Kai Outlaw-Spruell graduated suma cum laude from University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a background in research and development, serving as a mechanical design engineering intern at Makai Ocean Engineering (2019-2020) and at RIP Lab Research Group (2018-2019). He then continued on to earn his MS from UH Mānoa in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on advanced materials while working as a graduate research assistant (2020-2021) at Thin Films Laboratory of the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute. His thesis project demonstrated a novel semi-monolithic integration scheme, which could prove greatly useful in manufacturing of technologies that rely on material stacking.

He joined Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute in 2021 as a junior research engineer following his graduate work to continue his research under supervision of Dr. Nicolas Gaillard at Thin Films Lab. His current research projects include engineering integration methods and encapsulation technologies for multi-junction photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices.