The University of Hawai‘i has always been dedicated to providing the highest quality engineering education for the people of Hawai‘i, from awarding the first engineering degree in 1912, just five years after the university was founded, to the establishment of the College of Engineering in 1959. It continues the commitment as a major international institution embracing the world through the breadth of its faculty and student body and the caliber of its high technology instruction and programs.

Testing the tensile strength of materials
is a vital part of design and construction.

Launching Successful Careers

The University of Hawai‘i's engineering programs have launched thousands of successful engineering careers -- locally, nationally, and internationally. Graduates serve as presidents and chief executive officers of local engineering firms, designers of jet aircraft and computers, heads of government departments or divisions, and high-ranking officers of contracting firms. Our 8,000 alumni serve as testament to the College of Engineering's dedication and academic strength in the fields of civil, electrical and mechanical engineering.

Application specific integrated circuits help
engineers miniaturize electronic products

The student body continues to be ethnically diverse and highly talented. The faculty's reputation is as strong now as it has ever been. Several members have international reputations in their areas of expertise. Others have been named fellows in professional societies, which is a mark of distinction. Engineering professors have received four of the five special Presidential Young Investigator research grants awarded to this university's faculty by the National Science Foundation. The College of Engineering has successfully balanced an academic program of progressive modernization and fundamental excellence with a focus on critical cognitive and engineering skills.
Engineers design miniaturized chips that can hold billions of transistors.

Promoting Professional Growth

Graduates have the capacity for long-term professional growth. They pursue graduate studies at leading mainland universities, work for major high technology corporations, participate in national and international state-of-the-art technology research or serve in high management positions as government engineers.

Clean room laboratories facilitate the development
of sensors which can be used for medical diagnostics.

Each of the College of Engineering units is on the cutting edge of technology. For example, in the Department of Civil Engineering, a geotechnical data base is being generated for the State of Hawaii to assist in infrastructure maintenance. In the Department of Electrical Engineering, very large scale integrated circuits for use in computers, stereos, telephones and other electronic products are designed. Advance computer architecture and parallel/adaptive computing are applied to greatly increase the rates at which computers work. In the Department of Mechanical Engineering, technologies are studied to provide pure water and plentiful alternative energy -- creating power from geothermal, deep ocean water and biomass sources.

Analysis of traffic patterns aids engineers
in streamlining the flow of vehicles.

Pioneering Research

Moreover, the college is renowned for its pioneering work. In civil engineering the focus includes seismic and wind engineering for structural design. Electrical engineers are breaking ground in areas such as coding and information theory, computer communications, satellite communications and error control systems for space communications. Prominent areas in mechanical engineering are heat transfer in porous media and geothermal systems, as well as use of chemical reactions in supercritical water to produce high value chemicals from sugars.

Space, medicine and sports will benefit from engineers
studying corrosion of lightweight metal composites.

The College of Engineering, in collaborations with the State and University of Hawaii, actively cooperates with research agencies such as the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii and the university's Water Resources Research Center, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute and Sea Grant College Program. Cooperative research projects include the use of underwater vehicles to explore the ocean floor, discovery of materials that corrode slowly when exposed to seawater and development of computer visions techniques to see underwater.

Providing Unlimited Opportunities

The central Pacific location of the college and its research agencies affords faculty and students with unlimited opportunities for pursuing high technology research in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, the College of Engineering benefits from intense international research interest and participation -- a trend which ensures a progressive, well-funded and visible high technology research environment far into Hawaii's future.

As a member of the Hawaiian community and university system, the College of Engineering has dedicated itself to providing all of Hawaii's youth with the opportunity to realize their engineering ambitions. In today's complex world, the college has expanded the breadth of its service to the people of Hawaii by focusing on high technology research as a means of preserving the environment and improving the quality of life for all. From providing theoretical instruction in the classroom to crossing the practical frontiers of innovative energy technologies, the College of Engineering is pursuing a broad mission of academic excellence for the benefit of all Hawaii's citizens.