The latest news from the UW

In the age of “smart” technology, the devices we use ­— from phones that enable banking and shopping to personal robots and driverless cars — will leave a trail sharing who we are, where we go and what we consume. Over the next month, the University of Washington College of Engineering’s fall lecture series will feature faculty researchers balancing technological advances with the myriad hazards, seen and unseen, of our ever-more-connected world. The lectures are free and open to the…

Each year, around 1,100 undergraduate students around the United States die by suicide; in the last six years alone, 18 University of Washington students have taken their own lives. “That number sounds horrific, and it is, but it’s also squarely in line with the national average,” said Lauren Davis, director of school and campus programs at Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention, an interdisciplinary organization based in the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. That reality prompted Forefront to organize the first…

Syria’s drawn-out civil war has displaced more than 10 million people since 2011 and the flood of refugees from the area has drawn the concerned attention of the world. The University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies will hold a free, public forum at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6, in Room 101 of Thomson Hall. The forum is titled “Focus on Syria: A Humanitarian Crisis,” and will be moderated by Resat Kasaba, Stanley D. Golub Chair of International Studies…

A University of Washington tool that monitors the amount of ice in Arctic waters calculated that we remain on track for a gradual disappearance of the Arctic ice cap in summer. “Last year, when the ice had bounced back by some percentage both in extent and in volume, there was a bit of talk about whether that constituted a recovery,” said Axel Schweiger, a sea ice scientist with the UW Applied Physics Laboratory. “I think it’s significant that we’re back…

In a sense, early returns from the 2016 election are already in: Civility is losing to vitriol in a landslide. But two former U.S. senators who each served as Senate majority leaders — Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi and Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota — have been promoting a plan to restore civility to governing. On September 24, the two will present some of these ideas to an audience of state legislators, university representatives, business leaders and members of…

The University of Washington Center for Human Rights will hold a daylong conference Oct. 5 at the UW School of Law, underscoring a crucial international theme even with its title: “Access to Information as a Human Right.” The conference springs from the center’s partnerships with communities and organizations struggling for truth and accountability in postwar El Salvador. Panels will include conversations with international experts in human rights, access to information, and international law; and with Salvadoran human rights defenders and…

The share of Washingtonians living in poverty dropped from 14.1 percent to 13.2 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. Washington was one of 12 states with significant declines in their poverty rates during that period. Among the remaining states, the vast majority saw no change in their poverty rates or the number of people in living in poverty. “We are finally seeing a drop in the poverty rate six years after the…

The University of Washington and Oregon State University have won a $4.5 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to advance nanoscale science, engineering and technology research in the Pacific Northwest and support a new network of user sites across the country. The regional partnership was selected as one of 16 sites for a new National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) program. That network is designed to give researchers from academia, small and large companies and other institutions open access…

If you’ve ever wanted to travel north of the Arctic Circle in early fall, when the expanse of water dotted with ice floes reaches its greatest extent, this is your chance. Follow the ArcticMix website or on Twitter at @_following_seas through Sept. 26 A University of Washington oceanographer is one of three principal investigators on a monthlong research cruise to the Beaufort Gyre. The researchers are posting updates, photos and videos of their study of Arctic Ocean mixing through Sept….

The University of Washington and city of Seattle have joined a new national network of university-city partnerships that will work on “smart city” solutions as part of a new White House Smart Cities Initiative. The MetroLab Network, announced by the White House on Monday, consists of partnerships between research universities with expertise in engineering, robotics and computer science and cities looking to be test beds for 21st century solutions. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce…

The University of Washington is the 7th-largest contributor of college graduates to the 2015 Teach For America corps, according to the annual list of top contributors released today by the national nonprofit organization. Graduates who join Teach For America commit to teach for at least two years in under-resourced schools. Among large schools, the University of California–Los Angeles contributed the highest number of alumni to the corps, with 65 graduates beginning as teachers through the program this fall. The University of Washington’s Seattle campus…