A recent UW study found that children who played with Wi-Fi-enable toys like Hello Barbie and CogniToys did not know their toys were recording their conversations, and some children were troubled by the idea of their conversations being recorded. Parents were worried about their children’s privacy when they played with the toys and desired more control over the toys’ connectivity.
News
May 8, 2017 | Department of Bioengineering
Bioengineering Professor Emeritus Allan Hoffman received two prestigious awards recognizing his contributions to the field of biomaterials. He received the 2017 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal as well as a Controlled Release Society Award in 2016.
May 2, 2017 | UW Today
A new study finds that smartphone apps to track menstrual cycles often disappoint users with a lack of accuracy, assumptions about sexual identity or partners, and an emphasis on pink and flowery form over function and customization.
April 26, 2017 | UW Today
A new study from University of Washington researchers describes how some people turn to posting photos on Instagram to track food intake or to be held accountable by followers in meeting healthy eating or weight loss goals.
April 24, 2017 | UW Today
A new scientific discovery game, Mozak, is allowing video gamers to significantly speed up reconstructing the intricate architecture of brain cells, a fundamental task in 21st century brain science.
April 19, 2017 | UW Today
CSE professor Tom Anderson was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. This latest honor follows Anderson’s induction last year into the National Academy of Engineering.
April 14, 2017 | UW Today
The UW and Japan’s Tohoku University have agreed to create an Academic Open Space (AOS) to foster collaborations and academic exchanges between these two leading research institutions of the Pacific Rim. The AOS will build upon current collaborations in aerospace design and materials, as well as launch new science and engineering partnerships. Fumio Ohuchi, UW professor and MSE interim chair, will serve as director of the AOS and oversee UW-based efforts and activities.
April 13, 2017 | UW Today
The College of Engineering is taking a significant step to improve undergraduate engineering students’ educational experiences by offering Direct to College admission beginning with the entering freshman class of 2018. This change will assure incoming freshman students who are admitted into the college and their families that they will be able to pursue an engineering degree at the UW.
April 11, 2017 | UW Today
Pacific Northwest engineers have developed a new, automated technology to analyze the potential for rockfalls from cliffs onto roads and areas below, which should speed and improve this type of risk evaluation, help protect public safety and ultimately save money and lives.
April 3, 2017 | UW Today
University of Washington researchers have shown that Google’s new tool that uses machine learning to automatically analyze and label video content can be deceived by inserting a photograph periodically and at a very low rate into videos.
March 31, 2017 | UW Foster blog
Congrats to UW Engineering student teams that won the second place and clean energy prizes at the 2017 Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge! The Airy team, out of UW Electrical Engineering, won the $10,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation prize for their battery-free, wireless home security solution that uses sensors mounted on doors or windows to harvest energy. Membrion, from UW Chemical Engineering, took the UW Clean Energy Institute clean energy prize with their low-cost, high-performance membranes for advanced batteries, fuel cells, and reverse osmosis water desalination applications. UW Engineering teams also received "Judges also really liked" awards: Membrion, UW Hyperloop (ME, CEE, EE), and GreenFeed (ChemE). Twenty-one student teams from seven colleges and universities around the Northwest addressed environmental and cleantech issues.
March 30, 2017
Congratulations to Greg Miller (CEE) for receiving the David B. Thorud Leadership Award, which honors two University of Washington leaders who champion positive change in our workplace, our state and throughout the world.
March 28, 2017 | UW Today
Parents who regularly play “Pokémon GO” with their children reported a number of side benefits from playing the mobile device-based game, including increased exercise, more time spent outdoors and opportunities for family bonding, according to a team of researchers in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering and the Information School.
March 28, 2017
Aeronautics & Astronautics alumna Ansley Barnard, BS ’12, is one of six volunteers living in an isolated dome on the slopes of Mauna Loa on Hawaii’s Big Island, where the geology mimics that of Mars. She’s participating in a NASA-funded Mars simulation mission, known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation project (HI-SEAS).
March 27, 2017 | UW Today
On March 31, the UW ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change will hold a 15th anniversary celebration of its work and achievements. With workshops, new resources and mentoring services the center has strived to remake the faculty recruitment and retention process. Since ADVANCE opened its doors, the UW has nearly doubled the number of female faculty in 19 STEM departments across three UW colleges.
March 15, 2017 | UW Health Sciences Newsbeat
Seattle-based nonprofit dialysis provider Northwest Kidney Centers intends to make a $15 million grant over the next five years to support startup projects within the UW Center for Dialysis Innovation. The center, a collaboration of the UW Medicine Kidney Research Institute and UW Biomaterials/Bioengineering, is co-directed by Buddy Ratner, UW professor of bioengineering.
"Their aim is to develop revolutionary dialysis technologies, including a wearable dialysis system that is low-cost, and energy- and water-efficient. This would not only sustain users' lives, but give them more vitality and productivity. This work is desperately needed," said Joyce F. Jackson, Northwest Kidney Centers president and CEO.
March 15, 2017 | College of Engineering
Materials Science & Engineering alum Dan Sedlacek combined his love of nature with his engineering studies to create Uphill Designs, a Seattle adventure goods company grounded in the belief that adventure is at the root of living fully.
March 14, 2017 | Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering
The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering hosts a yearly Tech Studio course that allow students to apply engineering principles from their coursework to independent projects. At the end of the quarter, students presented their projects to CSNE industry affiliates. This year’s winning project was NEOGrasp, a low-cost neural orthosis that would allow users who are quadriplegic or tetraplegic to use another muscle to control a device that can grasp and release objects. The NEOGrasp team was composed of CSE sophomore Aishwarya Mandyam, ME Ph.D. student Gaurav Mukherjee, and BioE senior Lok "Larry” To.
March 9, 2017 | UW Today
Named for the entrepreneur, philanthropist and computing pioneer, the new Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering recognizes Mr. Allen's longstanding support for the mission of the University and CSE. A $50 million endowment for the school will propel the UW to the forefront of computer science education and innovation for generations to come.
"We are entering a new golden age of innovation in computer science, and UW students and faculty will be at its leading edge," said Allen. "My hope is that the school will have the same influence on them as it did on me — that they will continue to dream big, breaking through technological barriers and using their skills to solve some of the biggest problems our world faces."
March 6, 2017 | College of Engineering
For 28 years, UW Formula Motorsports has brought together students to design, build and compete formula-style vehicles. Team members credit their culture of student leadership and mentorship as key to the team’s stability and success.
March 2, 2017 | College of Engineering
Engineering students dominated at the 2017 Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge. First place went to ME's EpiForAll, second place to BioE's BWB Anesthesia and third place to ME's PlayGait.
March 1, 2017 | UW Today
UW researchers used FM radio signals to broadcast music and data notifications from a Simply Three band poster at a Seattle bus stop to a smartphone. An antenna made of copper tape was embedded on the back of the poster.
February 28, 2017 | UW Today
University of Washington researchers have shown that Google’s new machine learning-based system to identify toxic comments in online discussion forums can be bypassed by simply misspelling or adding unnecessary punctuation to abusive words, such as “idiot” or “moron.”
February 23, 2017 | UW Today
University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering announced today the establishment of the Guestrin Endowed Professorship in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This $1 million endowment will further enhance UW CSE’s ability to recruit and retain the world’s most outstanding faculty members in these burgeoning areas.
February 21, 2017 | UW Today
Ali Farhadi, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is one of three faculty members at the University of Washington to be awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships honor early-career scholars whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders, and each fellow receives $60,000 to apply toward research endeavors.
Shwetak Patel
Steve Brunton
Mari Ostendorf
Matthew O’Donnell
Yinhai Wang
Brett Maurer
Eve Riskin
Yin Tat Lee
Ruikang Wang