UW News

College of Engineering


September 23, 2024

Q&A: How the Remote Hub Lab can prepare engineering students for their future careers

A person with a virtual reality helmet on stands in front of a screen that showcases a virtual world with two buildings and a parking lot

The Remote Hub Lab allows students to access physical engineering equipment from anywhere in the world. A primary focus of the lab is to use a process called “digital twinning,” to create virtual models that mirror real-world systems, which enables students to experiment, learn and innovate in a risk-free, cost-effective environment.


September 17, 2024

AI researcher discusses the new version of ChatGPT’s advances in math and reasoning

Math equations written on glass.

Niloofar Mireshghallah, a UW postdoctoral scholar, discusses why math and reasoning have so challenged artificial intelligence models and what the public should know about OpenAI’s new release.


September 10, 2024

UW researchers develop a stretchable, wearable device that lights up an LED using only the warmth of your skin

A person in an office with a black sleeve on their arm. On the sleeve is a gray device and an LED, which is glowing red

UW researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient — it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.


August 28, 2024

Large language models can help detect social media bots — but can also make the problem worse

A drawing of a robot with an empty speech bubble.

A team led by University of Washington researchers found that large language models, such as ChatGPT, can make social media bots more sophisticated at evading detection. But these models can also improve systems that detect bots.


August 16, 2024

Why isn’t Colorado’s snowpack ending up in the Colorado River? New research suggests the problem might be the lack of spring rainfall

an aerial shot of a landscape with a river going through the lefthand side of the photo

The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. But since 2000, water managers have struggled to predict how much water will come from the snowpack. The problem lies with the lack of rainfall in the spring, according to new research from the UW.


August 8, 2024

Many survey respondents rated seeking out sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ as more acceptable than creating or sharing them

A computer keyboard is illuminated by the screen in a dark space.

In a survey of 315 people conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and Georgetown University, respondents largely found creating and sharing sexually explicit “deepfakes” unacceptable. But far fewer respondents strongly opposed seeking out these media. Previous research has shown that other people viewing non-AI image-based abuse harms the victims significantly.


August 7, 2024

Using photos or videos, these AI systems can conjure simulations that train robots to function in physical spaces

Two new studies introduce AI systems that use either video or photos to create simulations that can train robots to function in the real world. This could significantly lower the costs of training robots to function in complex settings.


August 1, 2024

15 UW professors among new class of members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences

Fifteen faculty members at the University of Washington have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2024. They are among 36 scientists and educators from across the state announced Aug. 1 as new members. Selection recognizes the new members’ “outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”


July 23, 2024

Q&A: UW researcher aims to understand common women’s sports injuries

A softball player's legs. The player has one foot on a base and one foot on the ground.

Several common injuries seem to haunt women’s sports. Jenny Robinson, a University of Washington assistant professor, is interested in designing better methods to help female athletes train to prevent and recover from injuries.


July 16, 2024

Q&A: The climate change toll on roads — two UW professors weigh in

A road with a field to the lefthand side. The sky is blue with some clouds.

Two University of Washington researchers are investigating how to mitigate the effects of climate change on common road pavements, such as asphalt and concrete.


June 21, 2024

ChatGPT is biased against resumes with credentials that imply a disability — but it can improve

A hand holds a phone with the ChatGPT app open.

UW researchers found that ChatGPT consistently ranked resumes with disability-related honors and credentials — such as the “Tom Wilson Disability Leadership Award” — lower than the same resumes without those honors and credentials. But when researchers customized the tool with written instructions directing it not to be ableist, the tool reduced this bias for all but one of the disabilities tested.


May 28, 2024

In the Field: UW researcher headed to Alaska to study factors that lead to permafrost thaw and to educate foster care youth

In the foreground is a section of a tree with pinecones on it. The tree and pinecones are covered in frost. Behind the tree is a forest. There's a boardwalk going straight through the middle of the picture. The sun is shining in the background.

UW doctoral student Joel Eklof has been investigating which environmental factors contribute to permafrost thaw and the release of methane into the atmosphere. For years, Eklof has traveled to a field site southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska.


May 23, 2024

AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd, by looking at them just once

A closeup image on a person wearing a pair of black headphones. The person’s face is out of focus; the headphones have a small microphone attached to them with electrical tape and a button on the side.

A University of Washington team has developed an artificial intelligence system that lets someone wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds to “enroll” them. The system then plays just the enrolled speaker’s voice in real time, even as the pair move around in noisy environments.


May 15, 2024

Q&A: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect older adults’ technology use?

University of Washington researchers interviewed 16 older adults in Washington and Oregon, ages 65 to 80, about how their technology use with their social support networks changed during the pandemic.


May 14, 2024

UW-led project to study ozone, atmospheric layers a finalist for next-generation NASA satellite

horizon with horizontal layers of black, red, black and blue

A project led by the University of Washington to better understand our atmosphere’s complexity is a finalist for NASA’s next generation of Earth-observing satellites. STRIVE will receive $5 million to conduct a one-year concept study, and then will hear whether it is selected for launch.


May 9, 2024

Can Wikipedia-like citations on YouTube curb misinformation?

A computer screen with the YouTube logo, a red rectangle with a triangle in it, above links to "Home" and "Trending"

University of Washington researchers created and tested a prototype browser extension called Viblio, which lets viewers and creators add citations to the timelines of YouTube videos.


May 3, 2024

Video: Washington students learn about engineering at Discovery Days

Two children holding vehicles made out of tongue depressors

This University of Washington College of Engineering event brings thousands of elementary and middle school students from all over Washington to campus to be engineers for a day.


May 1, 2024

Virtual reality environment for teens may offer an accessible, affordable way to reduce stress

Three images each set in 3D animations of a snowy forest show, from left to right: a gray sign that reads “Welcome to RESeT”; a post with six small signs on with arrows and the words from top to bottom “River Boats,” “Scavenger Hunt,” “Rock Stacking,” “Rabbits,” and “Bird Search”; a red sign with an image of a bird on it and the text “FOLLOW THE SONG.”

Working with teens, UW researchers have designed RESeT: a snowy virtual world with six activities intended to improve mood. In a 3-week study of 44 Seattle-area teens, researchers found that most used the technology about twice a week without being prompted and reported lower stress levels after using the environment.


April 26, 2024

New circuit boards can be repeatedly recycled

A small brown circuit board sits on a gray background. To its right are a small copper plate, sheets of glass fibers in a crosshatch pattern, small chunks of vitrimer plastic that’s been removed from a circuit board, and a computer chip.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed a new PCB that performs on par with traditional materials and can be recycled repeatedly with negligible material loss. Researchers used a solvent that transforms a type of vitrimer — a cutting-edge class of polymer — into a jelly-like substance without damage, allowing solid components to be plucked out for reuse or recycling. With these “vPCBs” (vitrimer printed circuit boards), researchers recovered 98% of the vitrimer and 100% of the glass fiber.


April 24, 2024

Q&A: How TikTok’s ‘black box’ algorithm and design shape user behavior

A hand holds a smartphone with the TikTok app open.

Franziska Roesner, a University of Washington associate professor, and collaborators will present two papers that mine real-world data to help understand TikTok’s personalized its recommendation algorithm and its impact.


April 22, 2024

UW leads international group in semiconductor research and workforce development

WNF equipment photo

The University of Washington is at the forefront of an international effort to innovate the semiconductor industry while building a skilled U.S.-based workforce to design and manufacture chip technology.


Faculty/staff honors: Rising Star Award for DEI, honors for ornithological work, and more

Bronze 'W' statue in front of the University of Washington campus.

Recent recognition for the University of Washington includes a Rising Star Award, honors for distinguished ornithological work and a Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.


April 9, 2024

UW joins $110M cross-Pacific effort to advance artificial intelligence

officials pose for a group shot

The University of Washington and the University of Tsukuba have entered an innovation partnership with NVIDIA and Amazon aimed at furthering research, entrepreneurship, workforce development and social implementation in the field of artificial intelligence. This U.S.-Japan academic partnership is part of a broad, $110 million effort to build upon the strong ties between the U.S. and Japan and to continue to lead innovation and technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.


March 28, 2024

Q&A: How to train AI when you don’t have enough data

A drawing of dots connected to lines

As researchers explore potential applications for AI, they have found scenarios where AI could be really useful but there’s not enough data to accurately train the algorithms. Jenq-Neng Hwang, University of Washington professor of electrical and computer and engineering, specializes in these issues.


March 14, 2024

UW researchers taught kids to code with cultural research and embroidery machines

University of Washington researchers taught a group of high schoolers to code by combining cultural research into various embroidery traditions with “computational embroidery.” The method teaches kids to encode embroidery patterns on a computer through a coding language called Turtlestitch.


February 29, 2024

Q&A: How a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease could also work for Type 2 diabetes

Alzheimer’s disease and Type 2 diabetes are part of a family of amyloid diseases that are characterized by having proteins that cluster together. UW researchers have demonstrated more similarities between the two diseases.


February 7, 2024

Q&A: Helping robots identify objects in cluttered spaces

A shelf in a lab. The shelf contains the following items: a pitcher on its side, a bowl in front of a bottle of Soft Scrub, a mug on a plate and a spoon balanced on the plate. Everything except the plate has a green box around it. The plate has a red box around it.

Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call “object unity,” or our ability to identify things even when we can’t see all of them. Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to teach robots this skill.


UW-developed smart earrings can monitor a person’s temperature

The temperature sensing earring is shown attached to a person’s ear. The portion touching the earlobe has a gemstone on it. Dangling a few centimeters below it is a small circular circuit board.

University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.


February 6, 2024

Nancy Allbritton elected to National Academy of Engineering

Nancy Allbritton, the dean of the University of Washington College of Engineering and a UW professor of bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.


January 30, 2024

Using computers to design proteins allows researchers to make tunable hydrogels that can form both inside and outside of cells

New research led by the UW demonstrates a new class of hydrogels that can form not just outside cells, but also inside of them. These hydrogels exhibited similar mechanical properties both inside and outside of cells, providing researchers with a new tool to group proteins together inside of cells.


January 9, 2024

Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT

A cellphone running ChatGPT sits on a textbook that's slightly out of focus.

A team University of Washington researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.


December 27, 2023

Cells, microscopes and scientists: Chemical engineering professor’s coloring book makes science accessible

The cover of a ColorMePHD coloring book

ColorMePhD is a free, all-ages coloring book series created by Julie Rorrer, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Washington. The books bring current doctorate-level research in science and engineering to a general audience.


December 19, 2023

How will climate change affect how predators hunt prey? Two UW professors teamed up to find out

A hand wearing a glove next to a paw print in the snow

Two UW professors teamed up to study how climate change will affect predator-prey interactions in snowy landscapes. Together with a group of researchers, the two measured snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.


December 14, 2023

Seattle metro residents near Amazon delivery stations face more pollution but order fewer packages

An Amazon cargo van parked in front of two houses in Seattle.

UW researchers found that people who live within 2 miles of an Amazon last-mile delivery station are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution despite ordering fewer packages.


November 30, 2023

More than 40 UW experts on Highly Cited Researchers 2023 List

campus view in fall

The University of Washington is proud to announce that more than 40 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2023 list from Clarivate.


November 29, 2023

AI image generator Stable Diffusion perpetuates racial and gendered stereotypes, study finds

Four images created by AI image generator Stable Diffusion with the prompt "person from Oceania" show four light-skinned people.

University of Washington researchers found that when prompted to make pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples and sexualized images of certain women of color.


November 16, 2023

Q&A: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals

An assistive-feeding robotic arm attached to a wheelchair uses a fork to stab a piece of fruit on a plate among other fruits.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.


November 15, 2023

WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map

A humpback whale breaches in the Pacific Ocean.

A team at the University of Washington has created an interactive dashboard called WhaleVis, which lets users map data on global whale catches and whaling routes from 1880 to 1986. Scientists can compare this historical data and its trends with current information to better understand whale populations over time.


November 9, 2023

New AI noise-canceling headphone technology lets wearers pick which sounds they hear

A man wearing a surgical mask and headphones walks through the University of Washington campus while holding a smartphone. People walk behind him.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed deep-learning algorithms that let users pick which sounds filter through their headphones in real time. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers can select which sounds they want to include from 20 classes, such as sirens, baby cries, speech, vacuum cleaners and bird chirps.


November 2, 2023

Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves

Four AI-generated images show different interpretations of a doll-sized “crocheted lavender husky wearing ski goggles,” including two pictured outdoors and one against a white background.

Seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study — drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities — to test AI tools’ utility for accessibility. Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems.



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