Team Category
Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at the University of Hawai‘i (Benjamin Jones, Joshua Levy, Ted Ralston, Aricia Argyris)
Military Sealift Command estimates that 70% of the requested critical packages for submarines weigh less than five pounds. This led to the question, “Could offshore deliveries be done by a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) instead of tug, ship, or rotary-wing aircraft?” Jones, Levy, Ralston, and Argyris innovated a delivery-and-capture system for the sUAS and worked with the U.S. Pacific Fleet Submarine Force to secure the necessary authorities to conduct the operation and understand operational constraints. They also trained Navy personnel to operate the sUAS from shore and from onboard the submarine. An October 2019 demonstration proved so successful that the ARL team in now working on expanded capabilities in Phase II.
Maunakea Weather Center (Tiziana Cherubini, Ryan Lyman)
The tremendous success of the Maunakea Weather Center (MKWC) over a period of two decades is substantially due to the remarkable and sustained efforts of Tiziana Cherubini and Ryan Lyman. MKWC astronomical weather forecasts are considered the best in the world—a result of complex global and local data gathering, the application of custom weather algorithms, and specialized insights gained from years of experience. The products produced by Tiziana’s custom regional weather model and delivered by Ryan’s expert online web design have been heavily used within Hawaii. Daily hits to the MKWC weather server exceed 100,000 per day during close approach of hurricanes. Output from MKWC is also used in a vog dispersion model of hazardous volcanic emissions. This vog model provided critical guidance to emergency managers during the 2018 Kilauea eruption.