HAPI Lunch Meeting – February 2022 | Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry

Our first in-person lunch meeting in over two years was conducted on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at the Pearl County Club. Over 40 HAPI members and invited guests enjoy the company, lunch, and program.

Following his tradition, executive director Jon Young started the meeting with a drawing for his appreciation gift to the members and guest. Sean Barboza was the lucky winner of a Navy YETI 12 oz. Rambler® Jr.

Our 2022 Hall Fame Inductee Garret Okada was next. He reminisced about about his career at HDOT and how people may have thought of him as a trouble maker, which was simply not true. He went on to say that HDOT and industry got a lot done working together – the use of SMA and the smoothness specification to name a couple of the accomplishments.

Next we got a chance to meet three of our 4 scholarship recipients. Logan Castro away at the Georgia Institute of Technology did a recorded presentation. Justin Kawamura away at Boise State University was able to join us via Zoom. Amr Ghanem, a University of Hawaii at Manoa student, did his presentation in person. Our forth recipient Yvette Burdett was unable to attend.

Our guest speaker Brennon Morioka, Dean College of Engineering at University of Hawaii at Manoa gave an wonderful and informative presentation of the programs at the college. Programs such as the Community Innovation Mentorship Program (CIMP), which involve organizations in the community to solve real world problems to help make Hawaii a better place, while preparing the next generation with the skills and experiences to launch them into their careers in technology.

The UH grads all thought we never had something like this to help us get started in our engineering careers. Everyone went away from the meeting with a clear understanding of the goals for the College of Engineering.

Click here for a copy of the presentation slides.

Everyone had an enjoyable time!