Administration

Holmes 240
2540 Dole Street
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-7727
Fax: (808) 956-2291
Web: eng.hawaii.edu

Dean: Brennon T. Morioka 
Interim Associate Dean: T. David Ma
Assistant Dean: Song K. Choi

General Information

An engineering degree provides an excellent background for seeking solutions to many of the problems in the development and management of technology related to urban demands, the enhancement of our living environment, and the effective utilization of our nonrenewable resources. Engineering curricula include both general and theoretical course work designed to enable graduates to meet the challenges of a technology-oriented society. In addition to classic disciplines of engineering, students may also delve into the fundamentals of sustainability, nanotechnology, microscopic simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other state-of-the-art subjects. College curricula encourage the independent study of novel engineering processes, integrating entrepreneurship, and innovation. Particular emphasis is placed on problems related to sustainability, resilience, and the preservation and enhancement of the environment.

Engineering has been a major program of study at this institution since its founding in 1907. UH Manoa has granted close to 12,000 engineering degrees, and many of the professional engineers practicing in industry, consulting firms, and governmental agencies throughout the state are graduates of UH Manoa.

Accreditation

The undergraduate programs in civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org.

Degrees and Certificates

Bachelor’s Degrees: BS in civil engineering, BS in computer engineering, BS in construction engineering, BS in electrical engineering, BS in engineering science, BS in mechanical engineering

Master’s Degrees: MS in civil engineering, MS in electrical engineering, MS in mechanical engineering

Doctoral Degrees: PhD in civil engineering, PhD in electrical engineering, PhD in mechanical engineering

For information on programs in biological engineering, refer to the “College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources” section of the Catalog. For information on programs in ocean and resources engineering, refer to the “School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology” section of the Catalog.

Advising

Student and Academic Affairs Office
Holmes 250, 2540 Dole Street
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-8404

All students in the College of Engineering must receive approval of their program of courses from their faculty advisors prior to registration each semester.

Updated curriculum check sheets summarizing all of the requirements for each undergraduate curriculum are available online at: curriculum/.

Undergraduate engineering students who are well-qualified academically are encouraged to participate in the UH Manoa Honors Programs (see the “Honors Programs” section within the Undergraduate Education Programs).

New Students

Incoming students are encouraged to meet with an engineering academic advisor by scheduling an appointment with the Student and Academic Affairs Office in Holmes 250.

Undergraduate Programs

Each of the curricula offered by the College of Engineering provides a fundamental science-oriented university education with coverage of communications, the humanities, and social sciences, as well as the basic physical sciences of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The curricula also encompass engineering sciences common to all engineering disciplines and project courses that introduce the engineering method of design.

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission to UH Manoa are described in the “Undergraduate Education” section of the Catalog. High school students applying to the College of Engineering should have completed trigonometry, physics, and chemistry and are expected to be calculus ready upon enrollment. The college also uses aptitude tests and high school records in its screening procedure. Successful applicants are initially accepted into Pre-engineering prior to further screening.

Transfer students must have completed ENG 100, MATH 241 and 242, PHYS 170/170L, and CHEM 161/161L and 162 or their equivalents, and have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Students who do not meet entry requirements may enroll in Pre-engineering in the College of Engineering and declare into an engineering major at a later time. Pre-engineering students are advised by the College of Engineering and may enroll in lower division engineering courses with no additional approvals needed.

College Requirements

Course work in each curriculum consists of a set of required courses common to all engineering majors and additional courses to satisfy departmental requirements. The college participates actively in UH Manoa Honors Program. The courses required of all engineering students, which also satisfies the General Education Core Requirements of UH Manoa, consist of the following:

Written Communication

  • ENG 100 Composition I (3) (FW) or approved FW course

Arts, Humanities and Literature

  • COMG 251 Principles of Effective Public Speaking (3) (DA)
  • One elective (3) (DH or DL)

Social Sciences

  • ECON 120 Introduction to Economics (3), ECON 130 Principles of Microeconomics (3), or ECON 131 Principles of Macroeconomics (3) (DS)
  • One elective (3) (DS)

Global and Multicultural Perspectives

  • Two approved FG electives (6)

Quantitative Reasoning

  • MATH 241 Calculus I (4) (FQ), MATH 242 Calculus II (4), MATH 243 Calculus III (3), and MATH 244 Calculus IV (3);
  • or MATH 251A Accelerated Calculus I (4), MATH 252A Accelerated Calculus II (4), and MATH 253A Accelerated Calculus III (4)

Natural Sciences

  • CHEM 161/161L General Chemistry I/Lab and 162 General Chemistry II (3/1/3) or CHEM 171/171L Principles of Chemistry (4/1) or CHEM 181/181L Honors General Chemistry (4/1) (DP/DY)
  • PHYS 170/170L General Physics I/Lab (4/1) (DP/DY)
  • PHYS 272/272L General Physics II/Lab (3/1) (DP/DY)

In addition, a student must complete the Focus Graduation Requirements, 1H, 1E, 1O, and 5W courses. The Hawaiian or Second Language is not required for the engineering degree.

BS Degree Requirements

The undergraduate curricula are designed to be completed in eight semesters.

To receive a bachelor of science degree in engineering, a student must adhere to the following:

  1. Complete the course work for one of the engineering curricula, which also satisfies all UH Manoa requirements;
  2. Maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 for all registered credit hours; and
  3. Maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 for all upper division courses (numbered 300-499) in mathematics, science, and engineering.

Major Requirements

See appropriate departments for specific major requirements leading to a bachelor’s degree.

Other Requirements

Undergraduate engineering students are subject to the policies of academic probation, suspension, and dismissal of UH Manoa as specified in the Catalog. In addition, engineering students with either a cumulative GPA of less than 2.0 or an upper division GPA of less than 2.0 may be placed on academic probation. The student must maintain a semester GPA of 2.0 or higher for each probationary semester. Failure to meet any of the above conditions may result in suspension or dismissal. Students who are suspended must reapply for admission to the Office of Admissions within specified deadlines. Students who do not take courses after being suspended for the required one semester are eligible to be readmitted to the College of Engineering. Suspended students who attend another institution (including other UH system campuses) will be considered “transfer” students when reapplying to UH Manoa and must meet the transfer requirements of the College of Engineering.

Graduate Programs

See appropriate department for specific description and requirements.

Combined Bachelor’s & Master’s Degree (BAM) Pathways

Combined Bachelor’s & Master’s Degree (BAM) Pathways afford a way for highly motivated students to efficiently complete a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in a shorter time frame by double-counting course work, up to 3 courses, at the undergraduate tuition rate. In most cases, pathway students graduate with the Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree within 5 years (total). Students must indicate their interest in the BAM pathway in their junior year.

Student Organizations

Student chapters of professional engineering societies are active at the college, and all students are encouraged to participate. Honorary societies are represented in all three departments.

Honors and Awards

The College of Engineering and its departments provide scholarships and awards to exceptional students. For a list of these scholarships, see the “Tuition, Fees, and Financial Aid” section of this Catalog.

Programs

Hawai‘i Advanced Wireless Technologies Institute

The Hawai‘i Advanced Wireless Technologies Institute (HAWTI) is a multidisciplinary research center established by the legislature and approved by the Board of Regents in 2000. Currently, with federal, state, and private funding, HAWTI continues to serve as the leading center for innovative research in the broader areas of wireless technologies conducting joint research and educational activities that promote national and international collaboration and partnership with industry. The institute has tenured faculty, full-time researchers, and graduate students working towards their MS and/or PhD degrees in electrical engineering.

Past and current sponsors of the research activities in the institute include federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, Army CERDEC, SPAWAR, as well as a large number of corporate sponsors, such as Raytheon, Agilent Technologies, BAE, L-3 Communications, Motorola, L3 Technologies, Orbital ATK, and Hawaiian Electric Company.

Faculty in the institute have been recognized with several national and international awards, including the 2012 IEEE AP·S Distinguished Educator Award, 2013 IEEE MTT·S Distinguished Educator Award, and both the UH Regents Medal for Excellence In Research and the UH Regents Medal for Excellence In Teaching. The institute director, Dr. Magdy Iskander, is the founding Editor·ln·Chief of Computer Applications In Engineering Education by Wiley, was the 2002 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and has received the ASEE Curtis W McGrew Award for Research and the ASEE George Westinghouse Award for teaching excellence. Some of the institute’s ongoing research is included in the recent publication, The World of Applied Electromagnetics by Springer.

National and International Collaboration: The institute is a member of the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC), and has international partnership agreements with The State Key Lab on Microwave & Digital Communications, Tsinghua University, China; The Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France; Communication Research Center, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan; and Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

Research Areas: Research areas include advanced multifunction and ultra wideband antenna designs, propagation modeling and characterization of wireless communication channels, digital signal processing (DSP) for smart antennas, ground penetrating radar technologies for UXO and IED detection and classification, microwave methods for biomedical applications (in collaboration with JABSOM), the development of radio frequency tunable devices for reconfigurable antennas cognitive radio, solar energy harvesting applications, reinforcement learning and optimization with applications in renewable energy and smart grids. Recent research projects include a microwave stethoscope for monitoring patient vital signs and measuring changes in lung water content, the development of antennas for directional networks, use of genetic programming for the design of ultra-wideband metamaterials, the development of textile antennas for medical and military applications, optimization of Hawai‘i electric power grids using reinforcement learning, and development and application of genetic programming in electromagnetics.

STEM Outreach: HAWTI has received significant grants from the State of Hawai‘i, National Science Foundation, and corporate sponsors to launch its STEM outreach program for middle schools in Hawai‘i (Research Experience for Teachers, RET).

Laboratory Facilities: HAWTI has developed four state-of-the-art laboratories to support the ongoing research activities. This includes an indoor antenna range, a wireless communications testbed, microwave measurements and network analysis lab, and the RF devices fabrication and probe station for characterization lab.

For graduate studies, all students/applicants need to fulfill the requirements of the Graduate Division, manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/, as well as those of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. For availability of research opportunities, as well as visiting scholar and graduate fellowships at HAWTI, contact Magdy Iskander, Director of HAWTI and professor of electrical engineering at magdy@hawail.edu.

Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory

The Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) was established in 2007 as a multidisciplinary research and education activity bringing together individuals from diverse areas to explore, study, and advance the understanding of the space environment. Among HSFL’s goals are to provide the infrastructure for collaborative space and science research, encourage entrepreneurship and industrial relations, and provide students with a rich and exciting education for careers in space science and engineering.

Hawai‘i’s unique location opens the door for it to become a low-cost gateway to space and positions UH Manoa as the only university in the world to have both satellite fabrication capabilities and unique, direct access to orbital space. These features can enable many experiments that study the earth’s oceans and continents, as well as test numerous engineering experiments in the hostile environment of space. In this way, HSFL merges research interests in the College of Engineering and the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology.

Native Hawaiian Science & Engineering Mentorship Program (NHSEMP)

The Native Hawaiian Science & Engineering Mentorship Program (NHSEMP) began in 2001 as a joint initiative between UH Manoa, College of Engineering, and Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. NHSEMP serves over 100 students annually, providing assistance, opportunities, and community for students to excel in the STEM fields with a goal of creating leaders in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island communities through academic excellence in STEM.

NHSEMP utilizes the successful longitudinal model created by the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program to provide a suite of opportunities at the K-12, pre-college, and university levels including STEM engagement days, summer bridge programs, tutoring, financial assistance, a STEM Center, and other student support services. NHSEMP partners with UH departments, federal organizations, and industry to provide undergraduate research experiences and internships. Additionally, NHSEMP’s ‘Oi Ka Na‘auao Workshop series provides opportunity for professional development, mentorship, and cultural awareness, understanding, and identity.

Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program

The University of Hawai‘i is part of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Consortium, which was started by the Georgia Institute of Technology. VIP programs seek to foster project-based learning to engage students and better prepare them for future careers. VIP teams are vertically integrated: they consist of a faculty mentor, graduate student researchers, and undergraduates of all levels. The teams are large (10 to 20 undergraduates), and projects are long-term (at least 5 years in scope), and based on an externally funded research topic. Undergraduates in VIP teams earn academic credit for their participation.

Our VIP efforts are organized around the following themes:

  • Robotics: The College of Engineering robotics program spans microrobotics to marine (submersible and surface) robotics to aerospace (drones and small satellites) and surgical robotics;
  • Astronomy: UH Manoa has an exceptionally strong astronomy program, with access to real telescope time for developing astronomical instruments. Student-built nanosatellites have been constructed and launched three times since 2006;
  • Rapid Prototyping: The UH System has also made it a priority for its students to be part of the “Maker Movement,” inspiring our third VIP focus area to be in rapid prototyping and re-manufacturing. Goals and objectives include cultivating and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship at UH Manoa by providing the learning resources, tools and facilities to cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship and serving as a conduit to the local startup ecosystem; and
  • Sustainability: Our fourth focus area is in sustainability. As the most isolated land mass in the world, Hawai‘i has a vested interest in sustainability in many areas: architecture, energy, food, water, and transportation. Indeed, this focus allows for rich cross-disciplinary VIP opportunities across many academic disciplines throughout campus.