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Mon, 08/17/2015 | University of Washington

Electrical Engineering student and UW Solar club project lead Shruti Misra is helping make solar power a reality

Shruti Misra, a senior in electrical engineering with a strong interest in sustainability, is committed to harnessing the sun’s energy — whether it’s through finding ways to control solar panels remotely or helping to oversee projects to get panels installed around campus.

This summer, she’s interning at Athena Energy, a startup that designs hybrid inverters for solar panels. Her role is to help make the panels "smart." Using her computer programming background, she’s finding ways for users to get data from the solar panels and control them via WiFi.

Thu, 08/13/2015 | UW Today

From protein design to self-driving cars: UW researchers win AI prize for new optimization approach

CSE machine learning researchers developed a radically new approach to data optimization. Their paper won the top prize at the world’s largest artificial intelligence conference. The new UW approach outperformed standard optimization techniques, in some instances by many orders of magnitude. “In some ways optimization is the most important problem you’ve never heard of because it turns up in all areas of science, engineering and business. But a lot of optimization problems are extremely difficult to solve because they have a huge number of variables that interact in intricate ways,” said senior author Pedro Domingos, UW professor of computer science and engineering.

Wed, 08/12/2015 | UW Today

CO2 emissions change with size of streams and rivers

The source of carbon dioxide emissions from streams and rivers has been unclear to scientists. David Butman, an assistant professor in CSE, has co-authored a study that shows the greenhouse gas appears in streams by way of two different sources — either as a direct pipeline for groundwater and carbon-rich soils, or from aquatic organisms releasing the gas through respiration and natural decay.

Wed, 08/05/2015 | UW Today

How makerspaces can be accessible to people with disabilities

To ensure places like UW's CoMotion MakerSpace are truly inclusive, ME's Kat Steele leads research on making communal DIY spaces accessible to people with disabilities.

Tue, 08/04/2015 | UW Today

UW workshop to explore Big Data solutions for science

A workshop gathered 100 grad students to identify challenges, ideas, or solutions that data science could advance in their science or engineering fields.

Mon, 08/03/2015 | UW Today

Crystals form through a variety of paths, with implications for biological, materials and environmental research

New research shows a variety of pathways to crystal formation. Crystallization occurs across scientific disciplines; a shift in the picture of how it occurs has far-reaching consequences, says MSE's James De Yoreo.

Mon, 08/03/2015 | UW Today

UW to invest $37 million in nanofabrication lab critical to researchers, start-ups

To serve growing demand for nanofabrication services, the Washington Nanofabrication Facility will double in size and get vital building upgrades.

Wed, 07/22/2015 | UW Today

Computer security tools for journalists lacking in a post-Snowden world

A new study by UW and Columbia University researchers probed the computer security habits of 15 journalists across two continents and found a number of security weaknesses in their technological tools and ad-hoc workarounds. Use of online translation services or popular cloud-based data storage tools could expose confidential sources or other sensitive information. The authors, who include CSE assistant professor Franziska Roesner and students in the UW Master of Human Computer Interaction and Design program, identify a need for new tools designed with journalists in mind.

Thu, 07/16/2015 | UW Today

Many mobile health apps neglect needs of blind users

UW researchers who conducted the first academic review of nine mobile health applications on the market in March 2014 found none met all the criteria that would make them fully accessible to blind customers. Without proper coding, for example, an automated screen reader might read data in a glucose monitoring app as, "87 2:16 p.m. before breakfast fasting mgdl 5 13 15 glucose manual." Authors of the study include CSE doctoral student Lauren Milne, CSE professor Richard Ladner, and HCDE doctoral student Cynthia Bennett.

Tue, 07/07/2015 | College of Engineering

Engineering research projects haul in CoMotion Innovation Fund dollars

The CoMotion Innovation Fund awards grants to innovative projects with promising impact, bridging the gap between academic research grants and the ability to attract seed-stage investment. This year, seven out of the 11 innovation fund awards go to engineering-based projects!

airplane outside a hangar

Sat, 12/14/2024 | Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics

New law of physics finds a sweet spot for aircraft efficiency

A&A researchers in the Computational Fluid Mechanics Lab prove the existence of a new law of physics.

Sat, 12/14/2024 | UW Today

New maritime security project draws Coast Guard’s top admiral to visit UW

Human Centered Design & Engineering professors Mark Haselkorn and Kate Starbird are gaining important insights into how information sharing can be tailored and supported to improve maritime security. Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, the U.S. Coast Guard’s commandant and top leader, is coming to UW to hear from these and other researchers with the UW’s Center for Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety and Regional Resilience (CoSSaR).

Sat, 12/14/2024 | UW Today

UW team programs solitary yeast cells to say ‘hello’ to one another

A team of UW researchers has engineered yeast cells that can “talk” to one another using a plant hormone. Right now the cells are just saying “hi,” but the technique could lead to synthetic stem cells that grow into artificial organs or organisms that require different types of cells to work together. Authors of a new study include EE and BioE professor Eric Klavins, BioE PhD student Arjun Khakhar, and EE PhD student Nicholas J. Bolten.