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‘There’s so much great research here’: The case for open language models and other food for thought from the Allen School’s 2023 Research Showcase

A crowd of people cluster around posters on easels on a building landing. The camera focuses on one person explaining a poster's contents to another person viewing it. The poster's content is not visible in the photo.

New approaches to finetuning large language models that decrease computational burden while enhancing performance. A robotic arm that safely delivers a forkful of food to someone's mouth. A system that combines wireless earbuds and algorithms into a low-cost hearing screening tool. These are just a sample of the nearly 60 projects that were on display during the Allen School’s Research Showcase and Open House last week. The display capped off a day-long celebration of computing innovations that are advancing the field and benefiting society. Nearly 300 Industry Affiliate partners, alumni and friends participated in the event, which included sessions devoted to computer science ethics, intelligent transportation, computing for sustainability, computing for health, natural language processing and more. Read more →

November 21, 2023

National Science Foundation recognizes seven Allen School students for advancing research in molecular computing, robotics, security and more

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recognized seven Allen School students as part of its 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition. The NSF GRFP supports students for their potential to demonstrate excellence and innovation in teaching and research early in their careers. The students — six graduate students and one undergraduate student — were recognized in the Comp/IS/Eng or Engineering categories. Read more →

May 16, 2023

Allen School’s Husky 100 honorees give back to the UW community and beyond as scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and leaders

The word "Washington" in University of Washington font in white on a purple fabric banner mostly obscuring campus buildings, backed by a pale blue sky and a burst of sunlight above the "o"

Six Allen School students were recently named to the 2023 class of the Husky 100, an honor recognizing undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the University of Washington. Husky 100 students make connections in and out of the classroom, making a positive impact on campus and in their communities. This year’s Allen School inductees are living those values, proving Huskies are stronger when in a pack. Read more →

May 8, 2023

UW researchers show how to tap into the sensing capabilities of any smartphone to screen for prediabetes

A person holds a black smartphone with the rear of the phone facing the camera in their left hand, and a narrow rectangular glucose test strip with various tiny circuitry attached in the other hand. Only the person's hands and wrists are visible in the frame. The shot is professionally lit against a dark grey, almost black, background.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, one out of every three adults in the United States have prediabetes, a condition marked by elevated blood sugar levels that could lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. The good news is that, if detected early, prediabetes can be reversed through lifestyle changes such as improved diet and exercise. The bad news? Eight out of 10 Americans with prediabetes don’t know that they have it... Read more →

March 30, 2023

Allen School’s Michael Duan and Anas Awadalla recognized by CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards program

Michael Duan

The Computing Research Association recently honored Allen School undergraduates Michael Duan and Anas Awadalla as part of its Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards program for 2023. The annual program highlights exceptional undergraduate students from across North America for their contributions to the computing field. Duan, who works with professor and advisor Jon Froehlich in the Makeability Lab, was selected as a finalist for his work on Scaling Crowd+AI Sidewalk Accessibility Assessments and Sidewalk Gallery: An Interactive, Filterable Image … Read more →

January 13, 2023

The sound of touch: UW and Microsoft researchers earn ISS 10-year Impact Award for advancing innovative interaction technique via on-body sensing

Person sliding fingertip with small sensor device across their forearm in front of a computer screen showing a selection of menu icons superimposed on each other horizontally, with the green and white phone icon selected

Nearly a decade ago, well before mixed reality and the metaverse went mainstream, a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s UbiComp Lab and Microsoft Research were making noise within the human-computer interaction community with a novel approach to on-body sensing. Their technique, which leveraged transdermal ultrasound signals, turned the human body into an input surface for pressure-aware continuous touch sensing and gesture recognition without requiring extensive, not to mention expensive, instrumentation. Last week, that same team collected the… Read more →

December 2, 2022

Reaching to the moon, getting VOCAL, and other highlights from the Allen School’s 2022 Research Showcase

A group of researchers prepares a demo on robot-assisted feeding. Two researchers are seated behind a table, one holding a smartphone up to the other to speak into; the third researcher is standing on the other side of the table holding a smartphone and looking toward a robotic arm. A monitor screen is visible showing images of a plate of food with a fork from above and the side. Two other people near a research poster are visible in the background.

Award winners and runners up celebrate onstage with members of Madrona Venture Group during the Allen School’s annual Research Showcase

After a pandemic-enforced hiatus, last week the Allen School welcomed industry partners, alumni and friends to its 2022 Research Showcase this week to celebrate the groundbreaking work of its students and faculty. The typically annual event, which is hosted by the Industry Affiliates Program, welcomes industry partners and alumni to engage with the school’s research and learn more about… Read more →

November 21, 2022

A picture of health: Google Fellowship recipient Xin Liu combines machine learning and mobile sensing through an equity lens to support remote health assessment

Portrait of Xin Liu in dark blue button-up shirt and glasses standing outdoors with fall foliage and buildings blurred in the background.

When COVID consigned doctor-patient interactions from the clinic to a computer screen, Allen School Ph.D. candidate Xin Liu already had his finger on the pulse of that paradigm shift. Since his arrival at the University of Washington in 2018, Liu has worked with professor Shwetak Patel in the UbiComp Lab to combine mobile sensing and machine learning to real-world problems in health care, with a focus on developing non-contact, camera-based physiological screening and monitoring solutions that are accessible by all… Read more →

October 24, 2022

“Go ahead and take that adventurous route”: Allen School professor Yejin Choi named 2022 MacArthur Fellow

Yejin Choi in a black leather jacket over a black shirt

Yejin Choi (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)

Yejin Choi, a professor in the Allen School’s Natural Language Processing group, was selected as a 2022 MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to advance her work “using natural language processing to develop artificial intelligence systems that can understand language and make inferences about the world.” The MacArthur Fellowship — also known as the “genius grant” — celebrates and invests in talented and creative individuals… Read more →

October 12, 2022

Allen School undergraduates recognized by the Computing Research Association for advancing health sensing, programming languages and systems research

The Allen School has a proud tradition of nurturing undergraduate student researchers whose work has the potential for real-world impact. This year, three of those students — Jerry Cao, Mike He and Yu Xin — earned honorable mentions from the Computing Research Association (CRA) as part of its 2022 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards competition for their contributions in health sensing and fabrication, programming languages and machine learning, and building robust computer systems. Jerry Cao The CRA recognized senior Jerry… Read more →

February 22, 2022