Allen School News

Kelsie Haakenson (left) and Camille Birch

Allen School undergraduates Camille Birch and Kelsie Haakenson have been selected as members of the 2017 class of the Husky 100. The Husky 100 program recognizes students from across the three UW campuses who are making the most of their Husky experience while making a difference on campus and in their communities through discovery, leadership, and a commitment to inclusivity.

Camille Birch is a senior from Woodinville, WA pursuing degrees in bioengineering and computer science. After developing an interest in neuroscience as a freshman, she joined UW Physiology & Biophysics professor Eberhard Fetz’s lab as an undergraduate researcher focused on brain-computer interfaces and functional connectivity. Birch has earned a number of awards for her work, including a Washington Research Foundation Innovation Fellowship from the UW Institute for Neuroengineering. She also was named a Levinson Emerging Scholar for her research in cross-cortical connectivity and prefrontal cortex control of brain-computer interfaces using the NeuroChip-3.

In addition to her passion for research, Birch is committed to fostering inclusivity in her chosen fields, guided by the belief that “the scientific community should be as diverse as the communities for which we do research.” After completing her bachelor’s, Birch plans to enroll in an M.D./Ph.D. program in neural engineering in the hopes of using her research to advance rehabilitative medicine.

Kelsie Haakenson, also from Woodinville, is a senior double-majoring in history and computer science with a minor in French. Computer science didn’t factor into her plans when she first arrived at UW. But after working as an intern on the Newbook Digital Texts project and teaching herself the Python programming language, Haakenson decided to combine her love of the humanities and newfound interest in computer science. Since then, she applied and was accepted into the Allen School, spent a semester polishing her language skills at the Université de Nantes in France, and completed software engineering internships at Adobe and Socrata.

“Throughout my education, I have connected the dots between my studies and experiences, be it my research in history, projects in computer science, or language studies in French,” Haakenson said. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in digital history and make primary sources — like those she worked with as part of the Newbook Digital Texts project — accessible to more people through online publishing.

Read more about the Husky 100 Class of 2017 here. And check out our students in the inaugural Husky 100 Class of 2016 here.

Congratulations, Camille and Kelsie! Read more →

Check out the agenda for today’s Women’s Research Day at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering! Facebook group here. Read more →

“Nestled among Seattle’s gleaming lights on a gloomy September day, a single nonprofit wants to change the world, one computer at a time. Its researchers hope to transform the way machines perceive the world: to have them not only see it, but understand what they’re seeing.

“At the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), researchers are working on just that. AI2, founded in 2014 by Microsoft visionary Paul Allen, is the nation’s largest nonprofit AI research institute. … At AI2, unshackled by profit-obsessed boardrooms, the mandate from CEO Oren Etzioni is simple: Confront the grandest challenges in artificial intelligence research and serve the common good …”

Read more here. Read more →

Professor Shyam Gollakota, who is widely known for his pioneering work on ambient backscatter as leader of the Allen School’s Networks & Mobile Systems Lab, has been named the winner of the 2017 SIGMOBILE RockStar Award. The award, which was voted on by a committee of his peers and senior researchers in the mobile computing community, acknowledges Gollakota’s outstanding early-career contributions and the depth, novelty and impact of his research.

Since he joined the Allen School faculty in 2013, Gollakota has earned international recognition for his groundbreaking work on backscatter technology that allows battery-free devices to draw power and communicate using wireless signals already present in the air. He and his collaborators have used backscatter to enable a variety of novel applications, from connected contact lenses to smart fabrics. Along the way, Gollakota and his team have earned multiple Best Paper awards from leading conferences such as SIGCOMM and NSDI, and their Passive Wi-Fi project was named one of the 10 breakthrough technologies of 2016 by MIT Technology Review. They have since established a startup company, Jeeva Wireless, to commercialize their research.

Gollakota will be recognized by SIGMOBILE at the MobiCom 2017 conference in Snowbird, Utah in October.

We have always regarded Shyam as a rock star — now it’s official! Congratulations, Shyam! Read more →

Every year, the National Science Foundation highlights outstanding graduate student research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through its Graduate Research Fellowship Program — and every year, our students’ performance in this competition confirms the Allen School as one of the nation’s top destinations for promising young researchers in the computing fields. In the latest round, nine Allen School students were recognized by NSF, including seven graduate students and two undergraduates.

The competition for these fellowships is intense: More than 13,000 students from 449 baccalaureate-granting institutions applied for a total of 2,000 awards. Five Allen School students were among the recipients in the “Comp/IS/Eng” category:

Ellis Michael, a Ph.D. student working in the Computer Systems Lab with professors Tom Anderson and Dan Ports, received an award for computer systems and embedded systems research.

Leah Perlmutter, a Ph.D. student advised by professor Maya Cakmak in the Human-Centered Robotics Lab, received an award in human-robot interaction.

Anne Spencer Ross, a Ph.D. student working with professor James Fogarty on making mobile applications accessible to people with disabilities, received an award in human computer interaction.

John Thickstun, a Ph.D. student co-advised by Allen School professor Sham Kakade and Statistics professor Zaid Harchaoui, received an award for machine learning research.

Darby Losey, who worked with Allen School professor Raj Rao in the Neural Systems Lab while earning his bachelor’s in computer science and neurobiology, received an award for research in brain-computer interfaces. He is currently a researcher at the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-Labs).

In addition to the fellows, four more Allen School students were recognized by NSF with honorable mentions: Ph.D. students Martin Kellogg, Rahul Nadkarni and Isaac Tian, and undergraduate Nate Yazdani. Kellogg is a member of the Programming Languages & Software Engineering (PLSE) group, working with professor Michael Ernst; Nadkarni works with professor Emily Fox on machine learning research; and Tian works with professor Brian Curless in the Graphics & Imaging Laboratory (GRAIL). Yazdani, who is double-majoring in computer science and mathematics, works with Allen School professor Ras Bodik of PLSE.

NSF has been very good to Allen School students through the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Over the past three years alone, the agency has recognized 33 of our most promising student researchers with awards or honorable mentions — an impressive achievement and one of which we are extremely proud.

Read the 2017 announcement here, and learn more about the program here.

Congratulations to all! Read more →

UW CSE – the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering – seeks legislative support for additional enrollment growth. The case is overwhelmingly strong:

• Student demand is extraordinary
• Employer demand is extraordinary
• CSE’s track record of delivering on its commitments is exemplary
• $70 million in private fundraising for a second building to accommodate recent and future CSE growth is complete

Read more here! Read more →

Hank Levy, Paul Allen, and Ed Lazowska

Dear Friends of CSE,

A few minutes ago – in an extraordinary launch to our 50th Anniversary year – the University of Washington Board of Regents approved the establishment of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. The elevation of UW CSE’s status from a department to a school signifies our increasing prominence on the campus, in the region, and around the world. Becoming a school also positions us to have even greater impact through our leadership in computer science education and research, supported by a new $50 million endowment established by Paul Allen in support of our school (including a contribution from Microsoft in his honor).

The establishment of the Allen School recognizes Paul Allen’s many contributions to science and society, and honors his lifelong friendship and generosity to CSE and the University. It also honors our shared vision of the role of scientific discovery and innovation in the quest for solutions to humankind’s greatest challenges. This is the second time Paul has made a gift that promises to change the trajectory of our program. Since he opened the doors to the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, CSE has emerged as one of the pre-eminent computer science programs in the nation and generated game-changing innovations in mobile health, sustainability, global development, neural engineering, synthetic biology, machine learning, and more.

As the Paul G. Allen School, we will enjoy more autonomy and flexibility, as well as a higher profile within the computing community. We will also be more nimble when it comes to setting new directions in our research, generating new approaches to education and outreach, and recruiting the very best faculty and students. But even more importantly, becoming the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering associates us, in perpetuity, with an internationally revered innovator and visionary who has left an indelible mark on science, on technology, on the Pacific Northwest, and on the world. The aspirational value of this gift is incalculable, and it will inspire us to reach higher every day.

Warm regards,

Hank Levy
Director and Wissner-Slivka Chair
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington Read more →

Wilma Bradley, a longtime friend and generous supporter of UW CSE, has established a $1 million matching fund aimed at promoting alumni giving toward construction of a second computer science building on the UW campus. The new fund will match, dollar for dollar, multi-year pledges by recent alumni that total between $5,000 and $50,000 — enabling young alumni to double (or more, if a corporate match is applied) the impact of their personal gifts to CSE2.

For more than 20 years, Bradley has been passionate about expanding educational opportunities to more students at UW CSE. In that time, she has maintained close ties to the program and created an endowed fellowship and an endowed chair. Now, she is keen to support CSE2 while demonstrating the power of philanthropy by encouraging a new generation to become active partners in their alma mater’s future growth.

The Wilma Bradley Matching Challenge is open to UW CSE alums who received their bachelor’s degrees between 2006 and 2016. The match will be applied to pledges received by June 30, 2017 or until the fund is depleted, whichever comes first. To date, nearly $130,000 in donations from CSE alums have been matched through Bradley’s generosity. Learn more about this exciting new opportunity to support CSE’s expansion here.

Thank you, Wilma, for your generous support of our program and our students. You are an inspiration! Read more →

Tom Anderson

UW CSE professors Tom Anderson, James Fogarty, and Dan R. K. Ports have been selected to receive Google Faculty Research Awards, a competition designed to support world-class faculty conducting cutting-edge research that advances core and emerging areas of computer science.

Anderson, who earned an award in the networking category, focuses on the construction of robust, secure, and efficient computer systems. His recent work concerns the development of next-generation peer-to-peer systems and approaches to dramatically improve internet availability and denial-of-service resilience.

Fogarty received an award in the human-computer interaction category. His research focuses on developing, deploying, and evaluating new approaches to address human obstacles hindering widespread adoption of ubiquitous sensing and intelligent computing technologies. Anat Caspi, director of UW CSE’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology, is a co-principal investigator on the award.

Anat Caspi

James Fogarty

Ports, who received an award in the systems category, focuses on building distributed systems for modern data-center-scale applications that are faster, more reliable, easier to program, and more secure.

Six members of the extended UW CSE family also earned awards: Ph.D. alums Jon Froehlich (University of Maryland College Park, physical interfaces and immersive experiences), Martha Kim (Columbia University, systems), Karen Liu (Georgia Institute of Technology, other), Adrian Sampson (Cornell University, other), and Michael Swift (University of Wisconsin – Madison, systems), and former postdoc David Choffnes (Northeastern University, networking).

Dan R. K. Ports

Google received 876 submissions from researchers at more than 300 universities in 44 countries in response to its call for proposals. The company selected 143 projects to receive funding.

Learn more about the awards here, and read the full list of recipients here.

Way to go, team CSE — and thanks to Google for supporting outstanding faculty research! Read more →

Ali Farhadi

UW CSE professor Ali Farhadi and Ph.D. alum Jon Froehlich have been recognized with 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships. The fellowships are granted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support outstanding early-career researchers who represent the next generation of scientific leaders. Fellows are nominated by their peers and selected to receive one of these prestigious awards by an independent panel of senior scholars based on their demonstrated potential to make significant contributions in their respective fields.

“The Sloan Research Fellows are the rising stars of the academic community,” said foundation president Paul L. Joskow in a press release. “Through their achievements and ambition, these young scholars are transforming their fields and opening up entirely new research horizons. We are proud to support them at this crucial stage of their careers.”

Farhadi and Froehlich are among only 16 researchers recognized in the computer science category — and only 126 recipients in all, representing 60 colleges and universities and eight different fields: chemistry, computer science, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics.

Farhadi’s research focuses on artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing. He is particularly interested in enabling computers to perform visual tasks that humans can do seamlessly, such as intuiting why an “abnormal” image looks strange or understanding the actions and behaviors in a scene. In addition to his role on the UW CSE faculty, Farhadi is the senior research manager for the Computer Vision Group at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. There, he leads Project Plato, which aims to advance visual knowledge extraction and reasoning and go beyond standard image classification and object recognition to achieve visual “common sense.”

Jon Froehlich

Froehlich is on the faculty of University of Maryland-College Park. His research focuses on human-computer interaction with an emphasis on interactive technologies that address social issues such as accessibility, environmental sustainability, and personalized health and wellness. He completed his Ph.D. in 2011 working with UW CSE professor James Landay and CSE and Electrical Engineering professor Shwetak Patel. His dissertation, “Sensing and Feedback of Everyday Activities to Promote Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors,” earned him CSE’s William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award as well as the UW Graduate School Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Farhadi is the 22nd current UW CSE faculty member to have earned a Sloan Fellowship, joining recent winners Emina Torlak (2016) and Emily Fox, Shyam Gollakota, and Thomas Rothvoss (2015). In addition to Farhadi, two other members of the UW faculty — Emily Levesque in astronomy and John Tuthill of physiology and biophysics — were named fellows in 2017.

Read the Sloan Foundation press release here and the UW News release here. Check out the full list of 2017 fellows here.

Congratulations, Ali and Jon! Read more →