Allen School News

Two UW CSE research projects – OpenDataKit (ODK) and the Living Voters Guide – are two of three finalists in the “Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector” category of the 2011 Washington Technology Industry Association Industry Achievement Awards.  The awards recognize Washington State companies, organizations and individuals who best demonstrate technology and service innovation and excellence.

OpenDataKit (ODK), led by a team of UW CSE researchers that includes Gaetano Borriello, Yaw Anokwa, Waylon Brunette, and Carl Hartung, is a free and open-source set of tools which help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection solutions.  The Living Voters Guide, designed by UW CSE’s Alan Borning and Travis Kriplean (as part of the research conducted by the Engage project), promotes civic engagement by bringing together Washington voters to discuss and explore their positions on the statewide ballot measures for 2010.

The winner will be announced at the WTIA IAA awards event on February 24. Read more →

UW CSE and EE professor Shwetak Patel was interviewed on “The Conversation,” a news and information program on Seattle’s NPR station, KUOW.

“University Of Washington Innovator Shwetak Patel:  Seattle Business Magazine recently named a UW computer science professor Seattle’s Top Innovator of 2010, and the technology news website TechFlash named him Newsmaker of the Year.  Shwetak Patel came up with a device that monitors how much energy your appliances use.  He joins us.”

Listen to the interview here.  Learn more about Shwetak and his work here. Read more →

Long-time UW CSE faculty member David Notkin made a guest appearance today following a rearrangement of his plumbing by UW Medicine.  He looks great!  Congratulations, David – we’re thinking of you! Read more →

“Recent ‘gee whiz’ research by Professor Shwetak Patel’s group at the University of Washington provides a really elegant solution.  Every appliance you own – your refrigerator, your flat-screen TV, your toaster – has a different ‘electrical noise signature’ that it draws from the wires in your house.  When you turn it on, this signal is (inadvertently) sent through the electric wires to the circuit-breaker box.  It’s not necessary to buy ‘smart appliances’ that send purpose-designed on-off signals; your ‘dumb’ appliances already send their own noise signatures.”

Read the full post here.  Learn more about the research here. Read more →

“Currently, once an email is sent, it has the potential to exist somewhere online forever, even if you delete it.  What if there were way of scrubbing data from the internet so that it could never be found?  Tadayoshi Kohno, professor of computer science at the University of Washington in Seattle, has been working on just such a project.”

Listen to the interview here.  Learn more about the project here. Read more →

Xconomy follows up in-depth on a previous article reporting on a new round of funding for UW CSE startup Skytap.

Read the article here. Read more →

UW CSE adjunct professor Leroy Hood, President of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology, today was named the recipient of the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize.  The Russ Prize – a $500,000 biennial award “recognizing a bioengineering achievement that significantly improves the human condition” – was conferred on Hood “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.”

The National Academy of Engineering announcement quotes UW CSE professor Ed Lazowska:  “No single person has done more to create the genomics era than Leroy Hood.  Lee is a visionary who integrated science and technology, creating instruments that allow us to tackle some of the most fundamental problems in modern biology and medicine.”  Read the announcement here. Read more →

“Kings,” a computer animation created in UW CSE’s undergraduate computer animation capstone course, has been selected for screening at the 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival – one of a dozen festival screenings of UW CSE undergraduate capstone animations in the past six months. Read more →

Greg Barnes and trophies

A team led by UW CSE Ph.D. alum Greg Barnes, and including UW CSE graduate program alums Elizabeth Walkup, Lauren Bricker, Franz Amador, Dorothy Neville, Erik Selberg, and Terry Farrah (as well as UW CSE course-taker (Eric Bone), has won the Canlis Restaurant “Light Up Seattle” scavenger hunt challenge – dinner for two, annually, for life, at Canlis, Seattle’s premier restaurant – plus a second dinner for two annually to be given away to someone who has helped the less fortunate.  Greg roamed Seattle with Eric and another friend, while wife Elizabeth and the rest of the team were camped around Lauren Bricker’s dining room table with 7 laptops deciphering clues.

KOMO News reports:

“As part of the Canlis restaurant’s 60th birthday celebration, [brothers Mark and Brian Canlis] created a mouthwatering contest for Seattle trivia and history buffs that would culminate in a grand prize that had to be given away.  The prize:  Dinner for two at Canlis, once a year, for the life of the winner.

“But because the Canlis brothers want to encourage philanthropy, the winner had to give away the dinner-for-life to someone who has helped the less fortunate.  Each year the winner would decide who would be the recipient of that dinner …

“Flash back to October:  The Canlis Brothers start a contest.  Every day, for 50 straight days, the brothers send out a clue via Facebook and Twitter, to the location of a Canlis menu from 1950.  The menu is hidden somewhere in Seattle … All the clues were witty and related to Seattle’s history.

“Find the menu, and you got dinner for two at Canlis at 1950’s prices …

The brain trust

“All 50 menus were found, but then came part two …

“On New Year’s Eve, the 50 menu winners … gathered at the restaurant on the eastern edge of Queen Anne Hill in a race for the grand prize.

“Everyone knew the rules.  If they found the grand prize they had to give it away, but that didn’t stop the enthusiasm.  Each winner was allow two others on the ground to solve the clues.  And they were allowed to have as much support as possible via cell phone and internet …

“Greg Barnes and his team ‘Teriyaki Donut’ figured it out …

“Barnes and his team found a small ‘X’ in the grass at the correct GPS coordinate and started digging with their hands.  Barnes found a muddy envelope.  Inside, a Canlis platinum card with the words ‘Dinner for Life.’  Barnes knew he had to give away [the card] but to his surprise, there was not one but two cards in the envelope.  He was allowed to keep the other for himself.”

Read the KOMO News article here.  Watch a KOMO News video here. Read more →