Allen School News

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Remember last spring’s Washington State Algebra Challenge?  In a partnership between UW CSE’s Center for Game Science and the Technology Alliance, 4,192 Washington State K-12 students solved over 390,000 algebra equations during the first week of June, using an adaptive version of the game DragonBox.

This week marks the Norwegian Algebra Challenge. Those of us who live in Ballard are excited to report that on the first day, all previous records were shattered: over 1.6 million equations were solved. With one day to go, we’re at more than 7 million equations and more than 35,000 participating students – plus the Norwegian Prime Minister!

Next up for the Center for Game Science: the Minnesota Algebra Challenge (“Yah, sure, you betcha!”) during the week of February 3. Read more →

DawgBytes (“A Taste of CSE”) is UW’s Computer Science & Engineering K-12 outreach program – we introduce students, parents, and teachers to the exciting world of computing.

Learn about recent activities and upcoming events here! Read more →

“Whatever you call it – the Internet of Things, connected homes, smart homes – Jacquelyn Jaech knew it would become one of the big themes from the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas …

“Jaech and her husband, SNUPI CEO Jeremy Jaech, hope WallyHome ends up as the must-have hardware for homeowners looking to spare themselves the expensive grief of mold and water damage. The $299 kit includes six sensors that monitor moisture, humidity and temperature around the home. SNUPI (Sensor Network Utilizing Powerline Infrastructure) uses the existing wiring in homes to create a wireless network, all controlled by a hub that plugs into a standard outlet.”

Jeremy – one of Seattle’s most successful serial entrepreneurs – is a CSE alum. SNUPI’s technology comes from the lab of UW CSE and EE professor Shwetak Patel.

Watch the KING5 report here.  Learn about SNUPI’s first product, Wally, here. Read more →

From Business Insider:

“Will Scott is a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington and ex-Googler who spent last fall in North Korea teaching courses on Operating Systems and Databases at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

“Will documented much of his time spent in the DPRK via Instagram. Together with the descriptions of his adventure from his recent Reddit post, they give us a clearer picture of what life is like in North Korea.”

Read more, and check out the photographs, here. Read more →

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is releasing the third segment in its Computing Research in Action Series.   This segment features the Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) research lab, led by Professor Shwetak Patel, at the University of Washington. The UbiComp lab, which consists of an interdisciplinary team of students, focuses on solving interesting and socially meaningful problems using a mix of hardware and software applications. The UbiComp lab focuses on four areas of ubiquitous computing:

• Novel interaction techniques
• Sustainability sensing
• Low-power sensing
• Health sensing

In addition to Shwetak, the video features graduate students Sidhant Gupta, Gabe Cohn, Lilian de Greef, and Mayank Goel.

Read more and watch the terrific video here. Direct link to video here. Read more →

UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska and UW Tacoma’s Rob Friedman write in the Seattle Times:

“It takes years and many dollars to build a new technical institute. It is far more effective to invest in proven, successful programs at the UW, Washington State University and Western Washington University.”

Read the letter in today’s Seattle Times here; pdf here. Read more →

Former UW CSE faculty member Yoky Matsuoka is Vice President of Technology at Nest.

Read more here and here. Read more →

From GeekWire:

“SNUPI Technologies, the University of Washington spin out led by serial entrepreneur Jeremy Jaech, has scored $7.5 million in financing that it will use to launch a new home sensor product known as Wally. Total funding in the 2-year-old startup now stands at $9 million.

“Wally, which we wrote about last November, is a $299 device that’s designed to detect leaks and moisture in homes.”

Read more in GeekWire here.

Learn about SNUPI and Wally here. Read more →

“Brian Ma likes going to networking events. But what he doesn’t particularly care for is stepping into the room and not knowing where the interesting people are located.

“‘It’s awkward, inefficient, and completely hit and miss,’ says Ma. That’s why the Decide.com co-founder started Weave, a new mobile app for iOS that allows people to connect with LinkedIn professionals who might be lingering nearby. A user can choose to anonymously say whether they want to meet them or not. If both people are interested in meeting, Weave connects them to arrange a time.

“‘Mobile has opened up realms of possibilities for connecting with interesting people,’ says Ma.”

Brian graduated from UW CSE in 2005.  He went from Microsoft to Zillow to Real Property Associates, then co-founded Eggsprout followed by Decide.com.  After a brief period at eBay following its acquisition of Decide.com, he had a brief stint as an angel investor and startup advisor before launching Weave.

Read more here.

Try Weave here! Read more →