Learning
June 16, 2020
UW reinvents summer research, internships during COVID-19
The COVID-19 Clearinghouse at UW Law is just one of the ways that faculty and staff across the university have revamped summer research internships and worked with outside partners and employers to involve students in a remote working environment, even for jobs that would normally be out in the field.
June 10, 2020
Passing crucial, challenging introductory chemistry course gives biggest boost to underrepresented students
Researchers examined 15 years of records of student performance, education and demographics for chemistry courses at the University of Washington. They found that underrepresented students received lower grades in the general chemistry series compared to their peers and, if the grade was sufficiently low, were less likely to continue in the series and more likely to leave STEM. But if underrepresented students completed the first general chemistry course with at least the minimum grade needed to continue in the series, they were more likely than their peers to continue the general chemistry series and complete this major step toward a STEM degree.
April 27, 2020
Asian Languages & Literature Department awarded Chinese Flagship Grant to expand language education
The UW Asian Languages & Literature Department has been awarded a four-year $1.3 million “flagship” grant from the the Institute for International Education that will support the expanded study of Chinese language and culture across the UW.
April 24, 2020
Faculty/staff honors: Education research, Salish Sea Prize, Association for Psychological Science award
Recent honors to UW faculty and staff have come from the American Education Research Association, the Association for Psychological Science and the SeaDoc Society.
April 16, 2020
‘Hands-on’ classes online? How some instructors are adapting to a new teaching environment
When the UW announced it was moving its spring quarter 2020 classes entirely online to combat the novel coronavirus, instructors across campus faced a new, uncharted challenge.
March 27, 2020
Laptops for takeout or delivery: Student technology program readies for spring quarter
With the university’s spring quarter beginning Monday, UW staff and student workers in the Student Technology Loan Program spent the week-long spring break gathering, checking and cleaning some 300 laptops and tablets for distribution – and, for the first time, shipping many of those devices to the homes of UW students across the country.
March 17, 2020
‘It’s a good test’: UW faculty, students adjust to an online end to the quarter, prepare for spring
This wasn’t how LaShawnDa Pittman expected to give her final exam review: At her kitchen table, laptop open, coffee cup at the ready, her 12-year-old Chihuahua named Espresso by her side. But as the first week of the University of Washington’s shift to online classes drew to a close, Pittman, an assistant professor of American…
March 11, 2020
An architecture class goes online
Rick Mohler, associate professor of architecture, meets with his Research Design Studio students online. Normally a hands-on class with poster-size drawings and tabletop scale models, Mohler’s design studio has shifted to the small screen.
January 30, 2020
UW’s new broadcast meteorology course is first on West Coast
The University of Washington has long boasted one of the country’s top programs in atmospheric sciences. Now, the UW is also teaching undergraduates how to share that knowledge online and on TV as a broadcast meteorologist.
January 6, 2020
Supporting diversity, inclusion in neuroscience: A conversation about the BRAINS Program with UW psychology professor Sheri Mizumori
A conversation with UW psychology professor Sheri Mizumori about the UW-based program Broadening the Representations of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience — or BRAINS for short — designed to accelerate career advancement for postdoctoral researchers and assistant professors from underrepresented populations.
August 22, 2019
UW books in brief: Tribal sovereignty and the courts, mentoring through fan fiction, UW Press paperback editions
Recent notable books by UW faculty members explore the legal history of Indigenous nations and the mentoring benefits of fan fiction. Plus, a UW anthropologist’s book is honored, a former English faculty member is remembered in a biography, and UW Press brings out paperback editions of three popular titles.
August 13, 2019
James Webb Space Telescope could begin learning about TRAPPIST-1 atmospheres in a single year, study indicates
New research from astronomers at the UW uses the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 planetary system as a kind of laboratory to model not the planets themselves, but how the coming James Webb Space Telescope might detect and study their atmospheres, on the path toward looking for life beyond Earth.
July 30, 2019
Video: UW hosts student robotics ‘moon landing’ challenge
A robotics challenge July 20th at the UW featured twenty-eight teams of middle and high schoolers from Forks to Walla Walla and from Bellingham to Olympia. The event marked a half-century since the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and two U.S. astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked its surface.
June 19, 2019
Abundance of gases in Enceladus’s ocean are a potential fuel — if life is there to consume it
The subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus probably has higher than previously known concentrations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and a more Earthlike pH level, possibly providing conditions favorable to life, according to new research from planetary scientists at the UW.
June 18, 2019
Of octopuses and astrobiology: Conference talk speculates on cognition beyond Earth
Of the many papers and presentations scheduled for AbSciCon2019, the conference on astrobiology and the search for life in space happening in Bellevue the week of June 24, the UW’s Dominic Sivitilli’s is perhaps unique — he’ll discuss his research into how octopuses “think.”
May 30, 2019
Design, art thesis projects fill Henry Art Gallery for eclectic annual exhibition
The annual thesis exhibition by graduating art and design students with the UW School of Art + Art History + Design reliably brings together the dreamy and the practical to cohabit at the Henry Art Gallery. This year’s exhibit features the work of 10 artists and 11 designers, and will be at the Henry through June 23.
May 21, 2019
Help by design: Art assists science at UW Design Help Desk
Sometimes when science gets stuck, art can come to the rescue. Such is the case, a new study shows, with the UW Design Help Desk, which guides faculty, students and staff in improving the more artistic aspects of presenting research or reports — figures, diagrams, posters and such.
April 30, 2019
Explore and dive to the depths of Puget Sound May 4 with UW’s aquatic science open house
Families, students and children are invited to get their hands wet on Saturday with “Our Watery World,” the University of Washington’s second annual aquatic science open house.
April 26, 2019
Video: Kids have fun with science at Engineering Discovery Days
Engineering Discovery Days is a yearly event that invites Washington state fourth- through eighth-graders to have fun leaning about STEM with the College of Engineering.
April 19, 2019
New space race: Essays from Jackson School symposium explore changing law, policy
A new space race is underway, characterized by the intersecting trends of democratization, commercialization and militarization. Saadia Pekkanen, UW professor of international relations, is lead guest editor for a group of essays addressing such issues and more published online this month in the American Journal of International Law.
April 4, 2019
April ‘Weather Madness’: UW wins top team, individual prizes in national forecasting contest, now enters tournament round
A University of Washington team placed first in a national weather forecasting contest that began in September. A UW graduate student also developed a model that for the first time beat out all human competitors.
March 14, 2019
Jackson School’s Devin Naar featured in documentary premiering March 24 at Seattle’s Jewish Film Festival
Devin Naar, UW professor of international studies and history, is featured in “Children of the Inquisition,” a new documentary film about descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions discovering their Sephardic Jewish heritage. The film will premiere March 24 as part of the Seattle Jewish Film Festival.
March 4, 2019
Fake faces: UWs ‘Calling BS’ duo opens new website asking ‘Which face is real?’
A new website from the UW’s Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom, the duo behind the popular “Calling BS” class, asks viewers to choose which of two realistic face photos is real and which is a complete fake.
January 30, 2019
Building equity: A talk with Renée Cheng, new dean of the UW College of Built Environments
UW News talks with Renée Cheng, new dean of the UW College of Built Environments, about her background and plans for the college. Cheng joined the UW on Jan. 1.
January 28, 2019
UW’s Stroum Center affiliates present on Holocaust, Ladino archives and more at 50th anniversary Jewish studies conference
The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, in the UW Jackson School of International Studies, was well represented at the 50th annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies Dec. 16-18 in Boston.
January 9, 2019
Minority Ph.D. students in STEM fare better with clear expectations, acceptance
Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields are more likely to advance professionally, publish more research and secure postdoctoral and faculty positions if their institutional culture is welcoming and sets clear expectations, according to a study of hundreds of Ph.D. students at four top-tier California research universities.
October 29, 2018
UW books in brief: Postwar Japan, American Indian businesses, dictatorship to democracy — and more
Recent notable books by UW faculty members study politics and culture in post-World War II Japan, explore regime change, nonprofit management, documents from the ancient world and more.
October 8, 2018
Race, empire, agency explored in UW history professor’s book ‘Risky Shores: Savagery and Colonialism in the Western Pacific’
A new book by University of Washington history professor George Behlmer seeks to improve understanding of the British colonial era by “reconsidering the conduct of islanders and the English-speaking strangers who encountered them.”
October 2, 2018
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell brings leadership to UW community, new EarthLab initiative
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell brings a lifetime of experience in business, nonprofits, government and the outdoors to the University of Washington, where one of her tasks is to help shape the future of EarthLab, a new university-wide institute that seeks to connect scholars with community partners to solve our most difficult environmental problems.
September 18, 2018
UW historian Margaret O’Mara discusses famous 1968 computer mouse ‘demo’ — and the start of Silicon Valley — for new podcast by The Conversation
Margaret O’Mara, UW professor of history, explores the impact of a December 1968 computer presentation that came to be called “the mother of all demos” in an essay and podcast from the news website The Conversation.
Evans School’s Patrick Dobel pens book on ethics in public leadership
Patrick Dobel, professor emeritus of the UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, discusses his new book, “Public Leadership Ethics: A Management Approach.”
August 28, 2018
Working class heroes: A look inside the Labor Archives of Washington
An exploration of UW Libraries’ Labor Archives of Washington with labor archivist Conor Casey.
August 7, 2018
Evans School to study effects of Seattle’s sick leave ordinance
Hilary Wething, a doctoral student in the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, has received a grant to study the effects of Seattle’s law requiring paid sick leave.
June 15, 2018
Study: Undergrad research experiences make a noticeable difference
A new analysis suggests the value of structured research programs for undergraduates extends to society as a whole by encouraging participants to seek advanced degrees in scientific and technological fields.
June 1, 2018
Art, design provide eclectic mix for annual graduate show at Henry Art Gallery
Art and design can amaze, inform, entertain, challenge or even gently baffle the viewer — and the annual thesis exhibition for Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design at the Henry Art Gallery reliably offers a little of each.
May 25, 2018
Broccoli in space: How probiotics could help grow veggies in microgravity
Astronauts at the International Space Station are spending more time away from Earth, but they still need their daily serving of vegetables. In the quest to find a viable way for crew to grow their own veggies while orbiting — and possibly one day on the moon or Mars — student researchers are sending broccoli…
May 24, 2018
Remaking a reef: UW landscape architecture students to present design for new artificial reef at Redondo dive site
What makes a good artificial reef, for divers, and for marine life? University of Washington landscape architecture students have done designs for a state-funded project to replace the artificial reef at the Redondo Beach dive site. They will present and discuss their work in a public meeting May 30, in Des Moines. The landscape architecture…
May 21, 2018
Designed for evil: How to make bad technologies better
Through Alexis Hiniker’s Designing for Evil course, which is unique to the UW, students have identified “emerging evil” technologies and redesigned them so that they are more likely to enhance — not detract from — users’ lives.
May 14, 2018
Jackson School’s Taso Lagos pens ‘American Zeus,’ biography of theater mogul Alexander Pantages
It’s a challenge to write a biography of a man who was functionally illiterate and whose papers were mostly destroyed, but UW lecturer Taso Lagos has achieved it with his new book, “American Zeus: The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theater Mogul.”
May 2, 2018
Center for Communication, Difference and Equity to explore issues of race and media in conference May 10-12
Issues of race and racism permeate American culture and media more than ever. The UW’s Center for Communication, Difference and Equity will hold a three-day conference May 10-12 to explore these issues and foster engagement and support among academics.
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