In today’s Honolulu Advertiser (outside news source determines link expiration).

Associated Press

HILO, Hawai‘i - The University of Hawai‘i-Hilo and the Colorado School of Mines yesterday said they plan to jointly research ways to support human life in outer space.

“The number of Hawai‘i students interested in space exploration is rapidly growing,” UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng said in a statement. “We welcome the opportunity to be a part of information and education exchanges like this one.”

UH-Hilo is home to a center dedicated to developing technologies that will enable humans to sustain life on another plant.

The Colorado school has a research center that focuses on how the natural resources of space can meet human survival needs on the moon and Mars.

Tseng and School of Mines President Bill Scoggins expect to sign an agreement on April 4 that will establish their partnership.

Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Colorado School of Mines Center for Space Resources, said the partnership is perfect for her center’s students, who already work with Lockheed Martin on equipment designed to produce oxygen from lunar rocks and soil.

Mines students also have been involved in developing a special membrane that will one day help astronauts make methane fuel on Mars for their return flight to Earth.

UH-Hilo’s Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems was established last year with the help of state government money.

The center plans to build a simulated lunar outpost on the Big Island, where the ash and rock surface resembles the surface of the moon.

The center has research agreements with NASA to test remotely controlled rover vehicles. Its labs hope to serve space agencies, commercial partners and entrepreneurs.

Chancellor Tseng gave two presentations today to the National Science Board at the National Science Foundation (NSF) headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. She gave the first presentation at a private luncheon with NSB members– that talk was titled “Research at UH Hilo: Successes, Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges.” Her afternoon talk was a public presentation to the NSB Education and Human Resources Committee, entitled “Education/Research at UH Hilo: Integrating Culture, Science and Technology.”

The NSB is the governing body of the NSF and is an independent policy body established by Congress. The board is comprised of 24 members appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and members are selected based on their national distinction and eminence in basic, medical, or social sciences, engineering, agriculture, education, research management or public affairs.

The NSB visited UH Hilo last summer and its members were greatly impressed with the university’s research/education programs. Following the visit, NSB chair Steven Beering commended the leadership at UH Hilo for their farsighted efforts and for embracing and integrating the concept of ‘ohana, or family, into the culture of the university.

“I greatly appreciated the many briefings and discussions at UH Hilo highlighting the enormous value in weaving Native Hawaiian and broader Pacific Islander culture and perspectives into science and engineering research and education in Hawai’i” said Beering. “We can benefit and learn from the Hawaiian model for pro-actively broadening participation of under-represented minorities is fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

Chancellor Tseng was invited to give today’s two presentations to share with the board UH Hilo’s vision concerning science and engineering education at the Hilo campus and the importance of partnerships with NSF. The NSB Education and Human Resources Committee was interested in exploring specific educational issues of importance to UH Hilo that the board had previously discussed at the campus last summer.

UH Hilo’s baccalaureate degree nursing program has been granted continued accreditation by the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission. The status is granted through 2015.

The commission commended the program for increasing the number of faculty and faculty compensation, as well as its success in securing external funding.

“Our nursing program is in answer to our state’s professional workforce needs,” says Chancellor Tseng. “With the additional faculty, we can now can graduate more nurses specializing in rural health care.”

The commission also noted that the accreditation demonstrates the nursing program’s interest in being held to the highest national standards of quality in nursing.

In the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (outside news source determines link expiration).

Route to knowledge: A seminar is passing on traditional way-finding methods to future generations

By Gary T. Kubota

Halona Tanner, left, and Kealii Roldan use way-finding skills to chart a sailing course from Hawaii to Tahiti during a recent seminar in Hilo. Photo by Gary T. Kubota.

HILO– Using a Hawaiian star chart, Halona Tanner leaned over a map of the Pacific Ocean and tentatively drew a line for a navigational course from the Big Island southward toward Tahiti.

“I think we’re a bit off,” said Tanner, checking his plotting with his partners.

Tanner, 33, of the Big Island, was one of more than 130 people in Hawaiian sail voyaging groups statewide participating in a seminar that taught native way-finding skills.

The course, called Imi Naauao 2008, is an attempt to merge modern teaching strategies to impart traditional way-finding knowledge to people voyaging on double-hulled sailing canoes.

Without Western tools such as a sextant and chronometer, modern way-finders are using native knowledge of nature including the stars, winds and currents to navigate their way to Pacific islands.

The seminar, sponsored by several organizations including Matson Navigation and the Alexander & Baldwin Foundation, took place Saturday at the University of Hawaii-Hilo’s Imiloa Astronomy Center.

The crews were to receive lessons in Hawaiian crafts and knot tying yesterday, followed by a sail on small double-hulled canoes today.

Chad Baybayan, a native Hawaiian way-finder and principal organizer, said the intent is to give voyagers a quicker route to knowledge and a deeper understanding of their Hawaiian history.

The seminar was also an opportunity for voyaging societies to share way-finding information.

Currently, four deep-sea voyaging canoes are operating in Hawaii, and three are being built or refurbished.

“This is a collaboration of the way-finding community,” Baybayan said.

Baybayan said islanders traditionally learned native way-finding by watching while aboard a voyaging canoe.

He said it took him 30 years and several voyages to feel comfortable enough to be a navigator on a voyage.

Baybayan said attendance of the event has tripled since its start last year, indicating an increasing interest in Hawaiian voyaging and navigation.

Most of the male and female participants were in their 20s and 30s, representing the next generation of native voyagers and potential way-finders.

The crew members might also be among the future voyagers in an around-the-world journey being discussed by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, perhaps by 2011.

Society president Nainoa Thompson said he was encouraged by the turnout.

“This room is powerful,” Thompson told the group.

Thompson said the society was still discussing the idea of an around-the-world voyage, and it would only be possible if young voyagers were behind it.

“This won’t go if young people don’t come,” he said.

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Breaking news in the The Honolulu Advertiser (outside news source determines link expiration).

Gov. Linda Lingle has released $1.2 million for equipment and furniture for a new Science and Technology Building at the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo. The funds will be used to purchase furniture, as well as machine shop, physics, astronomy and chemistry laboratory equipment.

The facilities that currently house UH-Hilo’s science and technology programs were built in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to being too small, they lack the necessary infrastructure and equipment to support modern science programs. The new building will provide additional classroom and research space, allowing for the expansion of student enrollment in science and technology fields and increased research activity.

“Strengthening education in science and technology is an important part of enhancing the innovation capacity of our residents,” Gov. Lingle said in a news release. “By providing UH-Hilo with modern, cutting-edge facilities for studies in these academic disciplines, more of our students will be prepared to enter professions that will diversify our economy and increase the quality of life for residents on the Big Island and statewide.”

The total project cost for the new Science and Technology Building is $28.5 million, which includes $3.5 million for design and $23.8 million for construction.

Construction is scheduled to begin next month and the project is slated for completion in Jan. 2010.

In Hawaii Tribune-Herald (external news source determines link expiration).

March 8, 2008

By Terrie Henderson
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

By fall, undergraduate astronomy students in Hilo will get a better view of the sky.

That’s because there are plans to replace the existing telescope used by students on Mauna Kea with a bigger telescope that will facilitate learning and research.

Currently, there is a 24-inch telescope, also known as a .6 meter telescope, that students use for research and learning purposes. But that telescope, which was the first telescope placed on Mauna Kea and has been on the summit since 1968, is not used much any more because it is small and has fallen into disrepair, said University of Hawaii at Hilo astronomy professor William Heacox.

“A lot of students have used it, (but) in the last five years it has been used very seldom,” Heacox said of the university’s existing telescope. “It is still used occasionally for research.”

It will take two weeks to disassemble the telescope, he said, adding in April a large crane will move the telescope from its perch near the top of the mountain and place it on a sea-level-bound flatbed truck.

“The instrument is no longer useful as a telescope,” he said, adding it will be placed in storage until another use can be determined. “We are hoping to find somewhere to display it.”

In July the new telescope will be brought up the mountain in the same fashion, he said.

The new observatory will be named, “Hoku Ke‘a,” the Hawaiian navigational name for the “Southern Cross.”

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Chancellor Rose Tseng stands with award recipients and their nominators at the UH Hilo Alumni Banquet. Front row, l-r, Rose Tseng; Stanley Hara, Marcia Sakai; and back row, l-r, Jerry Chang, Tom Murphy, Robert Dircks, Leon Hallacher, Don Hemmes, Walter Dudley, Hansen Tsang, Gay Porter, Kay De Mello, Loretta Matsumoto, and John Farias. Photos by James Rubio.

Last Friday’s Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Service Awards banquet was a great success! Distinguished Alumni Awards went to Gay Porter, Hansen Tsang, and Robert Dircks. Distinguished Service Awards were given to Don Hemmes, Stanley Hara, John Farias, George Martin, and Eddie De Mello. More here about the winners and their bios.

“Special thanks to our UH Hilo ‘ohana and our community for coming to honor our distinguished alumni and distinguished service awardees,” says Yu Yok Pearring, director of marketing and alumni affairs.

Chancellor Tseng, at the podium, welcomes guests at the annual UH Hilo Alumni Banquet .

The event’s program included a write up about the pivotal moment in time when UH Hilo’s fate was put in the right direction by the distinguished service awardees honored on Friday. Here is the text:

“By Inquiry into the Past, One Will Develop a Greater Appreciation for the Present”

During its 60-year history, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo has faced numerous challenges. Despite its growth potential with a large land mass and strong community support for expansion, UH decision-makers sometimes failed to grasp the role UH Hilo could play to enrich and enhance the university system, while expanding the state’s base for higher education.

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An information session for students interested in pursuing a master’s degree in Human Resource Management or a neighbor island MBA at UH Hilo is scheduled for Thursday, March 6, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at UH Hilo’s UCB 127. Interested parties should RSVP to mariavic@hawaii.edu or call (808) 956-8870.

Both degree programs, scheduled to begin in the Fall 2008 semester, are the result of collaboration involving UH Hilo’s College of Business and Economics and the Office of Distance Learning with the Office of Executive Programs at UH Manoa’s Shidler College of Business.

Prospective students must pass the Graduate Management Admission Test for admission. A GMAT practice session has been scheduled for Saturday, March 8, at 9 a.m. to noon at UH Hilo’s Kanaka‘ole Building, Room 126. Interested parties should register with Kaplan Test Prep at www.kaptest.com/practice by searching “Free Events” in Hawai‘i, or by calling 1-800-KAPTEST.