Hawai‘i Data Science Institute

Hawai‘i EPSCoRʻs Change Hawaiʻi project Tori Kiliʻohu Cashman Valdez graduates this spring 2026, a double major in environmental science and Hawaiian studies, she is headed into a master’s program to further her research focus.

Working in the Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization Lab under geography and environmental science Professor Ryan Perroy, she has utilized aerial imagery for coconut rhinoceros beetle detection and presented her findings at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference.

Historic 14-day Rainfall Across Hawaiʻi

Two weeks, two Kona storms, and a record-breaking amount of water. Since March 10, back-to-back storms have officially made this the 3rd wettest March since 1920.
Historic Totals: Across the islands, we’ve seen up to 77 inches of rain in just 14 days.

Statewide Impact: Rainfall has reached as high as 3000% of the normal amount for this time of year (see figure).
Hardest Hit: The second storm (March 19-23) dumped up to 61 inches, triggering devastating floods on Oʻahu’s North Shore and throughout Maui County.
Mānoa Flash Floods: On March 23, intense bursts of 8 inches fell on already saturated ground, causing rapid flooding in the valley.
Preliminary estimates show that an average of 20.4 inches of rain fell across the major islands during this two-week period. That implies over 2.3 trillion gallons of water poured onto the islands—the equivalent of almost 3.5 million Olympic-size swimming pools

Data & map provided by the Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal

Read More ➡️: https://www.hawaii.edu/.../03/19/hawaii-mesonet-storm-data/

March 10 to March 16, 2026 Storm Viewer: https://www.hawaii.edu/climate-data-portal/extreme-event/

Historic 14-day Rainfall Across Hawaiʻi

Two weeks, two Kona storms, and a record-breaking amount of water. Since March 10, back-to-back storms have officially made this the 3rd wettest March since 1920.

Historic Totals: Across the islands, we’ve seen up to 77 inches of rain in just 14 days.
Statewide Impact: Rainfall has reached as high as 3000% of the normal amount for this time of year (see figure).
Hardest Hit: The second storm (March 19-23) dumped up to 61 inches, triggering devastating floods on Oʻahu’s North Shore and throughout Maui County.
Mānoa Flash Floods: On March 23, intense bursts of 8 inches fell on already saturated ground, causing rapid flooding in the valley.
Preliminary estimates show that an average of 20.4 inches of rain fell across the major islands during this two-week period. That implies over 2.3 trillion gallons of water poured onto the islands—the equivalent of almost 3.5 million Olympic-size swimming pools

Data & map provided by the Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal

Read More ➡️: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2026/03/19/hawaii-mesonet-storm-data/

March 10 to March 16, 2026 Storm Viewer: https://www.hawaii.edu/climate-data-portal/extreme-event/

Meet Amanda Navine, a University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo alumna dedicated to Hawaiian bird conservation. Her work in the LOHE Lab utilizes Jetstream2 to analyze large bioacoustic datasets using machine learning, revealing critical insights into endangered bird populations and informing effective conservation management.
💻🐦‍⬛🎶

Read more about her work: https://hilo.hawaii.edu/chancellor/stories/2025/05/14/alumna-amanda-navine/

Register for the Aloha Data AI Hackathon! 🧑‍💻🌈👾 Open to all UH students from any campus. Travel support is available for neighbor island participants.

✨BEGINNERS WELCOME!✨

🏆 Prizes include: Macbook Air laptops, iPads, AirPods, Google Cloud Credits and more!

Learn more and register➡️ https://datascience.hawaii.edu/ai-hackathon/

University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo of Hawaii - West Oahu Kapiʻolani Community College Leeward Community College University of Hawai'i Maui College

Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute member Mahdi Belcaid led a two week summer program to teach interns from eight Hawaiʻi high schools to develop a digital assistant that aims to reduce paperwork and improve efficiency in medical offices using artificial intelligence. 💻🧑‍💻

Read More: ➡️ https://www.hawaii.edu/.../08/23/ai-healthcare-efficiency/

AI to tackle healthcare efficiency focus of HS summer program | University of Hawaiʻi System News This internship was part of Project Hōkūlani, housed in UH Mānoa’s Center on Disability Studies, College of Education.

Hawai‘i Data Science Institute member Sukhwa Hong, an associate professor of data science and business at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo mentored business students to develop an AI chatbot to assist with academic advising as a part of a recent summer project. 💻🧑‍🎓

Students Jing Feng (marketing major), Ginate Mahuru (management), and Basil Tavake (accounting) worked together to develop the best AI chatbot to assist fellow students with academic advising and career guidance.
The 2024 summer project specifically focused on innovative applications of natural language processing and large language models in sustainability and education

Read more ➡ https://hilo.hawaii.edu/.../business-students-develop-ai.../

A University of Hawaiʻi project to enhance cyberinfrastructure adoption, capacity and training in the Pacific region earned a 5-year, $6.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. 💻🏝

Led by principal investigator and Hawaiʻi Data Science member Sean Cleveland, the project will offer services, education and research programs to engage faculty, researchers and students in advanced cyberinfrastructure.

Collaborators include Chaminade University of Honolulu, HI, Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and University of Guam - UOG

Read more ➡ https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/07/21/grant-cyberinfrastructure-capacity-training/

$6.5M boost for cyberinfrastructure capacity, training in the Pacific | University of Hawaiʻi System News The project will offer services, education and research programs to engage faculty, researchers and students in advanced cyberinfrastructure.

Congratulations to our UH Koa HPC users and members of Hawaiʻi Data Science Institute at UH Mānoa, UH Hilo and UH Maui College on their 2024 tenure and promotion! 🥳

Read more➡️ at link in bio.