UW biologist Mike Beecher understands better than most the messages that pass between song sparrows. He and his students have been studying the birds' communication patterns in Seattle's Discovery Park for more than 25 years.

Beth Kolko's experimental research course, Hackademia, brings the hacker spirit to campus. Its mission: "Building functional engineers, one blinky LED at a time."

After two years developing the course, Kolko recently gave talks in Berlin and at Harvard University, and will present at the International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems and at a summer participatory design conference.

Conservation Remix, a daylong event June 2, offers an eclectic mix of topics for discussion – from designing super-efficient buildings that generate their own energy to controlling invasive species by eating them.

"We want people to come away from this event with a sense that conservation isn't just about stopping bad things from happening, but also about starting good things." said Estella Leopold, UW professor emeritus of biology.

Two years after national player of the year Danielle Lawrie finished annihilating opposing hitters in the most dominant career a UW softballer has ever had, Kaitlin Inglesby is carving her own legacy.

In 1962, a parcel at the northern tip of Lake Union was a toxic waste dump, the result of an industrial plant that turned coal to natural gas. By 1976, however, it was Gas Works Park, the result of a gutsy experiment in landscape architecture led by Richard Haag, a University of Washington emeritus professor of architecture.

A new exhibit explores Gas Works Park and 11 other reclaimed parks and public spaces in a series of sketches, photographs and architectural renderings.