A smart phone app that helps the community and emergency personnel respond to disaster situations is what’s sending a University of Hawaii at Hilo student team to the Microsoft Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in July.

The cup, which is being held in St. Petersburg, Russia, recognizes student technology innovations that address the world’s toughest problems using Microsoft resources. Students are expected to take their ideas from concept to the marketplace.

The four-member UH Hilo Team — dubbed Poliahu — won the nationals in San Jose, Calif. Those finals featured the top 10 U.S. teams, which pitched their ideas to investors, entrepreneurs and technology professionals in exchange for cash prizes and business support. 

Poliahu’s app is entitled “Help Me Help” and allows users to upload to their smartphones images of nearby hazards, aiding the community and emergency response personnel in disaster situations.

The team includes seniors Mike Purvis, Kayton Summers, Wallace Hamada and junior Ryder Donahue — all of whom are in UH Hilo’s computer science department. Purvis, the team captain, said the idea grew out of a senior project in which they were asked to design software that could track native and invasive species. 

Poliahu’s accomplishments are another example of Hawaii’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) movement.

Team Poliahu student members and advisor Dr. Keith Edwards, a computer science professor. (Photo courtesy of UH Hilo.)

— Alia Wong