A UW family legacy
Thirty years after his parents studied computer science at the UW, Andrew Shaw is carrying that legacy forward through research focused on justice, public service and responsible technology.
For Andrew Shaw, the University of Washington has always represented more than a place to earn a degree. It was part of his family’s story long before it became part of his own.
Shaw grew up hearing how his parents came to Seattle after fleeing the Vietnam War as child refugees. How they adjusted to high school in America and learning a new language and later worked their way through college in the UW’s emerging computer science program. In the years that followed, that education helped change their life trajectory.
“I’ve always known that technology can be a powerful force for economic opportunity and social change — because it changed my family’s life,” Shaw said.
His parents were not the only members of the family to find opportunity at the UW. Seven of their siblings also attended the University after arriving in the U.S. as refugees from Vietnam. For Shaw, who grew up in Bellevue, the UW became a symbol of possibility — a place that helped families like his enter fields such as medicine, engineering, and law.
Now he’s earning his master’s degree from the UW thirty years after his parents came to campus. Shaw feels the weight and meaning of that legacy. He also felt a responsibility to carry it forward.
“Studying computer science at the same university as my parents, I feel a responsibility to honor their story by asking how I can continue to serve and uplift vulnerable communities through my technological practice,” he said.
At the UW, Shaw pursued that question across disciplines, earning a B.S. in computer science and a B.A. in philosophy (concentrating in ethics) before continuing to complete his master’s in computer science in June 2026.
The pairing of computer science and philosophy was intentional. Shaw explains coming of age during a period when the social consequences of technology — from social media to artificial intelligence — were becoming increasingly visible. He felt computer science was still often treated as neutral or separate from politics, power and values.
Computer science taught Shaw how to build technology. Philosophy helped him ask what should be built, who it should serve and how it can be designed with care.
“It allows me to question why certain design assumptions have been made, who benefits from those assumptions, and what goals technology should be aiming for,” Shaw said. “I seek to ground every technological project I pursue in a philosophical motivation.”
That approach shaped his work with the UW Center for Human Rights, where he used artificial intelligence and data science techniques to support investigations of immigrant rights abuses.
Through that work, Shaw saw that human rights researchers often approach data in ways that are deeply community-grounded and shaped by care — an approach that differed from how data science was often taught in the classroom. That insight inspired an ongoing qualitative interview study with human rights researchers across the country, focused on the opportunities and challenges of using data science in human rights practice.
For Shaw, technology should be shaped by the people it affects, especially those whose needs and experiences are too often overlooked.
“To me, centering marginalized voices in technology means applying wisdom from the worldviews and experiences of populations who are often excluded from the process of technological development,” he said.
His public-interest focus has also extended beyond the UW. As a software engineering fellow with the City of Baltimore, Shaw researched ethical uses of artificial intelligence in government shortly after the release of ChatGPT. At a moment when city leaders were trying to understand how AI could be used responsibly, he helped draft a primer for employees that introduced AI concepts while emphasizing values such as fairness, accountability and transparency.
He has also interned in software development at Amazon and with USAFacts, a nonprofit founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to make government data more accessible to the public.
Outside of coursework and research, Shaw found another intellectual home in The Garden of Ideas, the UW’s undergraduate philosophy journal. He served first as an editor and later as editor-in-chief, helping solicit submissions from undergraduate institutions across the country and publishing two issues in print and online. During his first two years at UW, he also participated in NDT-CEDA college policy debate as part of a hybrid team with Western Washington University.
Now, Shaw is preparing for the next step in his academic journey: a Ph.D. in computer science at Cornell University. His future research will focus on the relationship between AI and democracy, including how technology could help support constructive forms of public discourse.
As he heads to Cornell for a Ph.D. in computer science, Shaw is still guided by the lesson he learned from his family’s UW story: technology can change lives. The question is how to make sure it changes them for the better.
“My journey at the University of Washington has not only shaped my intellectual interests,” Shaw said. “It has also shaped my personal convictions and future goals.”
Photos courtesy of Andrew Shah
Originally published June 2026
