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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
October 5, 1999 |
Contact: Karin Mackenzie, Office of Community and Alumni Relations, phone
956-4051; fax 956-9085
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| Aspect Technology Fund provides grants to enterprising
students in the field of technology |
The Aspect Technology Fund offers four grants, with a minimum amount of $5,000, to University of Hawai'i at Manoa full-time undergraduate and graduate students who promote advancement in high technology innovation and demonstrate entrepreneurship. Grants will be awarded to students who produce innovative project ideas marketable in Hawai'i's economy and conducive to the state's high technology industry.
Last year's winners were graduate students Kelly Benoit Bird and Joseph Dane and sophomore Liang-Yu Chen. Project ideas spanned a variety of subjects. Bird worked on an alternative to SONAR, replicating a specialized kind of echolocation used by dolphins to find deep-water food supply. Dane planned to create a web site that promoted environmental preservation while encouraging tourism. An electrical engineering major, Chen tried to develop miniature integrated MicroElectricMechanical System components for broadband wireless and super-high-capacity Wavelength-Division-Multiplexing fiber-optical communications, which encouraged a new market for smaller, less expensive communication tools.
The Aspect Technology Fund was established at the Hawai'i Community Foundation by UH alumnus Richard Chan and Jim Laurel, founders of Aspect Software Engineering, Inc., and their partners after the company was acquired by Microsoft Corporation.
The application deadline for this year's grants is Feb. 1, 2000, at 4 p.m. Applications and detailed instructions are available in all Manoa departments and in the Office of Community and Alumni Relations in Hawai'i Hall 102D.
