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, September 2012
Sept. 05, 2012 | The Seattle Times
UW's brave (and bright!) new lab for molecular engineering
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A new, $77 million molecular engineering building at the UW is the centerpiece of a new institute that is working to find new ways to cure diseases and create renewable energy. |
UW celebrates opening of new Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building
Sept. 18, 2012 | The (UW) Daily
Ready for a reaction
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Like a molecule — made up of atoms bound together, capable of a chemical reaction — the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute (MolES) is composed of a group of individuals from different academic fields working to produce change, primarily through research. Dean Matt O'Donnell and researchers in chemical engineering and materials science & engineering are quoted. |
UW celebrates opening of new Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building
Sept. 06, 2012 | Daily Journal of Commerce (subscription required)
UW science building uses new goo to help stay cool
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Filling your walls with goo may seem like a strange way to cut energy costs, but that's exactly what the University of Washington did with its new Molecular Engineering and Sciences Building. |
UW celebrates opening of new Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building
Sept. 18, 2012 | KCPQ Q13 Fox News
UW researchers believe they've found way to regrow heart tissue
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Cardiologist Michael LaFlamme and bioengineer Chuck Murry say they believe they've found a way to regrow damaged heart muscle with stem cells. |
Muscle cell grafts keep broken hearts from breaking rhythm
Sept. 27, 2012 | CBS News: HealthPop blog
SpiroSmart app lets phone accurately measure lung capacity
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Want to test your lung capacity? There may be an app for that. SpiroSmart, developed by UW computer scientists and electrical engineers, uses a smartphone's microphone to take lung measurements of breath capacity. |
App lets you monitor lung health using only a smartphone
Sept. 19, 2012 | CNET
See how healthy your lungs are -- just blow into your phone
| Researchers in computer science and electrical engineering have been working to develop an app that can measure lung function just as accurately as a medical spirometer, but without the need for any additional hardware. |
App lets you monitor lung health using only a smartphone
Sept. 19, 2012 | KOMO News
New app claims to simply measure lung capacity
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A new app designed by computer scientist and electrical engineer Shwetak Patel transforms a smartphone's microphone into a sensor to monitor lung function. PhD student Eric Larson explains and demonstrates the project. |
App lets you monitor lung health using only a smartphone
Sept. 13, 2012 | The New York Times: Bits blog
Big Data gets its own photo album
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For a book coming out in November, a photographer tackled his most challenging project to date: "The Human Face of Big Data." One photograph shows computer scientist and electrical engineer Shwetak Patel in the backyard of his cousin’s house in Hayward, Calif., with his cousin’s family, surrounded by what looks to be every single appliance, digital device, faucet and toilet in the household. |
Visionary innovator wins MacArthur 'genius' award
UW energy- and water-sensing technology acquired by Belkin
Sept. 08, 2012 | The New York Times
Tech’s new wave, driven by data
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Computing may be on the cusp of another wave of change, this one driven by automated decision-making using machine learning and mounds of data. Computer scientist Ed Lazowska is quoted. |
Sept. 13, 2012 | KING 5
Understanding 'the cloud'
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A recent survey of 1000 adults found a majority thought cloud computing actually referred to a "fluffy white thing." Bill Howe, affiliate assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is quoted. |
Danger, massive amounts of data ahead; eScience Institute can help
Sept. 27, 2012 | GeekWire
Leaning left or right? Browser plugin looks to bring balance to political news
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It’s an election year, which means a lot of mud is being slung in various media outlets. But a new online tool developed by Human Centered Design and Engineering's Sean Munson could help identify biases in news reporting, pointing consumers of news to other viewpoints, especially when they’ve been fed too many “talking points” from the left or the right. |
Browser plug-in helps people balance their political news reading habits
Sept. 27, 2012 | The Seattle Times: Brier Dudley's blog
Want balanced news? UW prof's Chrome tool tries to help
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If you'd like help balancing your news diet, there's a new tool available from Human Centered Design and Engineering's Sean Munson. The "Balancer" is a free plug-in for the Chrome browser that monitors the news sites you visit and shows whether your consumption is tilting right or left. Then it suggests sites that could balance your intake. |
Browser plug-in helps people balance their political news reading habits
Sept. 21, 2012 | NBCNews.com: Future Tech blog
Tweet tweet: Tiny tags monitor social networks of critters
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While radio tags have been widely deployed to study the wanderings of everything from bees to turtles, the Encounternet tags developed by UW electrical engineer Brian Otis are the first small-scale tags that can monitor each other. |
The original Twitter? Tiny electronic tags monitor birds’ social networks
Sept. 22, 2012 | GeekWire
Tweet, tweet: UW tags help study animal social networks
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This is Twitter, animal-style. While researchers can’t quite yet track how many tweeting birds have lots of “followers” they are now able to study animal social behavior on a whole new level, thanks to tags developed by electrical engineer Brian Otis and affiliate professor John Burt. |
The original Twitter? Tiny electronic tags monitor birds’ social networks
Sept. 19, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Review of science lets people off the hook for Hood Canal fish kills
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The most comprehensive review ever of existing research on Hood Canal has concluded that septic systems aren't a leading cause of the massive fish kills that have hit the hooked fjord over the years. Civil and environmental engineer Michael Brett is quoted. |
Sept. 17, 2012 | Chronicle of Higher Education
3-D printers spread from engineering departments to designs across disciplines
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At the UW, students work on open-source 3-D printing technology and use discarded plastic as raw material. Mechanical engineer Mark Ganter and undergraduate Brandon Bowman, officially declared as an art major, are developing 3-D printers for everything from artworks to body parts. |
Engineering students race first 3-D printed boat in Milk Carton Derby - with slideshow
Sept. 03, 2012 | The New York Times
Project aims to harness the power of waves
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The first commercially licensed grid-connected wave-energy device in the nation is in its final weeks of testing before a planned launch in October. The UW is involved in wave energy research off the coast of Oregon. |
Assessing the environmental effects of tidal turbines
Sept. 24, 2012 | The new York Times: Scientist at Work blog
Getting ready for the storms of the North Pacific
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Jim Thomson, oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, blogs about an upcoming expedition to measure the turbulence in breaking waves. |
Sept. 07, 2012 | InnovationNewsDaily
Lullaby puts a sleep lab in your bedroom
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Lullaby is a table lamp-size device meant to put a sleep lab in people's bedrooms. The system takes infrared photos every 15 seconds and records sound, light and motion to help solve sleep problems. It was developed by Human Centered Design and Engineering's Julie Kientz and computer science PhD student Matt Kay. |
Sept. 18, 2012 | The New York Times
A robot with a reassuring touch
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In a marked shift from today's machines, which are kept safely isolated from humans, a Boston start-up is betting robots in the future will work directly with humans. Emanuel Todorov, associate professor of computer science and engineering, is quoted. |
Sept. 05, 2012 | New Scientist
Sharp-eared glasses let deaf people 'see' sounds
| Korean scientists have built a pair of glasses which allows the wearer to "see" when a loud sound is made, and gives an indication of where it came from. Computer scientist Richard Ladner questions whether the device would prove beneficial enough to gain acceptance. |
New Computer Science academy welcomes hearing-impaired students
Sept. 06, 2012 | Network World
25 of today's coolest network and computing research projects
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University labs, fueled with millions of dollars in funding and some of the biggest brains around, are bursting with new research into computer and networking technologies. Computer scientist Yoshi Kohno and PhD student Tamara Denning's computer security card game, Control-Alt-Hack, is mentioned. |
Control-Alt-Hack' game lets players try their hand at computer security
Sept. 23, 2012 | The Seattle Times: Pacific Northwest magazine
Why some of the best universities are giving away their courses
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A story on free online courses mentions the UW's new involvement with Coursera, quotes computer scientist Ed Lazowska, and features computer science alum and online student Greg Linden. |
Sept. 25, 2012 | GeekWire
UW computer science profs immortalized in Google T-shirt
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Drawings of computer scientists Ed Lazowska and Hank Levy replaced the two “Os” in a t-shirt made for Google’s 2012 Seattle Summer internship program. Computer science senior Zorah Lea Fung models the shirt. |
Sept. 09, 2012 | The Seattle Times
Boeing retiree dreams of flying his 'bathtub' plane
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An 84-year-old Renton man used pot lids, dirt-bike wheels and other re-purposed parts to create a replica of a 1924 craft. He also invented a mechanical airspeed indicator that he tested in the UW's Kirsten Wind Tunnel. |
Sept. 07, 2012 | The Seattle Times: Pacific NW Magazine
The world's No. 1 jumbo jet languishes, looking for a savior
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A slideshow of the first Boeing 747, which now sits in a parking lot across from the Museum of Flight. UW aeronautics and astronautics alumnus Joseph Sutter, a.k.a. "father of the 747," is quoted. |
If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah Hickey, hickeyh@uw.edu. Notice of student and faculty awards and grants is also welcome.