Insect-sized flying robots could help with tasks like surveying crop growth or sniffing out gas leaks. But current flying robo-insects are still tethered to the ground because of heavy electronics they need. ME doctoral students, ME Assistant Professor Sawyer Fuller and CSE Associate Professor Shyam Gollakota have for the first time cut the cord and added a brain, allowing their RoboFly to take its first independent flaps.
News
May 14, 2018
Driven by students, HuskyADAPT is teaching the UW community how to modify toys for kids with disabilities.
May 10, 2018 | Electrical Engineering
Eve Riskin has been a tireless — and effective — champion of diversity and inclusion at the University of Washington. In recognition of her efforts, Riskin was honored with the 2017 Diversity Award by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) during the organization’s annual conference in March.
May 3, 2018 | UW News
In a breakthrough that may revolutionize cloud computing technologies and consumer electronics, a UW-led team used stacks of ultrathin materials to exert unprecedented control over the flow of electrons. The atomically thin magnetic device could enable data storage at a greater density and improved energy efficiency over current technology. The team, including Xiaodong Xu, a UW professor in materials science & engineering and physics and a faculty researcher at the UW Clean Energy Institute, published their findings in the journal Science (online May 3).
May 2, 2018 | UW News
Exercise can also be an expensive undertaking — especially for newcomers. Researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle University have created CrowdFit, a platform for exercise planning that relies on crowdsourcing from nonexperts to create workout regimens guided by national exercise recommendations and tailored to users' needs. In a field evaluation, nonexperts could create exercise plans as effective as personal trainers under certain conditions. The team included HCDE doctoral student Elena Agapie, faculty members Sean Munson (HCDE), and Gary Hsieh (HCDE).
April 26, 2018 | UW College of Engineering
Dean Michael Bragg has announced the recipients of the 2018 Dean's Medal for Academic Excellence: Trevor Hedges (Aeronautics & Astronautics) and Kaitlyn Zhou (Human Centered Design & Engineering and Computer Science). Selection criteria include grades, rigor and distribution of courses, research experience, extracurricular activities, and leadership. Medals will be presented at the College of Engineering Awards Ceremony and reception on Thursday, May 24. Read more about the honorees on the Dean's Medal page.
April 25, 2018 | UW Faculty & Staff Insider and UW Engineering
UW's Awards of Excellence recipients are honored for achievements in teaching, mentoring, public service and staff support. This year's honorees include three from UW Engineering: BioE professor Suzie Hwang Pun (Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award); Sonya G. Cunningham, director of the STARS Program (David B. Thorud Leadership Award); and EE Ph.D. student Eldridge Alcantara (Excellence in Teaching Award). The winners will be honored at 3:30 p.m. on June 7 at a ceremony in Meany Hall for the UW community and general public. See the complete list of honorees.
April 19, 2018 | UW News
Wearable cameras such as Snap Spectacles promise to share videos of live concerts or surgeries instantaneously, but their small batteries are not suited to high-definition video streaming. Now, UW engineers have developed a new HD video streaming method that skips the power-hungry parts and has something else, like a smartphone, process the video instead. The team includes faculty members Shyam Gollakota (CSE) and Joshua Smith (CSE, EE).
April 18, 2018 | UW News
A new approach for blind an low-vision users browsing web pages uses the keyboard as a two-dimensional way to access tables, maps and nested lists. Results find this tool lets blind and low-vision users navigate these kinds of sites much more successfully than traditional screen readers.
April 12, 2018 | UW News
Researchers at the University of Washington have designed a convenient and natural product that uses proteins to rebuild tooth enamel and treat dental cavities. The method takes inspiration from the body’s own natural tooth-forming proteins and is detailed in a new paper by lead author Mehmet Sarikaya (MSE, ChemE) and colleagues.
April 3, 2018 | UW Information Technology
Researchers use cloud computing to understand how to turn Lake Washington microbes into allies for a cleaner world.
March 15, 2018 | UW News
Researchers at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Brain Science have developed a new method to classify and track the multitude of cells in a tissue sample. In a paper published March 15 in the journal Science, the team reports that this new approach — known as SPLiT-seq — reliably tracks gene activity in a tissue down to the level of single cells. Senior author is Georg Seelig, a UW associate professor in EE and CSE. The article includes a video illustration of the concept using ping-pong balls.
March 1, 2018 | UW Foster School of Business
Student entrepreneurs dazzled at the 2018 Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge, hosted by the UW Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. Teams of UW Engineering students won top honors.
- A team of BioE Ph.D. students and recent graduates won first place ($15,000) for A-Alpha Bio, a technology that helps fully characterize drug candidates in the pre-clinical stage.
- Second place ($10,000) was awarded for OLA Simple, a point-of-care technology platform for genetic disorders and conditions developed by a team of BioE and EE graduate students.
- A team of ME and EE graduate students won third place ($5,000) for ACBI, technology that makes continuous bladder irrigation treatment faster, less expensive, and safer.
February 23, 2018
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab at the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center (SCTL) have analyzed solutions for alleviating urban congestion by making truck parking spaces more productive and reducing the growth of truck traffic.
February 20, 2018
Nearing completion of a dual Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and astrobiology, Osazonamen Igbinosun reflects on her journey from U.S. Navy pilot to UW engineer, scientist and mentor.
February 20, 2018 | UW News
Although mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones let us communicate, work and access information wirelessly, their batteries must still be charged by plugging them in to an outlet. But engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time developed a method to safely charge a smartphone wirelessly using a laser. Co-authors of a new paper are Shyam Gollakota (CSE) and Arka Majumdar (EE and physics).
February 15, 2018 | UW News
Five faculty members at the University of Washington have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Among the new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, are Maya Cakmak, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, and Arka Majumdar, assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics. The fellowships honor early-career researchers whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders.
February 12, 2018 | UW News
University of Washington engineers have turned tissue paper – similar to toilet tissue – into a new kind of wearable sensor that can detect a pulse, a blink of an eye and other human movement. The sensor is light, flexible and inexpensive, with potential applications in health care, entertainment and robotics.
February 12, 2018 | UW News
For photographers and scientists, lenses are lifesavers. They reflect and refract light, making possible the imaging systems that drive discovery through the microscope and preserve history through cameras. But today’s glass-based lenses are bulky and resist miniaturization. Engineers at the University of Washington have successfully combined two different imaging methods — an ultrathin lens along with robust computational processing — to create full-color images.
February 6, 2018
Airplanes? Fossils? Health care? Accessibility? Whatever you’re into, the WOOF 3D Print Club wants to show you how it can benefit from 3D printing
February 2, 2018 | GeekWire
Materials Science & Engineering graduate student Robert Masse is passionate about renewable energy technology and its potential contribution to addressing climate change. His business, Astrolabe Analytics (formerly Cloud Instruments), focuses on improving battery analytics to assist in the quest for better batteries. Masse recently won the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and is featured in GeekWire as a "Geek of the Week."
January 31, 2018 | UW News
The outsized impact of materials science on today’s world has prompted UW and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to create the Northwest Institute for Materials Physics, Chemistry and Technology — or NW IMPACT. The new joint research endeavor will power discoveries and advancements in materials that transform energy, telecommunications, medicine, information technology and other fields.
January 24, 2018 | UW News
Researchers from the Molecular Information Systems Lab at the University of Washington and Microsoft are looking to collect 10,000 original images from around the world to preserve them indefinitely in synthetic DNA manufactured by Twist Bioscience. DNA holds promise as a revolutionary storage medium that lasts much longer and is many orders of magnitude denser than current technologies.
January 16, 2018 | UW News
UW scientists have built a biomaterial-based delivery system that uses mathematical logic to target therapeutics with a high degree of precision. When specific physiological conditions are met, the casing dissolves and releases its therapeutic freight.
January 9, 2018
As a Clean Energy Institute outreach ambassador, ChemE graduate student Gabriella Tosado is encouraging K-12 students statewide to pursue engineering and science.
Shwetak Patel
Steve Brunton
Mari Ostendorf
Matthew O’Donnell
Yinhai Wang
Brett Maurer
Eve Riskin
Yin Tat Lee