Our Story

Charlie started Keiki Engineering Kits as part of Punahou School's Project Accelerator program for student entrepreneurship going into his freshman year (9th grade). 

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Going into the accelerator program, Charlie held a firm interest in the development of wave energy technologies, and wanted to try to work on the development and implementation of renewable wave energy in his community. However, he quickly realized that the industry was just too hard for a high schooler to work in alone. As was suggested by his advisor for the accelerator program, Mrs. Yolanda Lau, Charlie tried his hand at developing kit educational programs, which he found to be quite interesting. 

 

Charlie and Tyler initially got to know each other through Punahou's FTC robotics program. Charlie was on the team 6175 for the Centerstage season, and Tyler mentored him on the team 6962. After the Centerstage season (moving to Into the Deep), Tyler recruited Charlie off 6175 to join his team, 6962. Tyler then led 6962 to being ranked amongst the top teams in the world, managing a high of #1 on global leaderboards for scores. 

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Amidst the FTC Centerstage season, Charlie asked Tyler to join his venture to create educational kits, and Tyler eagerly accepted. They now work together to ideate, design, prototype, and test these kits, and both wholeheartedly believe in their mission to educate their local community about sustainability and engineering. 

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Currently, they are working towards introducing and increasing their presence in the official Hawaii educational space. Charlie and Tyler both realized how scarce educational opportunities about sustainability and engineering are in Hawaii, and have now dedicated much of their time and effort to make these concepts more accessible to many more communities.