Allen School News

Yasaman Sefidgar, a Ph.D. student working with Allen School professor James Fogarty, has been named a 2021 Facebook Fellow for her research developing computational and data-driven systems that inform and support social and health interventions. Sefidgar’s work currently is focused on studying the powerful effects of social support and how to make it more accessible with online platforms, especially during difficult times. Sefidgar aims to use her Fellowship to understand the emotional needs of people online — specifically… Read more →

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Last week marked the end of an academic year unlike any other — and the culmination of all of the hard work, hopes and dreams of a graduating class unlike any other. With the resumption of in-person pomp and circumstance precluded due to ongoing pandemic-related restrictions at the University of Washington, the Allen School marked this important milestone with a virtual tribute highlighting the Class of 2021’s commitment to excellence and service — and acknowledging their perseverance in… Read more →

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Researchers at the University of Washington contributed to four Best Papers and 11 Best Paper Honorable Mentions at the recent Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021) organized by the Association for Computing Machinery. The virtual conference offered UW researchers the opportunity to showcase the breadth and depth of their expertise in human-computer interaction (HCI) and design as well as the strength of interdisciplinary collaborations such as DUB. Members of the Allen School co-authored two of the… Read more →

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Allen School professor Richard Anderson earned the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics from the Association for Computing Machinery for his work bridging computer science, education and global health. Anderson, who co-directs the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) Lab, has devoted himself over the past two decades to advancing computing innovations that improve quality of life for people in rural and low-income communities around the… Read more →

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Allen School Ph.D. student Ashish Sharma, professor Tim Althoff and incoming Ph.D. student Inna Lin won the Best Paper Award at the The Web Conference 2021 (WWW) for “Towards Facilitating Empathic Conversations in Online Mental Health Support: A Reinforcement Learning Approach.” In the paper, the group presented computational methods for improving empathy in online mental health support conversations. Their work was chosen from among 1,736 submissions to the conference, which… Read more →

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Each year, the University of Washington College of Engineering recognizes the dedication and drive of its students, teaching and research assistants, staff and faculty by honoring a select few with a College of Engineering Award. This year, the Allen School has three recipients: web computing specialist Della Welch won the Professional Staff Award, professor Linda Shapiro earned the College of Engineering Faculty Research Award and professor and alumnus Jon Froelich (Ph.D., 11) received the College of Engineering Outstanding Faculty… Read more →

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Artificial intelligence promises to be a powerful tool for improving the speed and accuracy of medical decision-making to improve patient outcomes. From diagnosing disease, to personalizing treatment, to predicting complications from surgery, AI could become as integral to patient care in the future as imaging and laboratory tests are today.  But as Allen School researchers discovered, AI models — like humans — have a tendency to look for shortcuts. In the case of… Read more →

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Professor Anna Karlin and a team of collaborators have received the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award from the Association for Computing Machinery for their work on balanced allocations, also known as the “power of two choices.” Karlin, a member of the Allen School’s Theory of Computation group, first introduced the balanced allocations paradigm with co-authors Yossi Azar of Tel Aviv… Read more →

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Allen School professor Shyam Gollakota received the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery for “contributions to the use of wireless signals in creating novel applications, including battery-free communications, health monitoring, gesture recognition, and bio-based wireless sensing.” Each year, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award honors an early-career professional in computing who has made a major technical or service contribution to the field before the age of 35.  As director of the Allen School’s Networks & … Read more →

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Allen School undergraduates Nayha Auradkar, Melissa Birchfield and Raida Karim have been selected for the 2021 class of the Husky 100. Each year the program honors 100 University of Washington students across its three campuses who are making the most of their time as Huskies to have a positive impact on the UW community.  Nayha Auradkar Nayha Auradkar is a junior from Sammamish, Washington, majoring in computer science with a minor in neural computation and engineering. She aims to… Read more →

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