NewsFlash is a monthly email of press items featuring our College's researchers. For a more complete and regularly updated list of COE media coverage, see In the Media.
Click on a headline to read that article on the web. Some links may require a subscription or no longer be active.
NewsFlash is a service of the UW College of Engineering and the UW Office of News and Information. If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Michelle Ma at mcma@uw.edu@uw.edu or (206) 543-2580.
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NewsFlash, April 2012
Apr. 24, 2012 | Xconomy
Asteroid mining? Yeah, it’s possible—with enough money
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An all-star group of investors, entrepreneurs, and space experts is gearing up to unveil Planetary Resources, a new company that focused on mining asteroids for precious elements. Aeronautical engineer Adam Bruckner is quoted. |
Apr. 24, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Deep-pocket dreamers aim high with space mining
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A group of wealthy entrepreneurs unveiled a new Bellevue-based company Tuesday with the goal of extracting platinum, gold and other valuable resources from asteroids. Aeronautical engineer Adam Bruckner is quoted. |
Apr. 21, 2012 | The Seattle Times
UW cyber stars defending their title
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An eight-member team of computer-science students from the University of Washington will try to win a cyber defense challenge for the second year in a row this weekend. |
UW computer science students win national cyber defense competition
Apr. 25, 2012 | Government Computer News
Dynasty? U of W repeats as national cyber defense champ
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A team of eight computer science students from the UW has brought home a national cybersecurity championship for the second straight year, besting regional champs from nine other schools competing in San Antonio in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. |
UW computer science students win national cyber defense competition
Apr. 10, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Federal stimulus funds amounted to a shot in the arm for science
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With a grant of almost $1 million, UW bioengineer Joan Saunders developed a diagnostic tool to help improve the fit of prosthetic legs. Then she filed for a patent, partnered with local companies to produce the devices, and landed $3 million in follow-up funding to develop a portable version for the military. |
Apr. 04, 2012 | The New York Times
A rose-colored view may come standard
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Google on Wednesday offered a look at a previously secret project to develop Internet-connected glasses. Electrical engineer Babak Parviz, a UW associate professor of bionanotechnology, has been involved with the project. |
Big step forward for safety of bionic contact lenses
Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
Apr. 04, 2012 | The Seattle Times: Brier Dudley's blog
Google's new goggles: 'Project Glass,' with UW assist
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Google has unveiled its mysterious research project developing augmented reality eyewear, which projects information such as maps and messages into a small, wearable display. One of three named developers on the project is Babak Parviz, a UW electrical engineer specializing in bionanotechnology. |
Big step forward for safety of bionic contact lenses
Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
Apr. 05, 2012 | The Washington Post
Google's Project Glass engineers: Who are they?
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The next big thing may — or may not — be Google’s augmented reality glasses. Who are the minds behind this project? The post on Google+ announcing the project to the world was signed by three individuals: Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun. |
Big step forward for safety of bionic contact lenses
Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
Mar. 02, 2012 | BBC
Body shock: The electricity inside your body
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There could be something shocking going on in our bodies. Well, perplexing at least. Mechanical engineer Jiangyu Li has found that the tough, flexible tissue that makes up blood vessels has surprising electrical properties – in pigs. |
Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue
Apr. 18, 2012 | MSNBC
Myth, busted: You only use 10 percent of brain
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Eric Chudler, education director of the UW's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, helps dispel the idea that humans use only 10 percent of their brains. |
Apr. 19, 2012 | The (Tacoma) Weekly Volcano
Tacoma takes the high road
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Tacoma's recently completed Cheney Stadium Sustainable Stormwater Project will receive an official Greenroads certification during a special ceremony at the Tacoma Rainiers game on April 22. |
Bellingham roadway with recycled toilets is world's first official 'Greenroad'
Apr. 30, 2012 | Discover Magazine: Impatient Futurist blog
Your personal, automated mass transit vehicle is on its way
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No flying trains are headed for anywhere in the U.S. But Jerry Schneider, emeritus professor of civil and environmental engineering, points to a slightly less radical high-tech upgrade coming to public transit over the next several years: personal rapid transit. |
Apr. 18, 2012 | KING 5
What do heavy railroad cars have to do with earthquakes?
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When a train goes by you see it, you hear it, you also feel it shake the ground. It doesn't end there. Civil engineer Steve Kramer shows how ground shaking from earthquakes can cause soil liquefaction around building foundations. |
Apr. 19, 2012 | KING 5
UW students rev up for green car competition
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The UW EcoCAR2 team has already spent long nights working in their hastily prepared lab and expects there are more to come as they create an eco-friendly sedan in the nation's most prestigious automotive engineering contest. |
UW students to design alternative-fuels vehicle for EcoCAR 2 competition
Apr. 20, 2012 | SeattlePI.com
Meet the UW Formula Motorsports racecar
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The University of Washington's 2012 Formula motorsports car, built from scratch by about 50 students in 15,000 hours, was unveiled this month. The carbon-fiber car can do 0-60 mph in about 3.4 seconds. In June, the team will compete in Lincoln, Neb. The UW will also compete for the first time in an international contest in Germany. |
Apr. 11, 2012 | ABC News: Medical Unit blog
Power of play: Gamers solve molecular protein puzzle
| Medical research questions may benefit from a fresh set of eyes, suggested Seth Cooper, creative director at the center for game science at the UW, in a presentation at the annual TedMed conference in Washington, D.C. |
Paper uncovers power of Foldit gamers’ strategies
Gaming for a cure: Computer gamers tackle protein folding
Apr. 13, 2012 | Nature Medicine
FoldIt game’s next play: crowdsourcing better drug design
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At the TedMed conference, presenter and FoldIt co-creator Seth Cooper brought on-stage the winner, a beaming British lab technician whose identity had not been previously disclosed to the public. Now the team is updating FoldIt to leverage the power of online gaming to create new proteins—enzymes that could form the basis of novel drugs or improve how they are manufactured. |
Paper uncovers power of Foldit gamers’ strategies
Gaming for a cure: Computer gamers tackle protein folding
Apr. 09, 2012 | Technology Review
The computing trend that will change everything
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The electrical efficiency of computing, like computing performance, has doubled every year and a half since the dawn of the computer age. This allows for new devices, like the wireless no-battery weather sensors, created by electrical engineer and computer scientist Josh Smith, that harvest energy from stray television and radio signals. |
Wireless power could cut cord for patients with implanted heart pumps
Apr. 17, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Amazon, Microsoft low on Greenpeace clean-energy 'cloud' index
| Greenpeace's report looks at 14 big tech companies' cloud-computing data centers and estimates how much power they need, as well as what type of energy is used to supply it. Computer science PhD student Adrian Sampson is quoted. |
Code green: Energy-efficient programming to curb computers’ power use
Apr. 13, 2012 | The New York Times
Wavii: A Facebook for topics
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Seattle-based Wavii wants to help people keep tabs on various topics through status updates, providing short bursts of news on everything from corporate acquisitions to celebrities. Computer scientist Oren Etzioni, one of the company's advisers, is quoted. |
Mar. 28, 2012 | The New York Times
New U.S. research will aim at flood of digital data
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The federal government is beginning a major research funding initiative in big data computing. Computer scientist Ed Lazowska, director of the UW's eScience Institute, is quoted. |
Apr. 26, 2012 | The (UW) Daily
UW CSE to admit more students into competitive majors
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Last year, CSE turned away about three-quarters of those who applied to the majors. New legislation will let the UW spend an additional $3.8 million on all engineering enrollments for the coming year, roughly 180 additional engineering degrees per year. Computer scientists Hank Levy, Ed Lazwoska and Marty Stepp are quoted. |
Apr. 01, 2012 | KCTS 9
Conversations at KCTS 9: Shwetak Patel
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Computer scientist and electrical engineer Shwetak Patel was named a 2011 MacArthur Genius Award recipient at the age of 29. Enrique Cerna talks with Patel about his work, and what the MacArthur Award means to him. |
Visionary innovator wins MacArthur 'genius' award
UW energy- and water-sensing technology acquired by Belkin
Apr. 18, 2012 | The (UW) Daily
Faces of UW: First-year faculty
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The Daily's profiles of new UW faculty includes Kai-Mei Fu, assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering. She's described as "The Balancer" who sees time-management as "a constant optimization problem." |
Apr. 25, 2012 | The Seattle Times: Brier Dudley's blog
Kate Starbird returns to Seattle, as a Husky
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Basketball great turned tech researcher Kate Starbird is coming back to Seattle -- this time to the UW. Starbird, who pursued tech after playing professionally, was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. |
Apr. 16, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Facebook's got a lot of love for Seattle
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Facebook's vice president of engineering talks about what drew the company to Seattle—a "critical mass density of engineers” and a culture in which “it’s cool to be an engineer." |
If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah Hickey. Notice of student and faculty awards and grants is also welcome.