Allen School News

Allen School postdoctoral researcher Joseph Jaeger and visiting researcher Nirvan Tyagi, a Ph.D. student at Cornell Tech, received the Best Paper by Early Career Researchers Award at the 40th Annual International Cryptology Conference (Crypto 2020) organized by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). Jaeger and Tyagi, who have been working with professor Stefano Tessaro of the Allen School’s Theory and Cryptography groups, earned the award for presenting a new approach to proving… Read more →

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The University of Washington is among the recipients of a five-year, $100 million investment announced today by the National Science Foundation (NSF) aimed at driving major advances in artificial intelligence research and education. The NSF AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML) — one of five new NSF AI Institutes around the country — will tap into the expertise of faculty in the Allen School’s Machine Learning group and the UW Department of Statistics in collaboration with the University… Read more →

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In July, the Allen School kicked off its inaugural AI4ALL summer program, online. Created to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) to underrepresented pre-college students, AI4ALL is a national program that works to diversify AI by recruiting students who identify with other groups underrepresented in AI. The University of Washington’s debut this summer is the first instance of AI4ALL to focus on students with disabilities and their representation in AI. The University of Washington joined the program this year, offering a free,… Read more →

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A team of researchers that includes Allen School professor Carlos Guestrin, Ph.D. student Tongshuang Wu and alumnus and affiliate professor Marco Tulio Ribeiro (Ph.D. ’18) of Microsoft captured the Best Paper Award at the 58th annual meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2020). In the winning paper, “Beyond Accuracy: Behavioral Testing of NLP Models with CheckList,” they and… Read more →

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Allen School professor emeritus Richard Ladner, a leading researcher in accessible technology and a leading voice for expanding access to computer science for students with disabilities, has been named the 2020 recipient of the Public Service Award for an individual from the National Science Board (NSB). Each year, the NSB recognizes groups and individuals who have made significant contributions to the public’s understanding of science and engineering. In recognizing Ladner, the board cited his exemplary science communication, diversity advocacy,… Read more →

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Allen School professor and alumnus Michael Ernst (Ph.D., ‘00) has had a distinguished research career that spans more than two decades and includes multiple, influential contributions to programmer productivity through software analysis, testing and verification. In recognition of his impressive body of work, Ernst was recently recognized with the 2020 Outstanding Research Award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (ACM SIGSOFT).  Since he returned to his alma mater in 2009 to take up a… Read more →

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No one could accuse Ph.D. student Vikram Iyer of just winging it. Since his arrival at the University of Washington, Iyer has advanced ground-breaking innovations in low-power wireless communication and computation to expand the Internet of Things, from 3D-printable wireless objects capable of storing and transmitting data, to insect-scale platforms that provide a bug’s eye view of the world. As a sign of just how his ideas have taken flight, today Iyer was named one of three recipients of the… Read more →

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Our latest student spotlight features Vancouver, Washington native Robert Minneker, who graduated in June with degrees in biomedical engineering and computer science and is continuing his studies in the Allen School’s fifth-year Master’s program. Using the skills they gained as undergraduates, Minneker and two friends created Tremor Vision, a web-based tool to help diagnose and treat Parkinson’s disease. The creators — Minneker, Allen School alumna Janae Chan (B.S. ‘19) and informatics graduate Drew Gallardo — were runners up… Read more →

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The University of Washington has established a new endowed professorship, the Senosis–Paul G. Allen Endowed Professorship in Computer Science & Engineering, through the generosity of professors Shwetak Patel and Julie Kientz. The $1 million endowment, which was made possible in part by the acquisition of Patel’s mobile health startup Senosis Health by Google in 2017, will support recruitment and retention of Allen School faculty who pursue high-impact research aimed at solving meaningful, real-world problems… Read more →

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Allen School professor Martin Tompa, an early and leading expert in computational molecular biology and a beloved mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, retired from the Allen School at the end of June. Tompa’s long and distinguished career spans an array of computer science research, including computational complexity, algorithms, and computational molecular biology. And then, of course, there’s his mastery of Schnapsen — the 300+ year old card game with… Read more →

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