Four student teams were awarded prizes for their innovative creations in the inaugural Innovate 808 competition hosted by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE).
The event, held over two weekends in October and November, introduced students to career opportunities with local companies and enhanced their problem-solving skills by tackling real world challenges. For the competition’s first year, PACE chose the Hawaiian Chip Company. Its founder and owner Jimmy Chan asked the students for innovative ideas to grow his business, while celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Cross-disciplinary winners
PACE aimed to get 15 participants, but received 40+ applications and 35 students participated in the competition. The winning team was cross-disciplinary from business and computer science. Roma Amor Malasarte (computer science), Sophia Lydan Matro (exploratory business) and Sean Umeda (computer science) created 3D renderings of new packaging solutions to celebrate the Hawaiian Chip Company’s 25th year anniversary and attract more tourists. The team took home a $1,000 cash prize, a gift basket and private tour of the Hawaiian Chip Company’s facilities with lunch.
Three runner up teams also impressed, prompting PACE and the Hawaiian Chip Company to award them with prizes as well. Architecture graduate students Hunter Wells and Beau Nakamori re-envisioned the retail store with a 3D fly through. A team of Quang Loc Lam (business administration), Veronica Parayno (computer science) and Rei Fukuzawa (information and computer science) presented an online platform for customers to suggest and name new flavors, and students Stephan Callion-Nizo (food science), Jace Lee (food science) and Addison Landon (exploratory business) created two entirely new chip flavors—kimchi and marinara.
“I really enjoyed how this program allows you to directly work with the CEO of a successful small business,” Landon said. “Being able to interact with the brand through trying the products and visiting the site was a great way to get hands-on-experience in pitching ideas to a company.”
Wells added, “The greatest part about the competition was having a multidisciplinary experience. I learned a lot about real-world issues and how different specializations tackle the same problem.”
Implementing new ideas
Chan plans to offer factory tours to every student that participated and is already collaborating with PACE to connect local businesses for next year’s competition.
“I was really impressed by the amount of work that teams put in,” Chan said. “The level of polish on the presentations and the amount of research that teams did to support their idea and pitch, it was really great to see their effort. There was a good mix of ideas—some we were already considering and some that we never thought about before, and there were several ideas that we want to implement.”
According to PACE, participants in the competition were from the School of Architecture, School of Travel Industry Management, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, College of Social Sciences, College of Education, College of Natural Sciences, Shidler College of Business, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience and College of Engineering.
“We want to prepare students for their career, whether that’s starting up their own business or, in this case, working at a local small business,” said PACE Entrepreneur in Residence Jeff Hui. “We couldn’t be more pleased by the quality of the students’ work and the learning they gained.”
