Hawaii-based company mentors bright scientific minds through competitive internships

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A Honolulu company has trained and mentored some of the brightest scientific minds across the country this summer.

Each year, Oceanit selects a handful of interns nationwide for their summer program that teaches them to apply their academics to real-world problems.

The projects have zero limitations and can apply to any field or subject.

Through identifying problems, the students work alongside company professionals and their assigned mentor to research, conceptualize and develop innovative solutions.

“We look for people that are excited to learn new things and to try new things. We encourage them to try something really hard that might be very impactful, even at the risk of it failing because there’s a lot to learn from that too,” said Oceanit CEO Patrick Sullivan.

Oliver Nishikawa is a rising third-year chemical engineering student at Cornell University and a Punahou School graduate. His innovation project focuses on extracting an acid from corn waste and turning it into a natural herbicide that isn’t harmful to humans or the environment.

“When I applied to Oceanit and I got the internship, I was really excited that I could be pursuing something related to engineering while still being at home and being around my family,” Nishikawa said.

“In the beginning it was hard for me to think for myself on the context of my data that I had gathered in the lab. Through my mentors, I think I’m learning to be able to behave independently in lab and to kind of talk about my results and back them up with confidence.”

Joel Kiernan is a recent Stanford graduate whose innovation project explores the use of Orbital Transfer Vehicles to redirect space junk and debris to prevent satellite collisions.

“As an intern, being able to walk up to desks, send cold emails and get such a warm response and access to just a wealth of knowledge to then build on this idea and get really concrete expert advice,” Kiernan said.

“It’s not just one product, one idea here, it’s this huge breadth of ideas.”

The students will present their ideas Wednesday at Oceanit’s innovation summit to company employees, Hawaii State Sens. Troy Hashimoto and Glenn Wakai, and Hawaii State Reps. Daniel Holt and Scot Matayoshi.

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