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Date:  Wed, July 24, 2019
Time:  6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location:  i-Lab (Building #37), UH Manoa Campus
Speaker:  Glenn Wakai, State of Hawaii Senator and Corey Shaffer, Principal System Performance Engineer, Verizon Wireless

Abstract: This 5G forum is to help engage the public with officials within the regulatory and industry that has some authority to take action on behalf of their organizations and to respond to their customers/constituents with their concerns and demands. The engagement will primarily allow the audience to ask questions within their expertise and control, so the main focus of this forum shall be to answer questions relating to the regulatory constraints and impediments to successfully bring the 5G technology to Hawaii, and to also understand from the technology provider's perspective of the challenges and barriers to entering this market. This forum will allow most questions to be poses, as long as it pertains to these two primary focus points and some tangent topics but not straying too far off from the mission of the IEEE: our core purpose of fostering technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

Bio:  

Glenn Wakai has been in the Hawaii State Senate for nine years, following eight years in the State House of Representatives. He is the current chair of the Senate's Committee on Energy, Economic Development, Tourism

Glenn is a graduate of Mid-Pacific Institute and the University of Southern California (USC) where he obtained two B.A.s in Broadcast Journalism and Sociology (minor: Business Administration)

He is the President of High Impact Communications, a public relations firm, and also runs a non-profit, Reach out Pacific, which takes surplus medical and educational supplies to Pacific Islands. Glenn sits on the board of Aloha Medical Mission and the Japanese Cultural Center. He is also the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Palau

Corey Shaffer is employed as a Principal System Performance Engineer within the State of Hawaii for Verizon Wireless. Corey is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, with a focus on optics and photonics. He's been employed by his employer for nearly 13 years within Hawaii and Oregon.

Mr. Shaffer has been responsible for maintaining performance of the radio and local core network through the Hawaiian Islands, including the review and approvals of cell site designs, creating and prioritizing new projects, testing and activating new services, and troubleshooting network issues. In March 2017, Corey was promoted to the West Territory RAN Team where he supposed engineers in the western half of the US by conducting trials, issues recommendations and best practices, acting as Tier 2 support for troubleshooting network issues, and managing bug fixes and feature requests with various equipment vendors. He is also an expert in RF design and various communications protocols, including LTE, CDMA, and SIP/RTP, with a strong background in IP. As the lead engineer for the Hawaii market for almost 10 years, Corey has also built up a considerable amount of leadership and project management experience.