January 2026

Aloha IEEE Hawaii Section, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good holiday season and are doing well as we begin 2026. I give my sincere thanks and gratitude for the trust you have placed in me to serve as Chair of the IEEE Hawaii Section for the next two years. I am joined in this new chapter by Vice Chair, Calvin Lee, Secretary, Jonathan Itokazu, and Treasurer, Roxanne Birch.   

Our full Section Executive Committee is still a work in progress, but I am excited to announce the return of Eliya Nakamura as Section Webmaster and Kenneth Lauritzen as Nominations and Appointments Chair. We are also joined by Chi Jow as Section Newsletter Editor and Keil Anderson as Senior Member Elevation Coordinator. I hope to announce the full Executive Committee in the near future.   

I want to take this time to thank Brianne Tengan and the previous team of Hawaii Section Officers for all of their leadership over the last two years. The Section is in a good place today because of the tireless efforts of Brianne and her team and we look forward to building on their success. We wish them all the best on their next adventures within IEEE and beyond.   

We can build a promising future for our Section. We will do this by engaging students and young professionals, building partnerships with local industry, creating new technical opportunities in Hawaii, and ensuring our chapters and affinity groups have the resources they need to thrive. I am impressed by the past and present efforts in these areas, and I am excited to partner with all of you to continue these efforts and strive for new ideas and initiatives as we move forward.

Mahalo, 

Justin Erece 

IEEE Hawaii Section Chair

Join the IEEE Hawaii EDS/SSCS Joint Chapter for a Distinguished Lecturer Seminar on Nanoelectronics: Towards End of Scaling and Beyond by Dr. Bin Yu from Zhejiang University.

Date: 14 Jan 2026
Time: 06:30 PM HST to 08:00 PM HST
Register here: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518253

This seminar is divided into two parts: In the first part, some general trends in nanoscale silicon-based CMOS technology will be briefly reviewed. As an example of the successful university-industrial effort to push forward ultra-scaled IC technology, personal research journal on non-conventional transistor structure will be reflected with the focus on FinFET. In the second part of the seminar, the role of emerging nanostructures and nano-devices in the “post-silicon” era will be discussed. Two-dimensional nanomaterials, heterostructures, and devices have received significant interests from academia and industry lab, attributed to their distinctive layered configuration, band structure, and quantum phenomena. The atomically-thin sheets could be potentially prepared by the conventional thin-film growth techniques. While graphene has been explored as both active and passive elements in future-generation electronics, its gap-less nature implies fundamental limits that promote device innovations. This seminar will introduce recent research progress in my lab in the prototype demonstrations of logic devices, non-volatile memories, on-chip interconnects, nanosensors, and emerging neuromorphic devices on two-dimensional nanostructures and heterostructures. Major challenges and near-future research opportunities will be also highlighted. 

Join the IEEE Hawaii EDS/SSCS Joint Chapter for a Distinguished Lecturer Seminar on The Road to Gate-All-Around CMOS by Dr. Alvin Loke from Intel Corporation.

Date: 23 Jan 2026
Time: 11:00 AM HST to 12:30 PM HST
Register here: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518256

Despite the much debated end of Moore's Law, CMOS scaling still maintains economic relevance with 2nm gate-all-around SoCs anticipated in the coming quarters. Area scaling extensively driven by design/technology innovations co-optimized for primarily logic scaling continue to offer compelling node-to-node power, performance, area, and cost benefits. In this tutorial, we will start with a walk through memory lane, recounting a brief history of transistor evolution to motivate the migration from the planar MOSFET to the fully depleted FinFET. We will summarize the key process technology elements that have enabled the finFET CMOS nodes, highlighting the resulting technology characteristics and challenges. This will set the stage for transitioning to the nanoribbon gate-all-around device architecture and unveiling the magic of how these devices are fabricated.

Join the IEEE Hawaii EDS/SSCS Joint Chapter for a Distinguished Lecturer Seminar on Impact of Advanced CMOS Technology on Analog Design by Dr. Alvin Loke from Intel Corporation.

Date: 23 Jan 2026
Time: 04:30 PM HST to 06:00 PM HST
Register here: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/518258

Embrace the technology – the essence of how analog design has adapted and thrived throughout decades of increasingly unfriendly CMOS scaling. This presentation will cover the impact of advanced CMOS on analog design, and examples of the creativity of analog designers to preserve and extend the performance of traditional analog functions. We will finally take a look at technologies on the horizon and suggest how they will impact the future of analog design.

The IEEE Hawaii Section is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 IEEE Hawaii Section Awards, recognizing outstanding achievement, leadership, and service across student engagement, technical chapters, diversity and inclusion, education, and humanitarian impact. These awards celebrate the dedication and volunteer spirit that continue to strengthen IEEE’s mission in Hawai‘i.

• Outstanding Medium Student Branch of the Year: IEEE Student Branch at University of Hawaii

• Outstanding Chapter of the Year: IEEE Hawaii Power and Energy Society Chapter

• Outstanding Contribution to Promoting Women in Engineering – Group: IEEE Hawaii Women In Engineering

• Outstanding Service and Leadership to the IEEE: Quynh Tran

• Outstanding Contribution to Promoting Women in Engineering – Individual: Kristine Joyce Locquiao
  

• Outstanding IEEE Member Who Made Contributions to STEM and Education as a Mentor, Assistant, or Facilitator: Chi Jow

• Outstanding IEEE Member Contributing to Global Humanitarian Projects or Activities: Andrew Alling

  
  

The IEEE Hawaii Section extends its heartfelt congratulations and sincere appreciation to all winners for their outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to advancing technology for humanity.

The IEEE Hawaii Section is proud to have supported four students in attending the IEEE Rising Stars Conference. Stephanie Chu, Emily Lei, and Nicole Shibuya from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, along with Sophie Bulatovic from Hawaii Pacific University, had the opportunity to engage with industry professionals, IEEE leaders, and fellow students from other universities. In addition to participating as an attendee, Stephanie Chu also served as a panel speaker on the “Solving the Involvement Gap” session during the Student Leadership Workshop, contributing valuable student perspectives on engagement and leadership within IEEE.

The IEEE Hawaii Section is honored to support student participation in regional conferences and remains committed to fostering professional growth, leadership development, and meaningful connections for the next generation of engineers.

The following jobs are currently listed on the IEEE Job Board.

• Electrical/Mechanical Engineer - Adon Renewables
• CER Program Engineer - Hawaiian Electric 

• ASIAA/EAO Computing/Network Specialist - Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) and East Asian Observatory

For job listings, visit r6.ieee.org/hawaii/jobs

Want to post a job? r6.ieee.org/hawaii/post-a-job