Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
May 9, 2024
Can Wikipedia-like citations on YouTube curb misinformation?
University of Washington researchers created and tested a prototype browser extension called Viblio, which lets viewers and creators add citations to the timelines of YouTube videos.
April 26, 2024
New circuit boards can be repeatedly recycled
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed a new PCB that performs on par with traditional materials and can be recycled repeatedly with negligible material loss. Researchers used a solvent that transforms a type of vitrimer — a cutting-edge class of polymer — into a jelly-like substance without damage, allowing solid components to be plucked out for reuse or recycling. With these “vPCBs” (vitrimer printed circuit boards), researchers recovered 98% of the vitrimer and 100% of the glass fiber.
April 24, 2024
Q&A: How TikTok’s ‘black box’ algorithm and design shape user behavior
Franziska Roesner, a University of Washington associate professor, and collaborators will present two papers that mine real-world data to help understand TikTok’s personalized its recommendation algorithm and its impact.
April 22, 2024
Faculty/staff honors: Rising Star Award for DEI, honors for ornithological work, and more
Recent recognition for the University of Washington includes a Rising Star Award, honors for distinguished ornithological work and a Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.
April 8, 2024
UW graduate and professional disciplines have strong showing on US News’ Best Graduate Schools rankings
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 2025 Best Graduate Schools rankings released late Monday.
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.
February 28, 2024
UW graduate receives prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship
Sonia Fereidooni, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Washington, was selected for the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Fereidooni, 22, will receive a full-cost scholarship to pursue doctoral work in Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge, England. The highly competitive scholarship brings recognition of accomplishments and future promise. This year, 26 students…
February 7, 2024
UW-developed smart earrings can monitor a person’s temperature
University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.
January 9, 2024
Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT
A team University of Washington researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.
November 16, 2023
Q&A: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.
November 15, 2023
WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map
A team at the University of Washington has created an interactive dashboard called WhaleVis, which lets users map data on global whale catches and whaling routes from 1880 to 1986. Scientists can compare this historical data and its trends with current information to better understand whale populations over time.
November 9, 2023
New AI noise-canceling headphone technology lets wearers pick which sounds they hear
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed deep-learning algorithms that let users pick which sounds filter through their headphones in real time. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers can select which sounds they want to include from 20 classes, such as sirens, baby cries, speech, vacuum cleaners and bird chirps.
November 2, 2023
Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves
Seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study — drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities — to test AI tools’ utility for accessibility. Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems.
October 24, 2023
How can social media be better? Four UW researchers compare strategies
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.
October 17, 2023
Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality
This month, University of Washington researchers will introduce multiple projects that deploy augmented reality — through headsets and phone apps — with the aim of making the world more accessible for people with disabilities.
September 27, 2023
MilliMobile is a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by light and radio waves
The robot, equipped with a solar panel–like energy harvester and four wheels, is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move about the length of a bus in an hour on a cloudy day.
September 21, 2023
UW team’s shape-changing smart speaker lets users mute different areas of a room
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed system of robotic self-deploying microphones, which lets users control sound in a room, muting certain areas and creating “active zones” in others.
September 14, 2023
Faculty/staff honors: Two professors on TIME100 AI list, UW President Ana Mari Cauce honored for contributions to León, and more
Recent recognition for the University of Washington includes Emily M. Bender and Yejin Choi on the TIME100 AI list, President Ana Mari Cauce receiving a Decrees Award and Jeff Hou’s election to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Council of Fellows.
September 13, 2023
Battery-free robots use origami to change shape in mid-air
UW researchers developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent.
July 24, 2023
With a new app, smart devices can have GPS underwater
A team at the University of Washington has developed the first underwater 3D-positioning app for smart devices. When at least three divers are within about 98 feet of each other, the app tracks each user’s location relative to the leader.
June 21, 2023
An app can transform smartphones into thermometers that accurately detect fevers
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created an app called FeverPhone, which transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware.
April 24, 2023
UW graduate and professional disciplines place highly in US News’ Best Graduate Schools rankings
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 2024 Best Graduate Schools rankings released late Monday.
February 15, 2023
UW computer scientist and mathematician named Sloan Fellows
Two University of Washington faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, are Leilani Battle, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Jonathan J. Zhu, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics.
January 23, 2023
Q&A: How AI can help people be more empathetic about mental health
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington studied how artificial intelligence could help people on the platform TalkLife, where people give each other mental health support. The researchers developed an AI system that suggested changes to participants’ responses to make them more empathetic. The best responses resulted from a collaboration between AI and people.
November 16, 2022
Q&A: UW researchers find privacy risks with 3D tours on real estate websites
University of Washington researchers examined 44 3D tours in 44 states across the U.S. to look for potential security issues when personal details were included in the tour.
October 26, 2022
UW is No. 6 in the world, according to US News Best Global Universities
The University of Washington rose from No. 7 to No. 6 on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings, released on Tuesday. The UW maintained its No. 2 ranking among U.S. public institutions.
October 17, 2022
Q&A: UnlockedMaps provides real-time accessibility information for urban rail transit in six metro areas
UW researchers developed UnlockedMaps, a web-based map that allows users to see in real time how accessible rail transit stations are in six metro areas. UnlockedMaps shows which stations are accessible and which ones are experiencing elevator outages.
October 12, 2022
UW’s Yejin Choi wins MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’
Yejin Choi, University of Washington professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, has received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Choi uses natural language processing to develop artificial intelligence systems that have the ability to reason and can understand the implied meanings in human language.
September 19, 2022
A smartphone’s camera and flash could help people measure blood oxygen levels at home
In a proof-of-principle study, University of Washington and University of California San Diego researchers have shown that smartphones are capable of detecting blood oxygen saturation levels down to 70%. This is the lowest value that pulse oximeters should be able to measure, as recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
July 28, 2022
How to help assembly-line robots shift gears and pick up almost anything
A UW team created a new tool that can design a 3D-printable passive gripper and calculate the best path to pick up an object. The team tested this system on a suite of 22 objects — including a 3D-printed bunny, a doorstop-shaped wedge, a tennis ball and a drill.
July 11, 2022
ClearBuds: First wireless earbuds that clear up calls using deep learning
UW researchers created ClearBuds, earbuds that enhance the speaker’s voice and reduce background noise.
June 1, 2022
VoxLens: Adding one line of code can make some interactive visualizations accessible to screen-reader users
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
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
Q&A: Making Earth-friendly electronics
Three researchers in the University of Washington College of Engineering are exploring ways to make electronics more Earth-friendly.
March 28, 2022
UW graduate and professional disciplines again place high in US News’ best graduate school rankings
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 16, 2022
Tiny battery-free devices float in the wind like dandelion seeds
Inspired by how dandelions use the wind to distribute their seeds, a University of Washington team has developed a tiny sensor-carrying device that can be blown by the wind as it tumbles toward the ground.
March 8, 2022
O-pH, a new UW dental tool prototype, can spot the acidic conditions that lead to cavities
You and your dentist have a lot of tools and techniques for stopping cavities, but detecting the specific chemical conditions that can lead to cavities and then preventing them from ever getting started is much harder. Now, in a new study, University of Washington researchers have shown that a dental tool they created can measure…
February 17, 2022
UW biologist and computer scientist named Sloan Fellows
Two faculty members at the University of Washington have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, are Brianna Abrahms, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, and Yulia Tsvetkov, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
February 11, 2022
Samson Jenekhe, Anna Karlin elected to National Academy of Engineering
Samson Jenehke, a University of Washington professor in both the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Anna Karlin, a UW professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, announced Feb. 9 by the academy.
Smartphone app can vibrate a single drop of blood to determine how well it clots
Researchers at the UW have developed a new blood-clotting test that uses a single drop of blood and a smartphone vibration motor and camera.
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