The head of the University of Hawaii’s new satellite program dropped out of Roosevelt High School out of boredom and a lack of academic stimulation, then found his calling at UH’s Kapiolani Community College and UH-Manoa.
Jeremy Chan, 29, is now in charge of the HiakaSat satellite that will ride into space atop a three-stage rocket next year. It’s a program that Chan hopes will inspire a new generation of Hawaii students to stay in school and pursue all forms of science, engineering and math — not just for space technology.
"Engineering and computer science and mathematics really are powerful tools to solve problems because the world isn’t perfect yet," Chan said.
Chan oversees five undergraduate and two graduate students and a staff of three building the HiakaSat satellite, the star of a planned space launch from Kauai.
But as a high school student at Roosevelt, Chan was hardly looking up to a career in satellite technology.
His favorite class was electronics, taught by Wallace Ikei, who also helped Chan learn computer maintenance. School librarian Shelli Tottori also ran a program to help Chan and other students learn to network, fix and build computers.
Otherwise, Chan was bored and unchallenged.
"I wasn’t going to school and had kind of attitude problems," he said. "I wasn’t happy how fast school was progressing. I wanted to work in computers, and there wasn’t enough computer stuff."
So Chan dropped out of Roosevelt and got his General Educational Development degree at McKinley High School at age 17.
He then earned his basic computer certifications and went to work in the real world, where he quickly learned he could get only so far without a college degree.
"I saw that all of the managers had their degrees," Chan said.
Chan then enrolled at Kapiolani Community College, where he met classmates who were involved in competitions to build the best systems that work with wireless sensors for rockets and design and build the ground stations that communicate with them.
"The cool stuff for me is learning how to build things, figuring out how these tiniest little details make something work in the real world," Chan said.
He then transferred to UH-Manoa, where he got his electrical engineering degree and — in December — obtained his master’s degree.
Just two months later Chan was promoted to lead the HiakaSat program.
"It’s definitely a great opportunity for me right out of college," Chan said. "It’s not different than building a car. But space is different. When you’re out in space you can see the world and the issues down on the ground. This is a beautiful place we live in, but from space you can see the problems."
There weren’t any STEM — or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — programs when Chan was in high school.
But he said he hopes current Hawaii STEM students — and any others interested in math and science — become excited about their own possibilities through HiakaSat.
"Even if it’s not space, programs like this will help give the future generations more opportunities to learn about different career paths," Chan said.
Even if they never go near space technology, Hawaii students might get inspired from HiakaSat "to do something important for the world, to solve problems," Chan said.
"That’s what I hope we inspire them to do."
