With a push from Kaua’i Mayor Bryan Baptiste and his Adopt-a-School program, 100 high school students invaded the Marriott Wednesday, checking out all the newest innovations in defense weaponry.
The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) symposium invited the students from the three public high schools, bussed them in, gave them a free lunch, and invited them to think about a future in the high-technology field.
About 15% of the 78 exhibitors and 50 displays have a permanent presence on Kaua’i, and many more work with the Pacific Missile Range Facility on joint projects, said Dave Nekemoto, a symposium co-chair.
“It helps the students, giving them a bird’s-eye view of the breakthrough technology and technology involvement,” said Stu Burley, symposium co-chair and strategic planning manager for PMRF. “We are hoping every kid will go away saying ‘this is what I want to do with my life,'” said Burley.
Kaua’i High School seniors wandered through the booths, engaging with retired admirals and defense contractors dressed in aloha shirts.
“It was pretty interesting,” said Titus Hori, a senior at the Lihu’e school. “Pretty fun, too.”
Hori, and friend Jake Oketani had been particularly impressed with the “satellite thing,” which, they said, was able track missiles from space and give detailed simulations.
Kapa’a High School Calculus and Physics students said they were pretty impressed with a heat -sensor camera that gave a computer screen picture and a air-pump-like item used to determine a missile’s position.
While some students cleaned up, walking around, watching flight simulations, and picking up knickknacks such as light-up pens and coffee mugs, other students became involved in a certain booth’s capabilities and stayed for demonstrations and intense discussions.
Brandon Dannog, a Waimea High sophomore, was intrigued by the black boxes at one booth and some of the laser technology at another, he said.
Christopher Aguilar, also a sophomore, was roped in by a specific software company, he said. Since he was interested in software already, he was wondering what software technology was impacting the next-generation war equipment displayed, he said.
All students said they were pretty surprised that this technology was being utilized on Kaua’i.
Burley, who worked on getting the students to the symposium for months, was excited at the prospects of students getting hooked on high technology at the conference.
“This is the highest technology high schools kids have ever seen,” he said.
