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 →
Allen School undergraduates earn national recognition for research excellence
In keeping with the Allen School’s commitment to provide an unparalleled educational experience to students, many undergraduates participate in leading-edge research in our labs. Undergraduate researchers work alongside faculty, postdocs, and graduate students and often submit their work to major academic research conferences and scientific journals. This year, three of these talented student researchers — Kimberly Ruth, Preston Jiang, and Deric Pang — were recognized as part of the Computing Research Association’s 2018 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards, which highlight… Read more →
Yin Tat Lee wins NSF CAREER Award to develop new, efficient algorithms for convex optimization
Professor Yin Tat Lee of the Allen School’s Theory of Computation research group has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to develop faster, more efficient algorithms for solving convex and other optimization problems. The outcome of Lee’s research, which seeks to increase the scientific community’s understanding of the relationship between convex geometry and optimization algorithms and improve upon current techniques drawn from continuous and discrete optimization, will have broad impact across the sciences and beyond.
Convex optimization… Read more →
All work and no play …
The antidote to becoming a dull computer scientist: the Allen School’s annual ski day at Stevens Pass! … Read more →
Deepali Aneja and Eric Whitmire named Adobe Research Fellows
Allen School Ph.D. students Deepali Aneja and Eric Whitmire have been named 2018 Adobe Research Fellows. The Adobe Research Fellowship program recognizes outstanding graduate students with exceptional technical and personal leadership skills who are engaged in creative, high-impact research. Aneja and Whitmire are among a total of 10 graduate students around the world to be recognized in this year’s fellowship competition.
Aneja works with Allen School professor Linda Shapiro in the Graphics and Imaging Laboratory (GRAIL) and Creative Director… Read more →
#MemoriesInDNA Project aims to crowdsource 10,000 images to advance DNA-based data storage
What do you want to remember forever?
That’s a question that researchers in the University of Washington’s Molecular Information Systems Laboratory (MISL) hope will inspire people around the world to submit original photos to the #MemoriesInDNA Project. The project — the result of a partnership between Allen School, UW Department of Electrical Engineering, Microsoft, and Twist Bioscience — aims to build a robust dataset of 10,000 images to develop exciting new capabilities for DNA-based data storage and processing.… Read more →
Alumna Gail Murphy receives Harlan D. Mills Award for contributions to software engineering
Allen School alumna Gail Murphy (Ph.D., ’96), professor of computer science and Vice President Research & Innovation at the University of British Columbia, has been recognized by the IEEE Computer Society with its Harlan D. Mills Award, which honors individuals for significant contributions to software engineering research and practice through the development and application of sound theory. Murphy earned the 2018 award for “outstanding research on understanding software-development practices and tools that improve the productivity of developers.”
Murphy’s research… Read more →