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, July 2012
July 07, 2012 | The New York Times
A Northwest pipeline to Silicon Valley
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The University of Washington is home to what may be the best computer science department you’ve never heard of. While Stanford dominates techdom, the UW has quietly established itself as the other West Coast nexus of the information economy. |
July 07, 2012 | GeekWire
Forget MIT and Stanford: UW computer science department wins high praise in NYT piece
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The New York Times published a fabulous piece today on The University of Washington’s computer science and engineering department, raising the profile on a department that often lurks in the shadows of MIT and Stanford. |
July 09, 2012 | Xconomy
UW’s computer science hiring spree nets more kudos
| With a recent string of hires, the university has seriously beefed up its faculty in the area broadly known as “Big Data.” A New York Times profile of the department could help get the word out. |
New hires catapult UW's expertise in machine learning and 'big data'
July 11, 2012 | OregonLive.com
University of Washington sends Seattle high-tech on high road
| The Oregonian's editorial board writes that in addition to looking south for inspiration to Silicon Valley, it can look north to recent signs of "economically powerful" mix of high tech and higher education in the Puget Sound region. |
June 29, 2012 | GigaOM
Startup hopes plasma will save Moore’s Law
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Zplasma, a UW startup from aeronautical engineer Uri Shumlak and electrical engineer Brian Nelson, hopes that its ability to harness super hot, stable plasma to make light will help the semiconductor industry continue its march to cram more transistors on a chip. |
Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips
July 03, 2012 | Photonics.com
Plasma’s potential for photolithography pursued
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Aeronautical engineer Uri Shumlak and electrical engineer Brian Nelson developed an inexpensive fusion reactor model that uses electrical currents, rather than giant magnets, to control the million-degree plasma. Their novel technique produces a stable, long-lived plasma to generate high-energy light. |
Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips
July 09, 2012 | EE Times
Zplasma in talks with ASML to develop EUV
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Zplasma, an extreme ultraviolet light-source startup launched by aeronautical engineer Uri Shumlak and electrical engineer Brian Nelson, is talking to leading companies in the EUV lithography sector as it seeks $5 million in venture capital or strategic corporate investment. |
Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips
July 25, 2012 | Wall Street Journal: Ideas Market blog
Hacking, the card game
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Computer scientists at the University of Washington have developed a new card game called “Control-Alt-Hack”: The players take on the role of “white hat” hackers, probing for security loopholes in technology, but using their powers for good. |
'Control-Alt-Hack' game lets players try their hand at computer security
July 26, 2012 | CNET
Hacking, the card game, debuts at Black Hat
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Control-Alt-Hack is a new card game created by computer security professionals to teach high school and college students that white hat hacking can be fun and accessible. |
'Control-Alt-Hack' game lets players try their hand at computer security
July 26, 2012 | CNN Money
Fending off cybercriminals -- for kids!
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How exactly do you get kids interested in cybersecurity? Computer scientist Tadayoshi Kohno, doctoral student Tamara Denning and security researcher Adam Shostack decided a card game might do the trick. |
'Control-Alt-Hack' game lets players try their hand at computer security
July 26, 2012 | Discovery News
Card game for wannabe hackers
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Think you’re an expert hacker? “Control-Alt-Hack” will put your so-called skills to the test. Developed by professor Yoshi Kohno and PhD student Tammy Denning, of the UW's Security and Privacy Research Lab, this old-school game is geared toward a younger generation with basic knowledge of computer science. |
'Control-Alt-Hack' game lets players try their hand at computer security
June 30, 2012 | GeekWire
The Super Guppy has landed: Scenes from the delivery of our Space Shuttle replica
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Today at the Museum of Flight, NASA’s freakishly cool Super Guppy cargo plane delivered the crew compartment of the Full Fuselage Trainer — the replica Space Shuttle orbiter that will have a permanent home at the museum. Pilot Gregory Johnson, a NASA astronaut and UW aerospace engineer alumnus, is quoted. |
July 02, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Science fiction, science are big in Northwest — especially right now
| Columnist Jerry Large writes about how science and science fiction are big around the Pacific Northwest -- and seem especially so right now. He mentions the recent hiring coup in computer science & engineering. |
New hires catapult UW's expertise in machine learning and 'big data'
July 01, 2012 | Seattle Magazine
Top Doctors 2012 - Global Health Awards: Paul Yager, PhD
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Seattle magazine recognizes nine outstanding leaders in the field of global health. Bioengineer Paul Yager is revolutionizing medical diagnosis by making testing for infectious diseases in the field as simple as administering an at-home pregnancy test. |
Pushing the envelope on paper-based diagnostics
‘Astronaut food approach’ to medical testing: Dehydrated, wallet-sized malaria tests promise better diagnoses in developing world
July 03, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Exhibit highlights Seattle area's lead role in global-health advances
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A new global-health exhibit opens Tuesday at Seattle Center to highlight what Seattle-area institutions are doing to combat disease and improve the health of people around the world. Bioengineer Elain Fu is quoted. |
July 25, 2012 | The Seattle Times
UW researchers to help develop chips of living cells
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Mechanical engineering affiliate professor Tom Neumann is CEO of Nortis, a startup that will build 3-D chips to simulate the human liver in hopes of taking humans out of early-stage drug trials. Bioengineer Ying Zheng, and mechanical engineering affiliate professor Anna Touorovskaia, are also involved in the effort. |
Seattle researchers to engineer kidney tissue chip for predicting drug safety
July 01, 2012 | The Scientist
Move over, Mother Nature: Synthetic biologists harness software to design genes and networks
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Working at the crossroads of biology and engineering, synthetic biologists are crafting genes, proteins, and organisms that evolution never came up with. Bioengineer Herbert Sauro describes his free tool, TinkerCell, a modeling program in which researchers can design genes as well as networks such as signaling and metabolic pathways. |
July 04, 2012 | KING 5 News
UW prof says hacking lab is like a 'modern day woodshop'
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Human centered design and engineering's Beth Kolko is encouraging students to become hackers, part of a quest to turn more people onto technology. |
'Hackademia': Course harnesses the spirit of old-school hacking
July 17, 2012 | NBCNews.com (via Tecca)
4 pros and cons of e-readers vs. textbooks
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Despite advantages in size and weight, cost and usability may hinder e-readers from being the best choice for textbooks. Research by human centered design and engineering's Charlotte Lee and PhD student Alex Thayer is noted. |
College students’ use of Kindle DX points to e-reader’s role in academia
July 05, 2012 | The New York Times: Gadgetwise blog
It may be a good time to buy a laptop
| If you are thinking about buying a new laptop, stop thinking and do it. At least that’s according to the algorithms at Decide.com, a startup launched by computer scientist Oren Etzioni and a group of UW alums. |
July 26, 2012 | The New York Times
Clearing away the clutter from tech shopping
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A start-up from UW computer scientist Oren Etzioni lets you search for tech products to learn about a newer, better model, as well as whether the price is likely to rise or fall. Decide.com uses all kinds of algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence to comb not only pricing data, but also articles and blog posts to predict a product’s price and life span. |
July 12, 2012 | MSNBC
New tool in cancer research: Video games
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MSNBC interviews computer scientists Zoran Popovic and Seth Cooper. The video game they developed, called Foldit, is helping UW biochemists discover new proteins that can be used for anything from cancer research to genetic therapy. |
Paper uncovers power of Foldit gamers’ strategies
Gaming for a cure: Computer gamers tackle protein folding
July 16, 2012 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Game-based’ learning
| Bill Gates spoke at an education meeting in Atlanta about technology's role in the classroom of the future. His foundation is working with the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington on a free, online game called Refraction. |
Paper uncovers power of Foldit gamers’ strategies
Gaming for a cure: Computer gamers tackle protein folding
July 14, 2012 | Examiner.com
Northern Lights could appear over Washington tonight
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To catch the Aurora borealis, electrical engineer John Sahr recommends checking the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center website. “Keep your eye on the blue line," he said. "When the blue line gets up to five, I think about putting our instruments in storm mode. When the blue line gets up to seven, I go outside and look north.” |
Space weather forecast: Sunspotty, with an increasing chance of solar storms
July 18, 2012 | PBS NewsHour
Northwest 'salmon people' face future without fish
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PBS describes how the Swinomish are responding to a decline in salmon population, due in part to climate change. Civil and environmental engineer Alan Hamlet talks about UW research on how climate change will impact water levels, summer flows and stream temperatures. |
July 02, 2012 | The (UW) Daily
Out of the shell: UW EcoCAR team uses Chevy body to design hybrid car
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With five awards under its belt, the UW EcoCAR 2 team is making a name for itself in the national vehicle-design competition. Now in the second year of the three-year contest, the UW team ranks fifth out of 16 schools. |
UW students to design alternative-fuels vehicle for EcoCAR 2 competition
July 11, 2012 | KUOW: Weekday
UW students shoot for the moon
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A group of 23 UW undergrads recently won a NASA competition with their plan to use robots (and a few humans) to mine the moon for platinum and other rare earth minerals. Aeronautics and astronautics senior Andrew Girardeau–Dale is a guest at 32:40. |
UW students win NASA contest with their plan for mining the moon
June 01, 2012 | India Abroad magazine
Person of the Year 2011: Shwetak Patel
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A profile of India Abroad's pick for "Person of the Year 2011": UW computer scientist and electrical engineer Shwetak Patel. The feature story includes interviews with Patel's family, his teachers, and his wife, human centered design and engineering's Julie Kientz. |
Visionary innovator wins MacArthur 'genius' award
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.