UW News

Information School


March 14, 2024

UW researchers taught kids to code with cultural research and embroidery machines

University of Washington researchers taught a group of high schoolers to code by combining cultural research into various embroidery traditions with “computational embroidery.” The method teaches kids to encode embroidery patterns on a computer through a coding language called Turtlestitch.


March 11, 2024

Q&A: How Instagram influencers profit from anti-vaccine misinformation

A person's hand holds a smartphone, with the Instagram analytics page open. There's a green plant in the background.

New research from the UW examines how three wellness Instagram influencers profited from anti-vaccine misinformation.


February 15, 2024

Q&A: What is the best route to fairer AI systems?

Two people's hands gesture to pieces of paper between two laptops on a desk.

Mike Teodorescu, a University of Washington assistant professor in the Information School, proposes that private enterprise standards for fairer machine learning systems would inform governmental regulation.


November 29, 2023

AI image generator Stable Diffusion perpetuates racial and gendered stereotypes, study finds

Four images created by AI image generator Stable Diffusion with the prompt "person from Oceania" show four light-skinned people.

University of Washington researchers found that when prompted to make pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples and sexualized images of certain women of color.


November 2, 2023

ArtSci Roundup: UW Pandemic Project Radical Listening Session, National First-Generation College Celebration, and more

This week, attend the UW Pandemic Project’s Radical Listening Session to honor each individual’s lived pandemics experiences, head to Meany Hall for Garrick Ohlsson’s piano performance, celebrate Diwali with the Burke Museum, and more. November 7, 4:30 – 6:00pm | Sharon Stein, “The University and Its Responsibility for Repair: Confronting Colonial Foundations and Enabling Different…


October 30, 2023

A Google Slides extension can make presentation software more accessible for blind users

A user demonstrates creating a presentation slide with A11yBoard on a touchscreen tablet and computer screen.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created A11yBoard for Google Slides, a browser extension and phone or tablet app that allows blind users to navigate through complex slide layouts, objects, images and text.


October 24, 2023

How can social media be better? Four UW researchers compare strategies

A silhouette of a person looking at a phone.

The turmoil at large tech platforms has many people reconsidering what they want out of social media. Four researchers at the University of Washington are exploring different approaches to improve people’s experiences.


September 25, 2023

Q&A: Can AI in school actually help students be more creative and self-directed?

A woman sits in an office setting

Katie Davis, a University of Washington associate professor in the Information School, discusses how generative AI might support learning, instead of detracting from it, if kids can keep their agency.


August 29, 2023

Researchers prefer same-gender co-authors, UW study shows

A group of people at a table with papers and water bottles.

A new study from the University of Washington and Cornell University shows researchers more likely to write scientific papers with co-authors of the same gender, a pattern that can’t be explained by varying gender representations across scientific disciplines and time.


August 16, 2023

Q&A: As AI changes education, important conversations for kids still happen off-screen

Jason Yip, a UW associate professor in the Information School, discusses how parents and schools can adapt to new technologies in ways that support children’s learning.


July 18, 2023

Learning from superheroes and AI: UW researchers study how a chatbot can teach kids supportive self-talk

a smart speaker sits beside school supplies

Researchers at the University of Washington created a new audio chatbot, Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, aimed to help children speak positively to themselves. This chatbot is “a ‘Sesame Street’ experience for a smart speaker.”


May 31, 2023

UW researcher discusses the buzz behind ‘Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’

A screenshot of Zelda protagonist Link standing outside the Shrine of Resurrection in the "Tears of the Kingdom" game

UW News sat down with Michele Newman, a University of Washington doctoral student in the Information School, to learn more about fans’ dedication to “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”


May 4, 2023

New faculty books: Children and technology, art and life experiences of Black women, and more

Three book covers on a wooden table.

Three new faculty books from the University of Washington cover topics ranging from children’s use of technology to the life experiences of Black women to neuroscience and brain research.


March 31, 2023

Q&A: Developing a new Spanish-language controlled vocabulary of LGBTQIA+ terms

Books on library shelves

The Homosaurus is a linked data controlled vocabulary used by libraries, museums and other cultural heritage institutions worldwide to describe LGBTQIA+ resources and aid in indexing and retrieving content. Marika Cifor, University of Washington assistant professor in the Information School, was awarded a 2023 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a free-standing Spanish-language Homosaurus.


December 12, 2022

UW’s Daniel Chen, ’22, named prestigious Marshall Scholar

profile shot

University of Washington alumnus Daniel Guorui Chen, Class of 2022, has been named a Marshall Scholar, one of the highest honors available to college graduates in the U.S. Chen plans to attend the University of Cambridge.


July 20, 2022

UW atmospheric sciences achieves No. 1 global ranking; nearly three dozen UW subjects in top 50

person stands in front of bright green wall

Eight University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10 and Atmospheric Sciences moved to its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2022. The ranking, released Tuesday, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.


June 1, 2022

VoxLens: Adding one line of code can make some interactive visualizations accessible to screen-reader users

A laptop with a screen reader attached sitting on a table

VoxLens users can gain a high-level summary of the information described in a graph, listen to a graph translated into sound or use voice-activated commands to ask specific questions about the data, such as the mean or the minimum value.


May 23, 2022

‘I don’t even remember what I read’: People enter a ‘dissociative state’ when using social media

People on public transit. Everyone is looking at their phones.

Researchers at the University of Washington wondered if people enter a state of dissociation when surfing social media, and if that explains why users might feel out of control after spending so much time on their favorite app.


April 21, 2022

ArtSci Roundup: A Conversation with Brad Smith, UW Public Lectures: An Evening with Masha Gessen, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! Katz Distinguished Lecture: Abderrahmane Sissako April 26, 7:00 PM | Kane Hall 210 What is the place of West Africa in the world and of the world in West Africa? These are the questions that the Oscar- and Palme d’Or-nominated filmmaker Adberrahmane Sissako…


March 28, 2022

UW graduate and professional disciplines again place high in US News’ best graduate school rankings

campus shot

The University of Washington’s graduate and professional degree programs were widely recognized as among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate School rankings released Tuesday.


March 14, 2022

Q&A: Preserving context and user intent in the future of web search

Computer open to Google home screen

In a new perspective paper, University of Washington professors Emily M. Bender and Chirag Shah respond to proposals that reimagine web search as an application for large language model-driven conversation agents.


February 16, 2022

Google’s ‘CEO’ image search gender bias hasn’t really been fixed

UW researchers showed that image search results for four major search engines from around the world, including Google, still reflect gender bias.


November 2, 2021

UW wins funding for ‘clinic’ to help community navigate technology

Mary Gates Hall

When people need legal advice but can’t afford a lawyer, they often turn to legal clinics where law students can offer representation and advocacy. When community organizations need advice on technology, they soon will be able to turn to a similar type of clinic at the University of Washington.


October 1, 2021

Three UW teams awarded NSF Convergence Accelerator grants for misinformation, ocean projects

Three separate University of Washington research teams have been awarded $750,000 each by the National Science Foundation to advance studies in misinformation and the ocean economy.


September 27, 2021

New Student Convocation on Tuesday afternoon opens UW’s 2021-22 academic year

aerial view of large circular fountain on college campus

University of Washington Associate Professor Wendy Barrington will be the featured speaker at the university’s 38th annual New Student Convocation. Barrington has joint appointments in the Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing in the School of Nursing and the departments of Epidemiology and of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health.


September 13, 2021

Do Alexa and Siri make kids bossier? New research suggests you might not need to worry

A simple drawing of a robot with a smiley face against a blue background

A team led by UW studied whether hanging out with conversational agents, such as Alexa or Siri, could affect the way children communicate with their fellow humans.


July 13, 2021

From ‘distress’ to ‘unscathed’ — mental health of UW students during spring 2020

A table in the living room with a cup of tea, a laptop and a stack of books on top. Behind the table is a couch and a bike

To understand how the UW’s transition to online-only classes affected college students’ mental health in the spring of 2020, UW researchers surveyed 147 UW undergraduates over the 2020 spring quarter.


April 21, 2021

Q&A: It’s not just social media — misinformation can spread in scientific communication too

When people think of misinformation, they often focus on popular and social media. But in a paper published April 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, University of Washington faculty members Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom write that scientific communication — both scientific papers and news articles written about papers — also has the potential to spread misinformation.


April 19, 2021

Arguing on the internet: UW researchers studying how to make online arguments productive

A person looking shocked at what they are seeing on their phone

UW researchers worked with almost 260 people to understand online disagreements and to develop potential design interventions that could make these discussions more productive and centered around relationship-building.


March 24, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Energy-efficient computing, Cottrell Scholar, Google Inclusion Awards

An Intel Corporation award for work to make computers more energy-efficient, a Research Corporation for Science award for chemistry research and education, and two Google inclusion awards to create technology for underrepresented populations.


March 16, 2021

‘Telling Stories’: Imagined tales of artificial intelligence presented by the UW Tech Policy Lab

Photo of authore -- Authors of "Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence" are Dennys Antonialli, InternetLab, Brazil; Chinmayi Arun, National Law University, Delhi, India; Joanna Bryson, University of Bath, England; Darren Byler, UW; Ryan Calo, UW; Jeff Cao, Tencent Research Institute, China; Jack Clark, OpenAI, United States, Batya Friedman, UW; Sue Glueck, Microsoft; Sabine Hauert, University of Bristol, England; Alejandro Hevia, University of Chile; Ian Kerr, University of Ottawa, Canada; Tadayoshi Kohno, UW; Lisa Nathan, University of British Columbia, Canada; Joseph Nkurunziza, Never Again Rwanda, Rwanda; Nnenna Nwakanma, World Wide Web Foundation, Côte d’Ivoire; Amir Rashidi, Center for Human Rights in Iran; Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka; Jeroen van den Hoven, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Tales of artificial intelligence and its effects on future life are gathered in “Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence,” presented by the UW Tech Policy Lab.


November 24, 2020

Faculty/staff honors: Grants received, a top ‘Innovator Under 35’ and a career political science award

Miranda Belarde-Lewis, assistant professor in the UW Information School, has been named the inaugural Joe and Jill McKinstry Endowed Faculty Fellow in Native North American Indigenous Knowledge.

Recent honors and awards for UW faculty and staff include a top young innovator, a new endowed faculty fellow, research grants awarded and a career achievement award in environmental political science.


Q&A: Animal Crossing to K-pop: Gaming, music fandom groups provide human connection during the pandemic

A screenshot of people gathered around a table in the game Animal Crossing. There are cakes and balloons and everyone is smiling.

In this Q&A, UW Information School associate professor Jin Ha Lee discusses how video game and music fandom communities can be “places of light” during the COVID-19 pandemic.


October 30, 2020

‘2020: The Course’ ponders the meaning of this unusual year

For a time unlike any before, the University of Washington has developed “2020: The Course,” a new online class for UW students that helps contextualize this year’s extraordinary events and societal upheaval. “2020: The Course” gives students an opportunity to hear from UW professors and special guests who will discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, race in the United States, the state of the environment, the economic recession, civic participation, citizenship and this election season and outcomes.


October 5, 2020

UW secures competitive $1 million Luce Foundation grant to advance Southeast Asian research and community engagement

art piece

The Southeast Asia Center at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Libraries at the University of Washington will spearhead a new initiative of innovative collaborations to explore the effects and consequences of authoritarianism in Southeast Asia and on Southeast Asian American communities in the United States.


September 9, 2020

UW joins Public Interest Technology University Network

The University of Washington has joined forces with schools across the country to be part of the Public Interest Technology University Network, or PIT-UN.


June 2, 2020

Faculty/staff honors: East Asia Resource Center grant; career awards in robotics, information processing

Students study in the East Asia Resource Center in the Jackson School of International Studies.

Recent honors to UW faculty and staff have come from the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group, the Freeman Foundation and the IEEE.


May 28, 2020

UW launches new Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences with $2.5 million investment from Microsoft

researcher works with subject

The University of Washington today announced the establishment of the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE). Fueled by a $2.5 million inaugural investment from Microsoft, UW CREATE is led by an interdisciplinary team whose mission is to make technology accessible and to make the world accessible through technology.


May 1, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Storytelling with Indigenous Writers, Meany Center Curtain Talks, Stroum Center Quick Talk, and more

Michelle Witt, executive/artistic director for the Meany Center for the Performing Arts. Story is about visiting Step Afrika! dance troup and the celebration of 100 years since UW-related artist Jacob Lawrence was born.

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Sacred Breath:…


April 14, 2020

How families can use technology to juggle childcare and remote life

A child in front of a laptop.

UW researchers are beginning a national study to help families discover technology that helps them both successfully navigate home-based learning and combat social isolation.



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