A team of University of Washington students captured first place in the 2018 Pacific Rim Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (PRCCDC) last weekend to secure a place at the national championships next month. The multi-disciplinary group from Seattle — known as Team Hillarious* — emerged victorious from two action-packed days of competition designed to test their practical skills, teamwork, and time management against 11 other teams from colleges and universities across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
Each year, PRCCDC selects a theme… Read more →
Allen School faculty and alumni recognized with Google Faculty Research Awards
Each year, Google invites proposals from faculty at universities around the world as part of its Google Faculty Research Awards program, which supports cutting-edge computer science research in areas of mutual interest. In the company’s most recent competition, five Allen School faculty members — Magdalena Balazinska, Shyam Gollakota, Hannaneh Hajishirzi, Michael Taylor, and Xi Wang — earned awards for their efforts to advance the state of the art in data management, mobile computing, natural language processing, and systems and hardware… Read more →
Richard Ladner honored with Strache Leadership Award for impact on accessibility education and research
Richard Ladner, professor emeritus at the Allen School and a nationally recognized leader in accessibility research and advocacy, has been recognized with the Strache Leadership Award from the Center on Disabilities at California State University, Northridge. Each year, the center honors an individual who has made a significant and lasting impact through education and research in the area of assistive technology with the Strache Leadership Award, which is named for CSUN’s former Vice President for Student Affairs Fred Strache.… Read more →
UW and Allen Institute researchers develop new method for large-scale analysis of gene activity to advance disease research
A team of researchers at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute have come up with a highly efficient, scalable approach for measuring gene activity at the cellular level that could aid the fight against potentially devastating diseases. The researchers described their novel technique — called SPLiT-seq, short for Split Pool Ligation-based Transcriptome sequencing — in a paper published this week in the journal Science.
SPLiT-seq enables scientists to identify the cellular origin of ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules, which… Read more →
Celebrating our first year of innovation as the Paul G. Allen School
On March 9th, 2017, the University of Washington Board of Regents approved the establishment of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in recognition of our increasing prominence and impact on campus, in our region, and around the world — and to honor Paul Allen’s many contributions to our university, to science and innovation, and to society.
Today, Allen marked the one-year anniversary of our founding by highlighting 10 exciting innovations from the Allen School that are… Read more →
Allen School undergrad Christine Betts is geeking out and giving back
An avid runner, reader, writer, crafter, and scholar — computer science major Christine Betts exemplifies the creativity and academic excellence that are the hallmarks of Allen School students. She also embodies a commitment to service: she has embraced the role of peer adviser, eager to help her fellow CSE students succeed, and also volunteers her time and talents working with kids through non-profit organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Betts’ achievements have not gone unnoticed in the local… Read more →
New wireless charging system from UW researchers uses a laser to beam power to your cellphone
Mobile devices and WiFi have given people the freedom to access information and accomplish tasks on the move, but there is still one area in which we remain tethered to the old way of doing things: the power cord. No matter what fancy features or sleek designs are built into the latest devices, they still run on a battery — which means they have to be plugged into the wall to recharge. But that could change thanks to a team… Read more →
UW and Microsoft researchers achieve random access in large-scale DNA data storage
University of Washington and Microsoft researchers revealed today that they have taken a significant step forward in their quest to develop a DNA-based storage system for digital data. In a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, the members of the Molecular Information Systems Laboratory (MISL) describe the science behind their world record-setting achievement of 200 megabytes stored in synthetic DNA. They also present their system for random access — that is, the selective retrieval of individual data files encoded in… Read more →
Maya Cakmak named 2018 Sloan Research Fellow
Professor Maya Cakmak, director of the Allen School’s Human-Centered Robotics Lab, has earned a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowship recognizes Cakmak as one of the most outstanding young researchers in North America and a future scientific leader. Cakmak is among 16 computer scientists to receive a 2018 fellowship, out of 126 fellows overall drawn from more than 50 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada.
“The Sloan Research Fellows… Read more →
Professor Michael Ernst honored for extraordinary contributions to student mentorship
Allen School professor Michael Ernst has earned the 2018 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award from the Computing Research Association. The award recognizes faculty who provide exceptional mentorship and support to student researchers. Ernst is a member of the Allen School’s Programming Languages & Software Engineering (PLSE) group.
Recipients of the CRA-E mentorship award are chosen based on their track record of providing a high-quality, rewarding research experience to aspiring computer scientists. The CRA cited Ernst’s combination of research accomplishments… Read more →