Allen School News

Our annual graduate student welcoming party is still referred to as “The Pit Party” – an allusion to a time 40 years ago when CSE was housed in the basement of Roberts Hall, UW’s former mining building, which included a replica open-pit coal mine.  My how times have changed! Read more →

Not to be outdone by Stanford’s infamous yacht, UW CSE took to the seas on Wednesday on Tom Alberg’s spectacular 77′ sloop Cascadia.  In addition to Tom and Cascadia’s master Erik Soper, the crew included UW President Michael Young, UW Dean of Engineering Matt O’Donnell, UW CSE faculty Ed Lazowska and Hank Levy, Jan Labyak (charged with keeping Ed and Hank in line), and UW CSE friends Emer Dooley, Brett Helsel, Ron Howell, Brian MacDonald, Matt McIlwain, Sujal Patel, Jack Short, and Rob Short.

A million thanks to Tom – and also to Ron Howell for the terrific photographs here. Read more →

UW CSE’s Oren Etzioni was featured today on American Public Media, along with Mike Fridgen, CEO of Oren’s latest startup Decide.com.

“Etzioni started collecting online price data from all the airlines – then he created his own formula that could predict when the airlines would raise or lower their prices. His company was bought by Microsoft. And today, when you search for flights on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, you’ll see an arrow letting you know you if the price of that ticket is likely to head up or down.

“Now Etzioni wants to do it again. He and his partner Mike Fridgen … [are] predicting the prices of electronics – phones, cameras laptops and flat-screen TVs. When Mike came by my office, my wife and I were debating whether or not to buy a new television. … When we logged on, it showed me the lowest price available for the TV we were looking at – anywhere in the country. It showed me a price history for the product and when the next model would come out. Decide recommended we buy it – and we did.”

Check out the interview here.  Try Decide.com here. Read more →

Zoran Popovic’s research continues to go where CSE has never been before – this time, The Onion. Read more →

At the CSE departmental retreat today, Shwetak Patel was surprised with a mondo chocolate cake celebrating his recent MacArthur Fellowship (“Genius Award”).  Once again, congratulations Shwetak! Read more →

Intel today announced the establishment of the Intel Science and Technology in Pervasive Computing, led by UW CSE professor Dieter Fox and Intel senior scientist (and UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus) Anthony LaMarca.

“Improving consumers’ physical and emotional wellbeing, assisting in the coordination of busy lives and enhancing the home functionality are high-value application areas. The ISTC for pervasive computing will develop three concept applications:

• Mobile Health and Wellbeing
• Family Coordination System
• Task Space

“With the University of Washington operating as the hub, the ISTC for pervasive computing combines researchers from six U.S. research universities including Georgia Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Rochester, UCLA and Stanford University.:

Read the Intel press release here.  See the ISTC-PC web site here.  Learn about three major new UW CSE research centers here.

Press reports:  GeekWire, EE Times, Xconomy, TechFlash. Read more →

UW CSE faculty member Bruce Hemingway is one of four artists included in the 2011-12 Meany Hall photography exhibit.  A reception in honor of the artists will be held on October 4 from 6:30-7:30 in the Meany Hall lower lobby.

See the announcement for the exhibit here.  See Bruce’s included photographs here.  See Bruce’s wonderful photographs of CSE events over the past few years here. Read more →

There are many dozens of news articles related to Shwetak Patel’s MacArthur Fellowship.  This one, though – from his home town newspaper – is particularly nice.

“Patel, who was born in Selma and grew up in Forestdale, said he has always enjoyed tinkering with things – wood, cars, electronics, you name it.  His first computer program in third grade was for a race car game.”  Etc.

Read the article here. Read more →

Interested in the performance of the State of Washington in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education at all points in the educational pipeline?

Did you know that we have the leakiest educational pipeline of any top technology state?

Did you know that nearly half of the students who successfully fulfill the prerequisites for Engineering at the University of Washington must be turned away due to a failure to invest?

Check out Ed Lazowska’s presentation to the Washington State Academy of Sciences here. Read more →

On Wednesday, UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska testified to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on the subject of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program.

When asked to prioritize among various areas of computing research because of the pressing demands of national defense, Lazowska – in a move that CRA’s Peter Harsha characterized as “high drama” (although others were less kind) – demonstrated the power of information technology to the Committee by using his iPhone to determine that the projected cost overrun on the Navy’s latest submarine (one boat!) was equal to four years of total NSF and DARPA research expenditures in computer science.

Oral testimony (5 minutes) here.  Further information here.

Read a CRA Government Affairs blog post here. Read more →