Technology

July 17, 2012

DO-IT celebrates 20 years preparing students with disabilities for college

A group of Washington high-school students will arrive at the University of Washington campus this week for the annual DO-IT Scholars Summer Study program. It’s the 20th anniversary of the summer program, which has now helped launch the careers of hundreds of students from Washington and beyond who have a wide range of disabilities. DO-IT Scholars, July 17-27 DO-IT stands for Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology. The students learn about challenging careers in fields including science, technology, engineering and mathematics….

July 13, 2012

3-D printed boat to enter tomorrow’s Milk Carton Derby

Students in the UW’s new 3-D printing club plan to enter tomorrow Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake with what they believe is the world’s first 3-D printed boat, made from more than 150 recycled, melted and extruded milk cartons.

July 9, 2012

UW students win NASA contest with their plan for mining the moon

A senior class in Aeronautics & Astronautics won a national competition with the students’ detailed plan to travel to the moon, establish a mining outpost and jettison the product back to Earth.

July 6, 2012

UW physicists played significant role in discovery of Higgs boson

As scientists around the world celebrated the detection of what appears to be the long-sought Higgs boson, University of Washington physicists took satisfaction in knowing they played a significant part in it.

June 28, 2012

Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips

In one of the twists of scientific discovery, a UW duo working on fusion energy — harnessing the energy-generating mechanism of the sun — may have found a way to etch the next generation of microchips.

June 26, 2012

UW deploying seismic sensors in hope of getting to bottom of Spokane quakes

It’s been a decade since a swarm of relatively mild earthquakes shook up parts of Spokane. Now, armed with the right tools, scientists want to find out what was at fault.

June 12, 2012

Novel scientific equipment will unlock ocean secrets for decades — with slide show

University of Washington engineers and scientists are one step closer to deploying sophisticated equipment that will collect important information about ocean properties like currents and temperature and send the information via the Internet in real time to scientists around the world.

June 7, 2012

New twist on old chemical process could boost energy efficiency

An unappreciated aspect of chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides could be key in developing more efficient energy systems, including more productive solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells efficient enough for automobiles.

May 31, 2012

Students design underwater robot that does more than score points

A new UW club has qualified to participate in an international underwater robot competition and has designed its robot to be used by UW oceanographers in the field.

May 28, 2012

Engineered microvessels provide a 3-D test bed for human diseases

Bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.

May 17, 2012

'Hackademia': Course harnesses the spirit of old-school hacking

Beth Kolko’s experimental course takes its cue from the hacker community, helping students of any major get a taste of what it means to build software and hardware.

May 9, 2012

Portable diagnostics designed to be shaken, not stirred

A textured surface mimics a lotus leaf to move drops of liquid in particular directions. The low-cost system could be used in portable medical or environmental tests.

April 27, 2012

UW computer science students win national cyber defense competition

Last year, they were underdogs. This year, they’re a dynasty. A team of eight students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering reclaimed the top stop at last weekend’s National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

April 26, 2012

Cells in blood vessel found to cling more tightly in regions of rapid flow

The cells that line the pipes leading to the heart pull more tightly together in areas of fast-flowing blood. The cells’ mechanical response to their environment could aid understanding of heart disease.

April 13, 2012

History Channels Titanic documentary features UW engineers

A History Channel documentary on the Titanic airing Sunday includes materials testing in the UW’s Structural Research Laboratory. UW faculty and staff participated in the testing.

April 10, 2012

Newfangled space-propulsion technology could help clean up Earth orbit

A magnetized ion plasma system devised by a UW researcher to propel spacecraft at ultra-high speeds could be adapted to clean up dead satellites and other debris crowded in Earth orbit.

March 30, 2012

Bigger, bolder, greener: The 2012 UW Environmental Innovation Challenge (with video)

The fourth Environmental Innovation Challenge was the biggest yet. The winning team proposes to replace concrete lane dividers with ones made from recycled rubber tires. Other student teams presented their prototypes for emergency shelters, rooftop gardens, nonstick cookware and other green businesses.

March 23, 2012

Tech survey shows students want better connections, faculty want more flexible classrooms

Students want better wireless and electrical connections on campus, while faculty would like more consistent and more flexible configurations of classroom technology, a new survey shows.

March 12, 2012

Bellingham roadway with recycled toilets is world's first official 'Greenroad'

Greenroads, a rating system developed at the University of Washington to promote sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets.

March 6, 2012

One year later: Japan quake, tsunami a cautionary tale for Pacific Northwest

On the one-year anniversary of Japan’s great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, UW scientists said the devastating event has some important lessons for the Pacific Northwest – most notably, that a similar event will happen here, and this region is much less prepared than Japan.

March 1, 2012

UW students to design alternative-fuels vehicle for EcoCAR 2 competition

Over the next three years, a team of UW students will convert a 2013 Chevy Malibu into a fuel-efficient, low-emissions vehicle that still meets consumer demands for a driver-friendly car. The UW is one of 15 schools participating in the EcoCAR 2 contest, sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy.

February 21, 2012

Design eye for the science guy: Drop-in clinic helps scientists communicate data

The Design Help Desk offers scientists a chance to meet with a student who can help them create more effective figures, tables and graphs. This visual equivalent of a Writing Help Desk is also a study on how to teach data visualization.

February 8, 2012

UW launches technology startup incubator, aims to double startups in three years

A business incubator unveiled today is one element in a larger commercialization initiative announced by UW President Michael Young that will double the number of startups produced by the university – from an average of 10 a year to 20 – during the next three years.

January 30, 2012

Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue

The walls of the aorta, the largest blood vessel carrying blood from the heart, exhibits a response to electric fields known to exist in inorganic and synthetic materials. The discovery could have implications for treating human heart disease.

January 25, 2012

USDOT awards $3.5 million for UW-based regional transportation center

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a multi-university, regional transportation center led by the University of Washington. The newly established Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium, or PacTrans, will focus on safe and sustainable transportation systems.

January 12, 2012

Surgical robots to provide open-source platform for medical robotics research

Seven identical robots created and built at the UW will be flown to campuses across the country, where they will provide the first common research platform to develop the future of surgical robotics. The robots will be display Friday at an open house.

December 7, 2011

Device promises nutrition diagnosis in minutes

A new plasma pencil promises to give nutrition status in minutes that used to take 24 hours, and could improve health in developing world.

November 22, 2011

Big step forward for safety of bionic contact lenses

Bionic eye steps closer to reality.

October 13, 2011

Improving the physics of grocery store display cases to save energy

Aeronautical engineers are devising ways to boost the efficiency of open-air refrigerated cases, which are increasingly common in supermarkets. Results could lower the energy use of existing cases by up to 15 percent — potentially saving $100 million in electricity costs each year.

October 12, 2011

New software licensing agreements bring more products for use on UW-owned computers

Faculty and staff can now take advantage of new software licensing agreements that provide even more products for use on UW-owned computers at no additional cost.

September 20, 2011

Proton-based transistor could let machines communicate with living things

Materials scientists at the University of Washington have built a novel transistor that uses protons, creating a key piece for devices that can communicate directly with living things.

August 31, 2011

Boeing 787’s certification puts spotlight on UW materials lab (with slide show)

On the eve of the certification of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner by the Federal Aviation Administration, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell held a press conference on the UW campus highlighting the work of a federally funded research center that helped realize that goal.

August 3, 2011

Web search is ready for a shakeup, says UW computer scientist

On the 20-year anniversary of the World Wide Web, computer scientist Oren Etzioni has written a two-page commentary in the journal Nature that calls on the international academic and business communities to take a bolder approach when designing how people find information online.

August 2, 2011

Digital photos can animate a face so it ages and moves before your eyes

Computer scientists have created a way to take images from the web or personal photos collections and in seconds create an animation of a persons face. The tool can make a face appear to age over time, or gradually change the expression from a smile to a frown.

July 27, 2011

Microgravity team conducts experiments on NASA's 'vomit comet'

Eight students lurched, tumbled and floated through an unforgettable final lab project last month. Participants in NASAs Microgravity University in Houston spent the last week of their undergraduate careers carrying out an experiment they designed for testing in a reduced-gravity environment.

July 25, 2011

Materials scientist John Cahn awarded international Kyoto Prize

John Cahn, a UW affiliate professor in the departments of physics and materials science & engineering, has won an international Kyoto Prize, sometimes described as Japan’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize. Cahn is recognized for his work describing and predicting the behavior of mixtures of materials.

July 22, 2011

The cable has landed: Ocean science history in the making — with slideshow

Submarine cables for the nations first regional cabled ocean observatory, a project led by the University of Washington, made landfall last week on the Oregon coast.

July 19, 2011

Race matters when recruiting, retaining undergraduate women engineers

A new study of female engineering students perceived challenges finds significant differences between black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American and white women. The findings could help institutions better attract and retain particular underrepresented student populations.

July 14, 2011

UW will lead $18.5 million effort to create mind-machine interface

The National Science Foundation today announced an $18.5 million grant to establish an Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering based at the UW. The interdisciplinary center will combine neuroscience and robotics to develop new rehabilitation technologies.

July 12, 2011

Wireless power could cut cord for patients with implanted heart pumps

A new system to send electricity over short distances has been shown to reliably power a mechanical heart pump. The system could free patients from being tethered to a battery or external power source, lowering their chance of infection and improving their quality of life.