Fixing the "Pains" of Our Ocean World

Our third day took us to downtown Honolulu to learn about the work of engineers at Oceanit, a locally-built business that creates innovative solutions to our "pains."  Neenz Faleafine, Oceanit's Community Developer, explained how Oceanit works and took us around the office to see just a few of the inventions they created and now market through spin-off companies.

One of the inventions is a "smart bed" that can read and monitor the body's temperature, breathing, etc. through a coverlet, which allows people from afar to see how a patient, or kupuna, is doing.

 Neenz also talked about a "smart concrete" that can figure out how heavy a vehicle is driving on the road as well as the condition of roads, among other things. These inventions are created by teams, inspired by ideas that are sometimes drawn on walls in the office. A special paint allows the drawings to be easily erased.

One of the inventions that was really neat was the 3-D printer.

After the office tour, we listened to Dr. Bob Burke talk about his job at Oceanit. He is a biologist that specializes in fishes. He spends a lot of time on field studies with other specialists to learn about the environment they are trying to help.

Dr. Burke helped us understand what it takes to be a scientist and how to prepare in school to go on that path. You gotta like math and science!

After Oceanit, we walked a few blocks to the offices of The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit international conservation organization that has been in Hawai`i for 30 years. There we met members of the Marine program, including Sean Marrs, Kanekoa Kukea-Shultz, Manuel Mejia, Duane Minton, and Brad Wong.

Each of the staff members talked about their jobs, how they got started, who inspired or mentored them, and most importantly, why they do what they do.

 
Sean and Koa also prepared us for our visits next week to the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (where the Super Sucker, invented by staff of The Nature Conservancy, is stationed) and Mahuahua 'Ai o Hoi in He'eia., where Koa works on a kalo/coastal restoration project. He said to be prepared to get really dirty! Woohoo!