Donors contributed more money — more than $482 million — to the UW in the 2013-14 fiscal year than in any previous year.


Donors contributed more money — more than $482 million — to the UW in the 2013-14 fiscal year than in any previous year.

University of Washington researchers have developed visual tools to help self-trackers understand their daily activity patterns over a longer period and in more detail. They found people had an easier time meeting personal fitness and activity goals when they could see their data presented in a broader, more visual way.
The Board of Regents will hold meetings Thursday, July 10. The Board meetings will take place in the Bill & Melinda Gates Commons, CSE Room 691, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. The first committee meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. The Regular Board meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:05 a.m. The full schedule and agendas are available online.
The former news planning editor for Aljazeera.com, the online home of Al Jazeera America cable news channel, is the new director of the Office of News and Information.

The Road Map Project highlights how students are most successful when schools and communities find creative and culturally responsive ways of engaging parents.

A low-cost technique may make DNA sequencing more convenient and less cumbersome, perhaps eventually replacing large lab machines with hand held devices.

New research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong shows that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers.

University of Washington computer scientists have shown that crowdsourcing can be a quick and effective way to teach a robot how to complete tasks.

Linden Rhoads will leave her post as UW vice provost for commercialization; Vikram Jandhyala will take over the new position of vice provost for innovation.

University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract, such as the lungs, heart and arteries. These findings are the first that clearly track this phenomenon, called ferroelectricity, occurring at the molecular level in biological tissues.

Scientists are embarking on research to improve volcanic eruption forecasting by learning more about how a deep-underground feeder system creates and supplies magma to Mount St. Helens.

Gov. Jay Inslee has named Marnie Brown, a recent accounting graduate who will pursue a master’s degree, as the next student member of the UW Board of Regents.

University of Washington engineers have designed a low-power sensor that could be placed permanently in a person’s eye to track hard-to-measure changes in eye pressure. The sensor would be embedded with an artificial lens during cataract surgery and would detect pressure changes instantaneously, then transmit the data wirelessly using radio frequency waves.

Computer scientists from the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle have created the first fully automated computer program that teaches everything there is to know about any visual concept.

A record 5,300-plus graduates and an audience of more than 40,000 are expected to attend the 139th University of Washington commencement ceremonies June 14.
The Board of Regents will hold a Regular Meeting on Thursday, June 12, at 11:45 a.m. in the Petersen Room of Allen Library. The full agenda is available online.

The University of Washington is the only U.S. university named as a 2014 Sustainable Campus Excellence Award winner.

A cost-analysis of post-traumatic stress disorder treatments shows that letting patients choose their course of treatment – either psychotherapy or medication – is less expensive than assigning a treatment and provides a higher quality of life for patients.

Swamp once site of historic Yesler sawmill being restored with UW student and neighborhood help.

Comb jellies – and not sponges – may lay claim as the earliest ancestors of animals, according to new research in Nature.

Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.

Most discrimination in the U.S. is not caused by intention to harm people different from us, but by ordinary favoritism directed at helping people similar to us, according to a theoretical review published online in American Psychologist.

The University of Washington is receiving a $31.2 million gift from Washington Research Foundation to boost entrepreneurship and support research that tackles some of society’s most crucial challenges. The award will fund four interdisciplinary initiatives that seek to advance global innovation in clean energy, protein design, big data science and neuroengineering.

Researchers affiliated with the UW’s School of Social Work tailored a parenting program known to improve communication in non-foster families for use in foster families, who often say they don’t feel connected and have trouble communicating, but few resources exist that nurture their bonding.

A significantly greater number of students fail science, engineering and math courses that are taught lecture-style than fail with active learning according to the largest analysis ever of studies comparing lecturing to active learning in undergraduate education

The collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun, according to computer models using detailed topographic maps. The fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will likely disappear in a matter of centuries, researchers say, raising sea level by nearly 2 feet.

Washington state’s housing market finished weaker in the first quarter of 2014 when compared to the end of 2013, according to the UW’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies.

Social work researchers from the University of Washington have found that among a group of active-duty Army personnel who use illicit drugs, the most abused substance is synthetic marijuana, nicknamed “Spice,” which is harder to detect than other drugs through standard drug tests.

University of Washington electrical engineers have developed telerobotics technology that could make disaster response faster and more efficient. They are working with a large team as part of the SmartAmerica Challenge, an initiative that encourages new technologies that help society in our increasingly connected world.

Up to half of the recent warming in Greenland and surrounding areas may be due to climate variations that originate in the tropical Pacific and are not connected with the overall warming of the planet. Still, at least half the warming remains attributable to global warming caused by rising carbon dioxide emissions.

More than a million people are treated for mild traumatic brain injuries in U.S. hospitals and emergency rooms each year. A University of Washington researcher has found that a 20-minute conversation with a social worker has the potential to significantly reduce the functional decline of those diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury.

Amphibians in the West’s high-mountain areas find themselves caught between climate-induced habitat loss and predation from introduced fish. A novel combination of tools could help weigh where amphibians are in the most need of help.

University of Washington political scientist John Wilkerson has matched data visualization with the study of lawmaking to create a new online tool for researchers and students called the Legislative Explorer. Think of it as big data meeting up with How a Bill Becomes a Law. “The goal was to get beyond the ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ narrative and let users discover the lawmaking process for themselves,” said Wilkerson, UW professor of political science and director of the UW’s Center for American Politics…
Roger Roffman, UW professor emeritus of social work who has studied marijuana dependence interventions for 30 years, talks about his new book, “Marijuana Nation: One Man’s Chronicle of America Getting High: From Vietnam to Legalization.”

What looked at first like a sort of upside-down planet has instead revealed a new method for studying binary star systems, discovered by a UW student astronomer.

UW licensees who source, produce or buy apparel in Bangladesh are now required to become signatories to The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

A fluctuating tilt in a planet’s orbit does not preclude the possibility of life, according to new research by astronomers at the University of Washington, Utah’s Weber State University and NASA. In fact, sometimes it helps.

Babies as young as 15 months preferred people with the same ethnicity as themselves — a phenomenon known as in-group bias, or favoring people who have the same characteristics as oneself.

UW oceanographers found fast-flowing water and intense mixing in a submarine canyon just off the Washington coast.

Detailed ice core measurements show smog-related ratios leveling off in 1970, and suggests these deposits are sensitive to the same chemicals that cause acid rain.