{"id":224472,"date":"2025-10-28T13:25:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=224472"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:25:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:25:35","slug":"innovate-808-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/28\/innovate-808-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Health tech breakthroughs shine in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa innovation challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"people
From left, David Mamae, Pear Suite customer success manager; Kawehi Kea-Scott, Pear Suite operations manager; Justin Paul Alejo; Jennifer Kawata; Ivy Vo; Biplav Paudel; PACE<\/abbr> Executive Director Sandra Fujiyama; and Colby Takeda, Pear Suite co-founder and CEO<\/abbr> and PACE<\/abbr> alumnus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A health tech startup improving how community health workers (CHW<\/abbr>) document client visits took the $2,000 first place prize in the second annual Innovate 808 competition<\/a>, hosted by the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship<\/a> (PACE<\/abbr>) in the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa\u2019s Shidler College of Business<\/a>. The startup was one of 12 interdisciplinary teams made up of UH<\/abbr> Mānoa students that competed in the two-week challenge.<\/p>\n

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The competition’s final event took place October 25 at the Walter Dods, Jr<\/abbr>. RISE<\/abbr> Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The competition was co-hosted by Pear Suite<\/a>, a software platform led by a Shidler and PACE<\/abbr> alumnus, that empowers community-based organizations to address the social drivers of health. It highlighted PACE<\/abbr>\u2019s mission to bridge academic learning with practical, work-based problem-solving.<\/p>\n

“Innovate 808 shows how powerful interdisciplinary learning can be when we connect students to real community partners,” PACE<\/abbr> Executive Director Sandra Fujiyama said. “The ideas generated this year show that innovation truly thrives in collaboration.”<\/p>\n

Interdisciplinary collaboration<\/h2>\n

The students in this year\u2019s challenge represented 10 UH<\/abbr> Mānoa colleges and schools. The result was a dynamic combination of technical, social and entrepreneurial ideas to support Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s community health workforce.<\/p>\n

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Ivy Vo of the winning Pear Lens team presenting to the judges and audience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The winning team, Pear Lens, created a photo-based note capture and conversion tool that allows CHW<\/abbr> to document client interactions more efficiently while maintaining data privacy. The team came together as four solo applicants met for the first time during the competition: Justin Paul Alejo (business), Jennifer Kawata (public administration), Biplav Paudel (business) and Ivy Vo (business).<\/p>\n

“The competition brought together a diverse team of complete strangers to solve a complex challenge, but we quickly found our rhythm and collaborated seamlessly to propose a simple yet powerful idea,” Kawata said.<\/p>\n

Kawehi Kea-Scott, a Pear Suite judge who used to work as a CHW<\/abbr>, commended the team for “meeting CHW<\/abbr>s where they are” by respecting existing workflows while introducing low-friction technology. “The fact that these students built a fully functioning prototype in just two weeks is remarkable,” Kea-Scott said.<\/p>\n

Initially the competition was planned as a winner-takes-all prize structure, but the judges were so impressed by the presentations that three runner-up prizes were added. Each student from the following three teams won $350.<\/p>\n

\"people
The students in the 12 teams in this year\u2019s Innovate 808 represented 10 UH<\/abbr> Mānoa colleges and schools.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \n
  • Jayden Ronel Villanueva, Shannon Tai and Jaylyn-Kate Balon developed a tiered education and certification pathway with AI<\/abbr>-generated feedback and mentoring for aspiring CHW<\/abbr>s.<\/li>\n
  • Tate Goodman, Mau Tsujimura, Micah Tajiri and Lenox Covington created a machine-learning workflow tool that helps CHW<\/abbr>s select the most effective resources for their clients.<\/li>\n
  • Logan Lee, Tristan Ta and Yeunggyun Kwon designed a referral platform that connects CHW<\/abbr>s and clients based on shared experience and training, fostering stronger engagement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Takeda invited the winning teams to present their solutions to his executive team and encouraged all participants to consider internships and employment at Pear Suite, as he shared that Pear Suite will be continuing its nationwide expansion after he recently raised $7.6 million in funding.<\/p>\n

    “Just try it, go out there and find problems to solve,” Takeda said. “Being able to test ideas, try new things and see what the feedback is from your customers is a great way to learn and grow.”<\/p>\n

    Teams were also mentored by Jeff Hui, PACE<\/abbr>‘s entrepreneur in residence, who advised students to “take advantage of these real world experiences. These are the opportunities that open doors to new career paths and set you apart when you are interviewing for a job.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The competition highlighted PACE<\/abbr>\u2019s mission to bridge academic learning with practical, work-based problem-solving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":224473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[240,34,498,541,182,734,1505,630,1466,148,425,185,241,146,244,9],"class_list":["post-224472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-architecture","tag-astronomy","tag-business","tag-computer-science","tag-engineering","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-innovation","tag-learning-design-and-technology","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-microbiology","tag-pacific-asian-center-for-entrepreneurship","tag-political-science","tag-public-health","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-social-work","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/manoa-shidler-pace-innovate-808-winning-team.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224511,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224472\/revisions\/224511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}