Students from diverse academic backgrounds came together for the University of UH inaugural undergraduate CyberInfrastructure Summer Immersion Program (CI-SIP) June 2–27. Ten students participated virtually across the state of Â鶹´«Ã½, Guam and the continental U.S. and represented UH Mānoa, Boston University and the University of Guam.

Two newly hired facilitators served as peer mentors, guiding students in applying cyberinfrastructure resources and methods to their research projects. Students met daily to brainstorm and refine research topics, participated in Jetstream2 training, and completed an introduction to high performance computing (HPC), which included an onboarding session for Koa, the UH HPC cluster. Additionally, students explored National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded ACCESS resources along with open-source platforms such as Anaconda.

“The CI-SIP program this year was a remarkable showcase of what’s possible when talented students are given the tools, mentorship and compute power to explore complex problems,” said program lead Alexander Stokes, assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology at the UH Mānoa . “From flood awareness apps and environmental dashboards to protein modeling, AI-driven performance forecasting, and bilingual science tools, the projects reflected a stunning diversity of topics—many of which addressed challenges in health and sustainability. While not every project focused on AI, several used high-performance computing resources like Jetstream2 and UH’s Koa cluster to push the limits of data exploration—and many students expressed a strong desire to go even deeper into AI applications.”

Individual projects

Students worked with large language models and gained skills in data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning through self-paced learning modules. Through their individual projects, students explored applications of these tools in cyberinfrastructure frameworks.

“I love creating things and seeing a final product,” said UH Mānoa undergraduate student Chiara Duyn when speaking about her flood awareness web application project. “I also wanted to learn more about how stream heights and tides can affect flooding on the island while also helping others out.”

Recordings of the students’ final presentations can be found at the UH ’s YouTube channel at .

“It was a joy to witness students take ownership of their work, support each other’s growth, and step confidently into the world of cyberinfrastructure-powered research,” said Stokes.

The CI-SIP program is funded by NSF’s Strengthening the Cyberinfrastructure Professionals Ecosystem Cyberinfrastructure Pacific Professionals award, which supports the enhancement of cyberinfrastructure professional training for science research, education and practice in the Â鶹´«Ã½-Guam-Pacific region.

More than 35 University of Â鶹´«Ã½ students from three campuses (UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹, UH Hilo and UH Maui College) gained hands-on experience tackling real-world challenges at the , held April 4–6, at UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹.

Participants formed interdisciplinary teams to build data-driven solutions using Google Cloud AI tools, including Vertex AI. Five challenge topics pushed students to apply diverse skills toward local and statewide resilience efforts, such as climate data visualization, educational content generation, conversational AI and immersive technology for science communication.

The first-place team, Untrained Parameters, created the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Explorer—an interactive web app that visualizes temperature and rainfall data from the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal, a project led by UH experts. The team included PhD students Federica Chiti and Dhvanil Desai (), Fahim Yasir (), Gerardo Rivera Tello (), and master’s student Yada Ponpittayalert ().

“This was an incredible experience, highlighting the potential of large language models (a type of AI-trained model) for multimodal applications, even within a limited prototype developed in just three days,” said Rivera Tello.

BruhMode earned second place with GenEDU, an AI-powered educational content generator. Third place was awarded to Kani, developers of a climate-focused chatbot. TurtleyAwesome, won the Visualization Challenge with Sheldon the Turtle, a 3D AI-powered museum-style guide for climate data.

Prizes ranged from MacBook laptops and iPads to AR glasses and Google Cloud Platform credits.

Hosted by UH System Information Technology Services (ITS), and , the three-day event was led by the ITS Research Cyberinfrastructure team and supported by the National Science Foundation-sponsored , , Google Cloud and the Burwood Group, Inc.

Mentors from ITS, the Burwood Group, and Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet and Change Â鶹´«Ã½ supported students throughout the hackathon, offering technical guidance and real-world insights.

“This hackathon gave students an incredible opportunity to apply cutting-edge AI tools to real-world challenges that directly impact Â鶹´«Ã½,” said UH ITS Director of Research Cyberinfrastructure Sean Cleveland, who led the event and also served as a program mentor. “Their creativity, teamwork and passion for innovation were truly inspiring to witness.”

The University of ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s (HIDSI) has played a key role in the state’s latest effort to combat the opioid crisis. In collaboration with the Â鶹´«Ã½ Department of Health (DOH), HIDSI developed a groundbreaking online platform to track and manage the allocation of $150 million in opioid settlement funds.

Funds from the settlement are directed to help with addiction recovery treatment, addiction prevention and the distribution of Naloxone, a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.

The (OSP) website, launched in early 2024, enhances public transparency by offering interactive data dashboards that visualize key information. These dashboards provide insights into opioid-related trends, settlement fund distribution and the statewide availability of Naloxone.

“HIDSI was honored to collaborate with the Â鶹´«Ã½ State Department of Health on this vital project,” said Sean Cleveland, Information Technology Services acting director of research cyberinfrastructure. “The Opioid Settlement Project dashboard will be a crucial tool as Â鶹´«Ã½ addresses the opioid crisis in the state.”

Data-driven transparency

The OSP website features three primary dashboards:

• Opioid Overdose Data Dashboard—Tracks overdose-related statistics, including fatalities and emergency room visits.
• Opioid Settlement Fund Data Dashboard—Details how ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s settlement funds are allocated across programs.
• Naloxone Statewide Distributions Data Dashboard—Displays data on the distribution of Naloxone across the islands.

Ensuring effective fund use

Under the settlement agreement, 85% of the funds are managed by the state, while 15% are directed by counties. The Â鶹´«Ã½ Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee oversees the allocation process to ensure funds are used effectively for treatment, harm reduction and prevention initiatives.

This latest initiative underscores HIDSI’s ongoing commitment to leveraging data science for public health advancements.