Erika is a Hawaiʻi Sea Grant Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, working on a project in the Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute (HNEI). The research focuses on improving various technologies to make wave energy usable (e.g. oscillating water columns, flap-type converters, cycloidal systems) by increasing their efficiency and exploring their applications within Hawaiʻi. She will help design a bench test setup for the Hawaiʻi Wave Surge Energy Converter (HAWSEC), assemble and deploy hydrophone-equipped systems, conduct inspections at the Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS), and potentially participate in the deployment of wave energy converters.