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Analysis of #BlackLivesMatter social media content points to the power of positivity in online activism and large-scale social movements

Protest participants marching toward camera with arms in the air, featuring a black sign with chalk drawing of raised fist and text "Say Their Names" and "#BlackLivesMatter" that one marcher is holding above their head. Only the forehead, hands and wrists of the sign holder is visible.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
In the spring of 2020, people took to the streets — and to the tweets — in protest after a white police officer murdered George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis by kneeling on his neck and back for over nine minutes. Black Lives Matter, a movement spawned seven years earlier following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Florida and the killer’s subsequent acquittal, emerged as the online and… Read more →
August 24, 2022

Designing beyond the default: Allen School researchers receive NSF award to address privacy and security needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations

Closeup of person's fingers grasping mobile phone with camera facing outward in eerie red and blue light, person's face and hair are blurred behind the phone against a dark background
Victor Larracuente on Unsplash
For people around the world, technology eases the friction of everyday life: bills paid with a few clicks online, plans made and sometimes broken with the tap of a few keys, professional and social relationships initiated and sustained from anywhere at the touch of a button. But not everyone experiences technology in a positive way, because technology — including built-in safeguards for protecting privacy and security — isn’t designed with everyone in mind. In some cases,… Read more →
August 1, 2022

UW Engineering Dean’s Medalist and Allen School alum Isaiah Lemmon has a passion for programming and clean energy

Portrait of Isaiah Lemmon wearing a shirt, tie and glasses in front of a brightly lit window
Isaiah Lemmon (center) accepting his Dean’s Medal certificate from Dean Nancy Allbritton (left) and chemical engineering professor Jim Pfaendtner (right). Greg DeBow
After graduating from the University of Washington in December with degrees in computer science and chemical engineering, Allen School alum Isaiah Lemmon (B.S., ‘21) took on a software engineering role at Amazon Web Services. There, he intends to put his education to work advancing energy efficient solutions for the datacenter, inspired in part by his experience as an… Read more →
July 1, 2022

“We relentlessly strive to meet the bar set by his work”: Dan Suciu honored by ACM SIGMOD and PODS for advancing new paradigms in data management

Portrait of Dan Suciu
Photo by Moe Kayali
The Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on the Management of Data honored Allen School professor Dan Suciu with its 2022 Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award in recognition of his “lasting contributions to the foundations of novel data management trends.” The award recognizes a member of the ACM SIGMOD community who has made enduring and highly significant contributions to the development, understanding or use of databases and database systems over the course of their career.… Read more →
June 29, 2022

“Be brave, be kind, and do great things”: Allen School celebrates the graduates of 2020, 2021 and 2022

Wide shot of basketball arena full of people, with graduates in regalia seated in rows of chairs on the floor of the arena After two successive years of asynchronous, online tributes to graduates, the Allen School finally welcomed members of the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 to an in-person graduation celebration to mark the culmination of their academic journeys at the University of Washington. An estimated 3,000 faculty, staff, family and friends converged on Hec Edmundson Pavilion at the Alaska Airlines Arena on June 10th to honor the graduates’ achievements and recognize the impact that an Allen School education can have... Read more →
June 24, 2022

“Technically brilliant and intellectually fearless”: Allen School’s Shayan Oveis Gharan earns prestigious Simons Investigator Award

Portrait of Shayan Oveis Gharan Professor Shayan Oveis Gharan, a member of the Allen School’s Theory of Computation group, was named a 2022 Simons Investigator by the Simons Foundation for his innovative approach to fundamental problems in algorithm design and combinatorial optimization. The Simons Investigator Award is designed to support outstanding theoretical scientists in mathematics, physics, astrophysics and computer science as they pursue creative new research directions, mentor junior scientists, and provide leadership within their respective fields. Oveis Gharan is perhaps best known… Read more →
June 17, 2022

Smartphone-based tympanometry system from UW researchers offers a pocket-sized solution for testing middle ear function

Hand holding smartphone attached to 3D-printed casing. Screen shows tympanometry software interface displaying status as "Measure" and peaking line graph. According to the World Health Organization, more than 430 million people around the globe live with a disabling hearing loss — including 34 million children. Tympanometry is a test of middle ear function that can be used in conjunction with other tests to diagnose middle ear disorders that could lead to permanent hearing loss. Although it is a relatively simple test, there are barriers for widespread use in resource-constrained communities. In a paper published in Nature Communications Medicine, researchers present a lightweight alternative to conventional tympanometry devices that is also lighter on the wallet… Read more →
June 16, 2022

Shine on! Allen School alumni Stefan Savage and Justine Sherry receive College of Engineering Diamond Awards

Stefan Savage and Justine Sherry stand in front of a large sign with UW College of Engineering logo and Diamond Awards graphic
Stefan Savage (left) and Justine Sherry. Ed Lazowska
Each year, the University of Washington’s College of Engineering recognizes alumni and friends who have made outstanding contributions to the field of engineering through its Diamond Awards. Among the 2022 honorees are two Allen School alumni whose cutting-edge research has helped steer the future of computer networking with far-reaching impacts: Stefan Savage (Ph.D., ’02), recipient of the Distinguished Achievement in Academia Award, and Justine Sherry (B.S., ‘10), recipient of the Early Read more →
June 2, 2022

“Professor, leader scientist, teacher, colleague, friend”: New $4.7 million UW professorship fund celebrates Ed Lazowska’s enduring legacy and impact

Ed Lazowska: “This is a community in which we lift one another up.” Matt Hagen
In 2020, four couples who are longtime friends of the Allen School joined forces to create a new endowed professorship fund named for professor Ed Lazowska to honor his wide-ranging impact on the field of computing, Washington higher education, and the technology community. They seeded the fund with a combined gift of $1 million, and then began inviting other friends and alumni of the school… Read more →
June 1, 2022

Allen School’s Leilani Battle earns TCDE Rising Star Award for advancing new tools and techniques for exploring massive datasets

Portrait of Leilani Battle with her hair up against backdrop of green leaves Allen School professor and alumna Leilani Battle (B.S., ‘11) is building a career out of building better ways to deal with data. Her research, which looks beyond conventional data management techniques to incorporate human behavior and preferences, enables analysts to spend more time engaging with the data they need, and less time searching and waiting for it to load. Recognizing the transformational impact and future potential of Battle’s work, the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Data Engineering recently recognized… Read more →
May 31, 2022

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