Lifetime Achievement:

William “Bill” H.Q. Bow

William “Bill” HQ Bow is a 1971 graduate of Kaimuki High School. He completed his BS in Civil Engineering from UH Manoa in 1976 and then began his career working as a consultant for Belt Collins & Associates from 1976 to 1981. He received his Professional Engineer’s license in 1980. Bill worked for Gray, Hong & Associates and M&E Pacific during the 80’s and Savio Development Co and SSFM Engineers in the 90’s. Bill started Bow Engineering & Development, Inc. in 1997. With humble beginnings as a one-man shop in his Kaimuki home he grew the firm into a thriving civil design and environmental permitting business. Under Bill’s leadership, the company successfully weathered through two recessions. During each recession, he retained all his staff, never having to lay off, furlough, or defer pay. Bill served as President from 1997 to 2019, and CEO from 2019 to 2021. He also co-founded Bow Construction Management Services and served as President from 2008 to 2014.

Bill has mentored many engineers – from mentoring the UH Manoa Civil Engineering Senior Design class (CEE 490) for 5 years to hiring UH Manoa Civil Engineering student interns to hiring new civil engineer graduates, to walking around the office, sitting with each of the engineers on the team and offering sage wisdom; he has truly contributed to the engineering profession in Hawaii.

In addition to starting his own company, Bill was incredibly active in the engineering community. He was President of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii (ACECH), American Society of Civil Engineers – Hawaii Section (ASCE), and University of Hawaii Engineering Alumni Association (UHEAA). On top of all that, Bill was a leader in the community too. He was Chair of the State of Hawaii Disability Communications Access Board (DCAB) Board, Director of the UH Alumni Association, President of the Pearl Harbor Rotary Club, and sat on several Boards of Directors in the community.

Some of the major projects completed by Bow Engineering and Development under Bill’s direction are as follows:

Hokuala Resort Master Planning, Lihue, Kauai. When fully developed, Hokuala will include 772 resort residential units and commercial facilities (restaurants, retail centers). Contracted to evaluate effects of proposed development on the existing drainage, water, irrigation, and sewer infrastructure. BEDI provided civil construction plans for various resort developments: Lot 8 Hotel, Residences at Ninini Point, Hokuala Golf Clubhouse, Kapule Highway Intersection, Pahola Drive, and the golf course improvements. Bill developed a water and sewer master plan with construction phasing for the proposed developments. Bill also conducted a dam study of existing lagoon to analyze spillway locations; studied alternative discharge locations including detention ponds and new drainlines.

Koa’e Makana Workforce Housing, Poipu, Kauai. 134 dwelling units throughout 23 two-story buildings. This affordable housing project is located near Waikomo stream and portions of site were located within flood plain. Design incorporated the concept of “Complete Streets”.

Manele Small Boat Harbor Ferry and ADA Improvements, Manele, Lanai. Construction of new comfort station and rehabilitation of existing comfort station to comply with ADA standards. New administration office, new utility lines (water, sewer, drainage, electrical, telecommunication), new parking areas and roadways, new passenger ferry shelter, and secured recreational boat parking.

Waimea Huakai and Habitat for Humanity Affordable Housing, Waimea, Kauai. Joint-venture affordable housing project involving 36 multi-family units (AHE Group) and 32 single-family homes (Habitat for Humanity). Project site was mass graded and designed to have a combined drainage system with a shared roadway.

Rice Camp Senior Housing, Lihue, Kauai. Development of a senior housing community from two vacant lots bisected by a public roadway. A two-phase project: requiring design coordination to tie each phase together in regards to drainage systems and parking connections; water and sewer connections to County systems; offsite drainage analysis for roadway swales, drain inlets, and sidewalk culverts; existing burial sites that needed to be preserved were considered in the design of the development.

Bill Bow recently retired and turned the company over to his children Sarah and William. He has many accomplishments and has made important contributions to the engineering profession in Hawaii and is the deserving recipient of the 2023 HCES Lifetime Achievement Award.

Engineer of the Year:

Cathy Leong

Cathy Leong graduated with a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa then earned her M.S. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently the Director of the Transportation Group at Wilson Okamoto Corporation where she has spent the last 25 years working on an array of transportation projects, providing technical guidance and oversight, building a well-rounded, collaborative team, and mentoring younger engineers pursuing their own career pathways.

In addition, Cathy has made significant contributions to the profession through her involvement with the ITE organization. ITE is an international organization of transportation professionals with over 17,000 members who work to improve mobility and safety for all transportation system users and help build smart and livable communities. Since joining the organization in 1995, Cathy has served in leadership positions at all levels of the organization including Hawaii Section President, Western District Committee Chair, Western District President, and most recently Western District International Director on ITE’s International Board of Direction (IBOD). Through her tenure as a Western District chair and officer, Cathy prioritized student and young professional initiatives including spearheading fundraising for student initiatives, advocating and expanding career guidance content at the District’s Annual Meeting, and working with the District’s Career Guidance Chair to develop and debut a new mentorship program for the ITE Western District in 2021. During her 3-year term as an International Director she assisted with the development of ITE International’s 2021-2023 Strategic Plan and establishment of a new Equity Committee. Cathy served as the inaugural Co-Chair of the Equity Committee after her IBOD term and under her guidance, the committee has produced informational briefs to educate members about equity, published a Foundational Equity Glossary, and continues to work on the development of the ITE’s Equity Action Plan. In addition to her work on the international level, Cathy continues to serve on the regional level as the Chair of the ITE Western District’s LAC Committee that oversees the planning of the Western District Annual Meeting which serves over 3,500 members of the Western District from Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and California. Finally, Cathy also continues to serve at the local level as the ITE Hawaii Section Administrator, providing guidance and innovative events for the local Section, as well as mentoring for the ITE Student Chapter at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For her contributions to ITE and the transportation community, Cathy was awarded the HSPE Young Engineer of the Year award (2007), ITE Western District Young Professional Achievement Award (2008), ITE Western District Individual Achievement Award (2012), and ITE Western District Mentor Award (2020).

Beyond her leadership roles within the transportation community, Cathy has been an active member of Soroptimist International of Honolulu (SIH) also serving as their Co-Secretary since 2021. Soroptimist International is an organization with over 75,000 members in 122 countries that provides women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. Through her involvement with SIH, Cathy has been able to combine her passion for mentoring students with the organization’s community outreach efforts. She has served as a speaker for middle and high school students promoting STEM and engineering, and sharing her experiences as a woman in the engineering profession.

Young Engineer of the Year:

Claire Fukuoka Tsuha

Claire Fukuoka Tsuha, P.E. is a Senior Project Manager at Austin, Tsutsumi & Associates, Inc. where she has worked for the past 11 years in the transportation department. Claire was born and raised on the island of Maui and graduated from H.P. Baldwin High School in Wailuku before earning a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Portland in 2011 and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Hawaii, Shidler School of Business in 2016. Claire obtained her Professional Engineer (PE) license in 2015.

As a transportation engineer, Claire enjoys projects that collaborate on master planned transportation systems and multimodal accessibility, most notably working on recent projects for the Ho`opili Master Plan development, City and County of Honolulu Keeaumoku Complete Streets plan, and traffic studies for Queen’s Health Systems. Claire is also a member of her company’s Health and Wellness, Marketing, and Olelo O ATA newsletter committees that foster a connected company culture.

Claire remains active in various professional and community organizations, currently and previously serving board positions with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Hawaii Section Younger Member Forum (YMF), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Hawaii Section, Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Japan Council, and Blue Zones Project. Passionate about sustainability and empowering the next generation, Claire also volunteers time in youth outreach efforts, particularly through non-engineering organizations where her technical expertise provides a unique value.

Claire has also been recognized as a Pacific Business News 40 Under 40 Honoree in 2020 and selected for the YWCA Patsy T. Mink Leadership Alliance: Cohort 5, a ten-month women’s leadership program.

Student Engineer of the Year:

Tyler Maruno

The 2023 HCES SEOY is Mr. Tyler Maruno! Well, with a perfect cumulative GPA of 4.00 and a major GPA of 4.00, Tyler is completing his BS in Mechanical Engineering this Spring 2023 semester … along with a minor in Business and on track for a MS ME, through the BAM (Bachelor’s and Master’s) accelerated degree program, in Spring 2024. Hmmm. So, that’s a 4.00/4.00 in engineering for all four years at UH Manoa!?! Pretty impressive!!! By the way, he has been a UH Regent’s Scholar for the past four years and has made the Dean’s List every semester that he has been enrolled at UHM – an obvious deduction!

Well, Tyler is a proud alum of Ma’ema’e Elementary School, Stevenson Middle School, and ‘Iolani School, where he was on the varsity basketball and track & field teams. Guess more than just brains...

Tyler currently serves as the Vice President of Pi Tau Sigma (PTS), the national mechanical engineering honor society; the Historian for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE); and a member in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Tyler has been working as an engineering and a management intern at the FV Coluccio Construction Company for the past two years and working as a research assistant in the Hawaii Corrosion Laboratory, supervised by Dr. Lloyd Hihara, for the past year. This corrosion research assistantship is towards his MS ME thesis in the “Corrosion Behavior of a Proprietary Ballistic Steel for Widespread Use in National Defense Applications.” Currently, he leads the Rainbow Warrior Racing Team, an electric formula racer development, as the project manager of a diverse group of 13 senior engineers and over 20 engineering and management volunteers. He is preparing this team to compete in the upcoming eFormula competition in the summer of 2023. He is also captaining an intermural basketball team on campus.

Tyler has been awarded many awards and accolades from the State of Hawaii, our UHM College of Engineering, Broadcom Masters, Engineers and Architects of Hawaii, and the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) to name a few. He has also been giving back to the University of Hawaii and the College of Engineering as a university tour guide and admissions representative at the UHM Admissions Office by leading campus tours, advising prospective students and parents, and giving talks at various recruiting receptions.

This humble, dedicated, disciplined, and competent student and, now a ‘soon-to-be’ mechanical engineer, is the ‘perfect’ graduating engineer student necessary to promote and inspire engineering to the youth of Hawaii!!!