Amber Imai-Hong honored as RCUH Outstanding Employee of the Year
Amber Imai HongThe Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i (RCUH) announced the 2021 Outstanding Employee of the Year Awardees. In the Researcher/Project Manager Category, Amber Imai-Hong, an outreach and engineering specialist with the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium and Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL), was selected as the second place awardee.
“Amber is a fantastic avionics engineering and outreach specialist. Her vision is to train and foster more technically proficient youth (e.g., Native Hawaiians) for higher paying jobs in Hawai‘i’s workforce,” states the award citation.
Imai-Hong contributes to the design and build of a variety of satellites at HSFL and shares her passion and knowledge with elementary, middle, high school and college students across the state.
Recently, she teamed up with faculty from UH and the Hawai‘i Science and Technology Museum (HSTM) to guide over 100 people, including students from Hawai‘i Island schools and the University of Hawai‘i (UH) to created “Hiapo,” a small satellite equipped with sensors to measure Earth’s magnetic field.
“Most students had less than a year of experience with satellite design or rocketry when they started working on Hiapo,” said Imai-Hong. “This project gave many interested and enthusiastic students the knowledge and confidence to become leaders in their groups.”
Currently, Imai-Hong is the program manager on two grants that aim to engage middle and high school and college students in the design and build of small satellites, called 1U CubeSats.
The first, Project POKE (Providing Opportunities for Keiki in Engineering), received funding from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund with the goal of building a collaborative STEM community and getting satellite hardware into Hawaii’s classrooms. The program offers an opportunity for teachers to incorporate an interest in space science, computer science, project-based learning and real-world design experience.
Additionally, the Artemis CubeSat Kit project is developing a low-cost CubeSat kit and an undergraduate spacecraft design lab course that will be transitioned into an online course in the public domain, broadening access to the lessons. Developing the low-cost kit and the course is quintessential to link spacecraft design theory to reality.
“All of this year’s nominees are well-deserving of recognition as 2021 RCUH Outstanding Employees of the Year!” RCUH shared in their announcement of honorees.
For more about some of the projects Imai-Hong is involved in, visit these stories on SOEST News and UH News.