A team of students and faculty from the Allen School and the University of Washington Department of Electrical Engineering has won the inaugural Alexa Prize from Amazon for Sounding Board, a socialbot that interacts with users through engaging and informative conversation. Sounding Board was chosen from among three finalists as part of a worldwide university competition designed to advance the state of the art in conversational artificial intelligence.
The Sounding Board team was led by EE Ph.D. student Hao … Read more →
Siddhartha Srinivasa and Tao Xie named Fellows of the IEEE
Allen School professor Siddhartha “Sidd” Srinivasa, an expert in robotic manipulation and human-robot interaction, and alumnus Tao Xie, a faculty member at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who specializes in software testing and analytics, have been named Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization focused on advancing technology in service to humanity. Srinivasa was selected for his “contributions to robotic manipulation and human-robot interaction,” and Xie was recognized… Read more →
Allen School and Madrona Venture Group celebrate student innovation at annual research day
Each year, the Allen School welcomes industry partners, alumni and friends to our Affiliates Research Day to learn about the latest work by our faculty and students and to explore the future of computing-related research. Yesterday, more than 200 people participated in our 2017 Research Day, which featured technical talks on core and emerging areas of the field, a luncheon keynote by professor Sidd Srinivasa on human-robot interaction, and our evening open house and poster session.
During the… Read more →
Hooray for Hollywood? New tool reveals gender bias in movie scripts
If, as Oscar Wilde once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” then the art of film has a lot to answer for when it comes to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes. Thanks to researchers in the Allen School’s Natural Language Processing research group, we now have a way to measure the sometimes subtle biases in how men and women are portrayed on the big screen — and increase our understanding of how language shapes our perception… Read more →
Where the STEM Jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t)
The New York Times writes:
“What recent studies have made increasingly apparent is that the greatest number of high-paying STEM jobs are in the ‘T’ (specifically, computing). …
“‘There is a huge divide between the computing technology roles and the traditional sciences,’ said Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist.
“At LinkedIn, researchers identified the skills most in demand. The top 10 last year were all computer skills, including expertise in cloud computing, data mining and statistical analysis, and writing smartphone applications.”… Read more →
Fashion-forward: Allen School researchers invent smart fabric that stores data without electronics
Researchers in the Allen School’s Networks & Mobile Systems Lab have introduced a new kind of smart fabric imbued with computing and interaction capabilities — without the need for onboard electronics. Their work could redefine what we mean by “wearable” and usher in a fashionable new direction for computing.
Smart garments currently on the market typically pair conductive thread with electronic components, batteries, and sensors — elements that cannot be submerged under water or subjected to extreme temperatures. Allen School… Read more →
The Paul G. Allen School hosts Nancy Pelosi and Suzan DelBene
Today the Paul G. Allen School was honored to host a roundtable on “Women in 21st Century Jobs” with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene from Washington’s 1st Congressional District.
Undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff explored a wide variety of issues with Pelosi and DelBene including:
the barriers that women face in the tech industry
policies to encourage more women in STEM
public-private partnerships to help close the skills gap
sexual harassment in society at… Read more →
Anat Caspi earns Innovation Award from Northwest Access Fund
Anat Caspi, director of the Allen School’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology, is being honored with the 2017 Innovation Award from Northwest Access Fund, a non-profit organization devoted to improving access and opportunity for people with disabilities throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Innovation Award recognizes a business, organization, or individual who has developed one or more products that improve quality of life for people with disabilities.
“Northwest Access Fund was honored to have Anat Caspi present on… Read more →
Where the jobs are: 2016-2026 edition
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released its employment projections for the decade 2016-2026. It’s a highly detailed forecast: more than 1,000 specific job categories are included.
Computing occupations once again dominate STEM, accounting for 66% of all job growth, and 60% of all job openings (whether due to growth or to replacement).
BLS projects a growth of 546,000 computing jobs over the decade, and 3,475,000 job openings.
Whoaboy!… Read more →
Luke Zettlemoyer, Allen Institute for AI in NY Times
“Luke Zettlemoyer, a professor at the University of Washington … turned down a lucrative offer from Google, instead taking a post at the nonprofit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence so he could continue teaching.”
Luke and Ali Farhadi are heavily engaged in AI2, which is led by long-time Allen School professor Oren Etzioni. It offers the best of both worlds.
NY Times article here.… Read more →