Where: Hawai`i Keiki Museum, King's Shops, Waikoloa Resort
When: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5-7 p.m.
Presenter: MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering students
A team of MIT students is spending two weeks on Hawai`i Island in January as part of a field research class. Offered for more than two decades by MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the class teaches students how to develop research hypotheses, collect field data, and distill those data into useful results for stakeholders. This year, Prof. David Des Marais and Prof. Jesse Kroll are leading 11 students through three projects at the interface of environmental science and engineering. Students are developing an AI-enabled approach to assess coral reef health, studying how soil and water interact to generate methane, and are continuing a years-long project studying the process of vog formation downwind of Kilauea.
Please join the team on Thursday, January 22, at 5 p.m. at the Hawaii Keiki Museum, as they present the results of these three projects.
Agenda
- 5:00 PM - Doors open, networking, light pupus, and refreshments
- 5:30 PM - Presentation and Q&A
- 6:15 PM - Networking
- 7:00 PM - Pau
About the lecture series
This lecture series is a collaboration of Kona Science Café and the Hawai`i Keiki Museum, with the goal of fostering interests in science and education. There is networking time before and after the presentation to build the science community. It is free and open to the public.