UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2019

Mr. Kawahara is a professionally licensed engineer in the State of Hawaii that currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Akinaka and Associates, Ltd. He graduated from Iolani High School, before obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Mr. Kawahara has proven to be very active in the UH community, including serving on the UH College of Engineering Dean’s Council, Homecoming Committee, and the UH Engineering Alumni Association. In recognition of Mr. Kawahara's professional career and significant contributions to the University of Hawaii, he was awarded with the University of Hawaii College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018. We are pleased to induct Ken Kawahara as Chi Epsilon’s 54th Chapter Honor Member of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. 

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2018

Mr. Lau is a professionally licensed engineer and is the President of Pacific Geotechnical Engineers, Inc.  Glen graduated from Waipahu High School, before obtaining his Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree in 1979 at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Shortly after in 1980, Glen received his Master’s Degree in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. During his time at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Glen initiated into Chi Epsilon in 1978.

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2017

Mr. Wayne Y. Yoshioka has had over 35 years of experience in transportation engineering. In his 28 years as a consultant, he has been involved in numerous projects involving transportation planning, traffic engineering, and traffic impact analysis studies. From 2008-13, he served as Director of the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services where he was intimately involved in the development of the City’s Honolulu Area Rapid Transit (HART) project. He took his position to heart by riding every bus route on the island, thus knowing the bus system inside and out. He is currently the Transportation Engineering Technical Lead at AECOM’s Honolulu office. Mr. Yoshioka has already been generous in giving time back to the University. He has been an active mentor in the Civil Engineering Department’s senior design capstone course, CEE 490, for the past decade. Even through his busy schedule, he makes it a point not to miss the student presentations and diligently asks pertinent questions related to his specialty.

 UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2016

 Ms. Beverly Ishii-Nakayama is Vice President of Shigemura, Lau, Sakanashi, Higuchi & Associates.  Born and raised in Hawaii, she graduated from Radford High School and received a BSCE from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, a MSCE from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. She was initiated into Chi Epsilon while studying at the University of Hawaii. She specialized in structural engineering at Stanford University. She is a licensed professional engineer in California and a licensed structural engineer in Hawaii. Ms. Ishii-Nakayama served as board member and chairperson for the City and County of Honolulu’s Building Board of Appeals in early 2000. Additionally, she volunteered her time for the Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii (SEAOH) where she was President in 2005, and for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii (ACECH) where she was President of the Board of Directors in 2013-2014. An accomplished tennis player, Ms. Ishii-Nakayama recently participated in the United States Tennis Association Finals in her age group in Arizona where her team took second place. 

Mr. Ken Hayashida is president of KAI Hawaii, Inc., and has been a respected member of Hawaii's engineering community for over 24 years. He earned his BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and his MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.

Mr. Hayashida was initiated into Chi Epsilon on April 24, 1982. He has contributed to the University of Hawaii’s Civil Engineering program by serving on the CoE Dean’s Advisory Council, the Department of Civil Engineering Industry Liaison Committee, and as director of the UH Engineering Alumni Association. Mr. Hayashida’s accomplishments have been recognized locally and nationally with the Kukulu Hale Award in 2006, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii Celebration of Leadership and Achievement Award in 2010, and the National Society of Professional Engineers ‘Engineer of the Year’ award in 2007.

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2014

Glenn Nohara, President of Genba Hawaii, Inc. has over 35 years of experience in the construction industry. He holds both a Professional Engineer’s License and a General Contractor’s License in the State of Hawaii. Positions he has held include cost engineer, estimator, project engineer, project superintendent, as well as vice president of operations and president of a medium size civil construction company. Projects that Glenn has personally been involved in include the Honolulu International Airport Reef Runway, H-1 Airport Makai Viaduct, Paauilo Bridges, Waimea Swinging Bridge, Honouliuli Ocean Outfall (Land Portion), Honouliuli Waste Water Treatment Plant sitework, Mauna Lani Hotel sitework, Westin Kauai Hotel sitework, Kahala Heritage Estates subdivision, and the Castle Hills subdivision.

Glenn is an active member of the General Contractors Association of Hawaii (GCA) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). He also volunteers on several committees at the University of Hawaii, College of Engineering (UHCOE) and has served as a construction industry mentor for its senior civil design class. He is also the current president of the Engineering Alumni Association University of Hawaii (EAAUH).

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2013

Norman Sakamoto has contributed much to the betterment of our society in Hawaii. His civil engineering and contractor background provided him a vision of what was required to improve how we lived and did business in Hawaii. As Building Industry Association President, his colleagues saw his passion and commitment for he profession and the community and urged him to run for public office. Norman Sakamoto accepted this challenge and as a senator in the Hawaii State Legislature, his ethics and values exemplified those of a true public servant. Senator Sakamoto helped to draft and push measures including procurement and tort reform. Norman Sakamoto has and continues to be involved in the betterment of our business and community in Hawaii.

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2012

Dr. Sheryl Nojima is president of Gray, Hong, Nojima & Associates, the state’s only woman-owned small business civil engineering consulting firm. She received her BS, MBA, and PhD from University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM), earned an MS in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a licensed professional engineer in two disciplines – civil engineering (Hawai‘i and Oregon) and environmental engineering (Oregon). Dr. Nojima has worked in the private and public sectors in Hawaii, including M&E Pacific (AECOM), the City and County of Honolulu Department of Public Works, and the UHM College of Engineering, where she served as assistant dean from1995-2000. 

Dr. Nojima was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii from 2004-2012 serving as president and past-president in her last two years. She also served as president of Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) from 2001-2003 and was instrumental in establishing the HSPE Educational Foundation. She is currently a member of the UHM College of Engineering Dean’s Council Executive Committee and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Industrial Advisory Council. In 2011, Dr. Nojima was presented with the Engineer of the Year Award by the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers.

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2011

Dr. Hirota is one of the most experienced civil engineers in the application of automation technology to the improvement of the design engineering profession. He joined Sam O. Hirota, Inc. nearly 40 years ago after serving as a research environmental engineer at the US Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico following attending the University of Michigan. He has spent his career designing many of the built landmarks of Hawaii, while trying to research and improve the design process. The first five years on returning to Hawaii, he promoted the use of the overlay process that was used at the Weapons Laboratory for the production of design documents. The firm staff was trained and they worked with other design firms and the reproduction profession to improve the understanding of the information layering process, which is used today in computer aided design and drafting.

During the 1970’s, Dr. Hirota promoted the use of electronic automation in civil engineering, land surveying and architecture. Sam O. Hirota, Inc. was the first firm in Hawaii to acquire a high speed digital electronic plotting and computational capability for in-house use. Since the University Of Hawaii School Of Architecture did not have comparable equipment, the laboratory classes were taught by Dr. Hirota using systems at the firm. Hawaii’s economy in the 1980’s attracted many of the large Japanese contractors, who were primarily design builders. Dr. Hirota was fortunate to work with almost all of them in building many of the projects completed during that period. The lessons learned by those experiences have been transferred not only internally to the staff at Sam O. Hirota, Inc. but to other firms that have partnered with them. This has led to Dr. Hirota forming affiliated teams including architects, engineers and contractors to pursue design/build projects in Hawaii. During a period of five years in the 1990’s, Dr. Hirota served as a member of the American Consulting Engineers Council Management Practices Committee, which provided practice guidelines in the areas of computer automation hardware and software by conducting seminars for the 5,000 member firms. In the last five years, Dr. Hirota has used his affiliations with companies based in Europe to research and use mobile and terrestrial 3D laser scanning and spherical imaging in the design and construction industry.

He is known throughout the industry for his practical and innovative approach to everything he accomplishes. He has attracted international interest by participating in the planning of documenting the world’s 500 most significant cultural sites by CyArk. CyArk is a non-profit entity whose mission is to digitally preserve cultural heritage sites through collecting, archiving and providing open access to data created by laser scanning, digital modeling, and other state-of-the-art technologies. Dr. Hirota has recognized that educational opportunities are important in shaping the community as a whole and has therefore established many funding sources for local Hawaii students. Finally, as a University of Hawaii Regent, he has focused on the changes to the language for indemnification on University of Hawaii contracts for A/E consultants in order that their projects would be covered by Errors and Omissions insurance.

UHM Chapter Honor Member, 2010

Bernard P. Kea, Sr. joined Community Planning and Engineering (CP&E) in 1967 following nine years of service as a Design Engineer for the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Public Works Sewer Division and the State of Hawaii’s Department of Transportation Highways Division.

Between the late 1960s and early 1980s, Mr. Kea completed a succession of noteworthy projects covering the valleys and ridges from Aiea to Pearl City. Under his guidance, CP&E planned and engineered a multitude of residential subdivisions, apartment-condominium complexes, recreational venues, industrial parks, and retail shopping centers. Majority of Mr. Kea’s work can be seen in Pearlridge, Newtown, Royal Summit, and Waiau.

Throughout subsequent decades and with the advent of master planned communities on Oahu, Mr. Kea became involved with such award-winning projects as Waipio by Gentry, Waikele, and Ko Olina Resort & Marina. He began overseeing the integration of subdivision lot-layout and total infrastructure planning, often serving as the person responsible for discerning if it was practical or even feasible to build on selected parcels. In 1966, the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce presented him with the prestigious O’o Award in recognition of exemplary achievements in business. Currently serving as Chairman Emeritus at CP&E, he continues to be actively involved with the company and is currently focused on planning new communities for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, which will be spread across the entire state, from Wailua, Kauai to Panaewa on the Big Island. He has also taught CEE 489B, a senior level course dealing with Surveying and Site Planning here at the UHM.