UH Students Showcase STEM Projects at National Conference

Maui Undergraduates Bring Island STEM Research to National Stage

Three undergraduate researchers from University of Hawaiʻi Maui College stepped into the national spotlight this past October, traveling to Long Beach, California, to present their independent scientific investigations at the 2026 National Diversity in STEM Conference. Organized by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), the annual gathering drew more than 1,600 attendees from across the country.

Representing Project Kaihuwaʻa II (PKII)—an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to support local undergraduate talent—the students tackled distinct, real-world problems touching public health, pest biology, and aerospace technology.

The projects presented by the student delegation spanned remarkably diverse technical disciplines. Biology major Lillian Burkhart turned her attention to hospital sanitation, evaluating various shoe decontamination methods—including disinfectant wipes, bleach, sunlight exposure, and ultraviolet treatment—to determine the most effective ways to reduce microbial contamination in clinical environments.

Photo: uh.edu

In the field of pest biology, fellow biology major Jillian Diego used advanced DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction techniques to identify Wolbachia bacteria in German cockroaches collected across Maui. Meanwhile, computer science and technology student Vivian Breman took to the skies, engineering a portable ground station capable of receiving weather satellite transmissions and generating overhead imagery of the Hawaiian Islands.

“All three of our students’ projects were very well received. I believe these unique research projects represent the talents and potential of the next generation of scientists on Maui,” Buddhi Rai, an associate professor of physics at UH Maui College, said in a statement reported by hawaii.edu.

Broader Representation Across the UH System

The Maui delegation was part of a wider contingent of University of Hawaiʻi scholars whose work earned recognition at the national conference. Sophia Kihei of Kapiʻolani Community College presented research titled Graph Theory Analysis of Scientific Coauthorship involving Native Hawaiian Researchers in Hawaiʻi, earning an Indigenous Student Research Abstract Award in the mathematics category.

At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Leilani Phan showcased KaniMoana: Development of a Low-Cost, Open-Source, Underwater Acoustic Recorder, capturing an Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in the engineering division. Andrea Colmenares of Leeward Community College presented work on the Cloning and Purification of Leptospira LigA and LigB Virulence Factors Using Synthetic DNA.

Behind these student successes stands a dedicated network of community-rooted mentorship. Rai directs the $2.6-million PKII scholarship program, which supported roughly 60 scholarship recipients this semester, including more than 10 peer mentors and research interns. Mentors Jung Park, Michelle Phillips, and Michelle Gould joined PKII program supervisor Sean Calder at the conference to evaluate program outcomes and guide the participating scholars.

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