The Hawai‘i Senate today recognized the Waialua High School Robotics Team, also known as “The Hawaiian Kids” for winning the 2018 Festival de Robotique in Montreal, Canada.
Lead by Glenn Lee, the program’s coach, engineer and project director, the students designed a robot named “Poi Pounder XIX Wave Rider” and won out over 54 other international teams. They also garnered the Industrial Design Award sponsored by GM.
Coach Lee is also a top ten finalist in the Varkey Foundation’s 2018 Global Teacher Prize, chosen from a field of 30,000 applicants from more than 170 countries. The Wailaua Robotics team is the first robotics-related program in the state and their motto is “It’s not about winning…It’s about teamwork, commitment, and responsibility!”
Honored on the Senate floor today along with Coach Lee was mentor Victoria Pescaia and team members Abraham Shell, Anthony Miyatake, and Toshio Yoshizumi.
Also honored by the Senate were the members of the Leilehua High School CyberPatriot team for their recognition as the Top U.S. Army All Service Team in the Nation in 2017.
CyberPatriot is the nation’s high school cyber defense competition that challenges teams to develop solutions to real-life cyber security situations. Leilehua High School Army JROTC team has previously won two Army Service Championships in 2012 and 2013, making this their third win, in addition to three consecutive Hawai‘i State CyberPatriot Championships.
This year, the Leilehua CyberPatriot team is once again the Hawai‘i State Champion and they will attend the National finals in Baltimore, Maryland in April.
Honored on the Senate floor was LHS CyberPatriotic Team coach Nick Spiridgliozzi, Team Captain Jacob Huerta, and team members Tyler McWilliams and Jared Olive-Stalling.