Arif Rahman (seen top row, far right) with HPU engineering students.
HPU Assistant Professor of Engineering Arifur (Arif) Rahman has won the 2025 EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Faculty Track award. The $5,000 prize was awarded to 10 faculty members across the country. According to the EnergyTech Up website, the award is given to professors that show promise, interest, ideas, and/or materials that promote energy entrepreneurship at collegiate institutions.
Rahman won the EnergyTech UP award for empowering students to develop market-ready solutions by integrating entrepreneurial fundamentals into curriculum.
“Winning the EnergyTech University Prize Faculty Track award is an honor,” Rahman said. “This recognition reaffirms our commitment to equipping future engineers with the entrepreneurial mindset needed to turn innovative energy solutions into real-world impact. At HPU, we are fostering 'Confident Engineering'—an approach that blends technical excellence with practical business acumen—so that our students can shape a more sustainable energy future.”
In 2024, Rahman was a faculty advisor for a team of HPU engineering students who placed third in the national EnergyTech University Prize 2024, receiving a $10,000 cash prize. The engineering team also won a $3,000 prize for advancing to the Western Regional Finals. Most recently, he wrote a grant at HPU for $350,000 called the PARADISE Initiative.
Rahman is the Chief Executive Officer of Hawai‘i Innovation Laboratory and holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and completed postdoctoral research at both UH Mānoa and Cornell University. With experience spanning academia, industry, and military service, Rahman has worked as a senior electrical engineer at Oceanit Laboratories and served in the Bangladesh Navy. His research focuses on liquid-metal electronics, renewable energy, and reconfigurable RF devices, and he holds multiple patents in these areas.
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