD student in the , created an easy-to-use customizable dashboard, which visualizes rainfall and temperature data from the (HCDP).

Judges of the competition gave glowing reviews including, “This high-quality submission is worthy of the Visualization award, as the tool has impressive interactive components, enabling users to build bespoke dashboards to analyze rainfall and air temperature.”

The HCDP was developed as a part of the Hawaiʻi EPSCoR Change Hawaiʻi project to provide the state with high-quality reliable climate data and information.

“The HCDP is a groundbreaking website and made this data available to the public. It’s publicly available for anyone to see and access,” said Heu. “The tool that RJ has developed allows anyone to access and manipulate a wealth of real-time data and create it into information they need for themselves whether they are ranchers, conservationists, forecasters or researchers.”

Power of collaboration

Collaboration and co-creation were essential at every stage of this project. Working closely with resource managers in collaboration with the , Heu and others as a part of the stewardship team helped to facilitate knowledge exchange and co-production of drought data and products based on community needs.

The power of collaboration was further demonstrated by Heu and Tabalba’s multidisciplinary approach that combined geoscience and computer science to develop their data visualization tool.

“I took the opportunity to enter this competition with another student, Cherryle, who was already using the HCDP. It was a good match-up. She had the knowledge, use cases and background to create tools,” said Tabalba. “Cherryle really filled in that gap of knowledge. Climate is different in Hawaiʻi, it might be raining in one area and not raining in the next. It really motivates the need that farmers need to have their custom-made dashboard.”

Presenting to NASA

Heu and Tabalba were awarded a total of $6,000 to attend this year’s AGU Annual Meeting in December in San Francisco and to support additional professional development activities. They will also have the opportunity for exclusive career advice and support from a professional career consultant and to present their grand prize winning project to NASA and AGU in December and at AGU headquarters in Washington, D.C. in early 2024.

Tabalba looks forward to graduating in 2024 and working in industry with a top IT company. He plans to take the skills he learned by receiving feedback from others to gain new perspectives and elevate his own work. Heu, who finds her field extremely fulfilling, plans to complete her degree and continue creating impactful work that others find useful.

—By Maria Dumanlang

The received an honorary certificate from the Honolulu City Council recognizing the program’s 100th anniversary. The ceremony was held in the council chambers on December 6.

“It’s an honor to be acknowledged by our elected officials,” Director of Bands Jeffrey Boeckman said. “We share this with our current students and our thousands of UH Bands alumni.”

“We are so grateful for being recognized at the City Council,” Assistant Director of Bands Gwen Nakamura said. “It really does show the dedication and commitment of all our students past and present.”

Councilmembers Calvin K.Y. Say, Radiant Cordero, Matt Weyer and Council Chair Tommy Waters presented the group with its certificate.

“The Honolulu City Council recognizes the important role of the fb88 of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�’s band, which for 100 years has entertained audiences, embodied musical excellence, and amplified the aloha spirit,” Say said. “As we celebrate this milestone, it’s important for all of us to recognize the band’s influence in strengthening the fb88’s identity, and in representing Hawaiʻi nei across the country, and even around the world. The Council extends a very warm congratulations to the UH band on this milestone, and best wishes for many years to come.”

The band program began in 1923 as an 18-member drum and bugle corps. It has since flourished into one of the largest and most visible student organizations on campus. The program includes more than 300 students performing in the UH Rainbow Warrior Marching Band, three concert bands and five pep bands. These students entertain more than 400,000 spectators annually at football, basketball and volleyball games; concerts; and campus events through more than 100 performances each year.

For more about the program’s 100th anniversary, .