Allen School News

Perfect match(ing): Professor Thomas Rothvoss wins 2023 Gödel Prize for proving the exponential complexity of a core problem in combinatorial optimization

Portrait of Thomas Rothvoss smiling in a blue-green t-shirt with hazy blue sky and part of an old sand-colored building overlooking a city behind him.

University of Washington professor Thomas Rothvoss, a member of the Allen School’s Theory of Computation group with a joint appointment in the UW Department of Mathematics, has received the 2023 Gödel Prize for “The matching polytope has exponential extension complexity.” In the paper, Rothvoss proved that linear programming — a core technique in combinatorial optimization for modeling a large class of problems that are polynomial-time solvable — cannot be used to solve the perfect matching problem in polynomial time. Read more →

May 23, 2023

Setting the table for a brighter future: With help from robots, Allen School researchers are making social dining more accessible

Two people seated at a table set with dishes and cutlery, with a pitcher just visible in the center on a black tablecloth. One person is wearing a mask; the other person’s mask is down and their mouth is open to receive a baby carrot poised facing the person at the end of a fork held by a robotic arm attached to their wheelchair.

Few occasions better illustrate the human experience than sharing stories over a meal. Yet for people with motor impairments, the act of dining itself can invite undue pressure. Caregivers can get distracted while feeding their clients, who may feel self-conscious about interrupting the ongoing conversations to remind their caregiver to feed them a bite. A simple hangout with friends or family can turn into a source of potential embarrassment. The meal becomes more functional than social — and potentially, a process to be endured rather than a time for celebration. That’s changing thanks to an innovative partnership between Allen School robotics researchers and the assistive technology nonprofit Tyler Schrenk Foundation. Read more →

May 18, 2023

Allen School’s Simon Du and Sewoong Oh to advance AI for responding to threats both natural and human-made as part of NSF-led National AI Research Institutes

Side-by-side portraits of Simon Du and Sewoong Oh, divided by a slanted white line. Du is wearing a dark blue-grey button-down shirt with blurred foliage in the background. Oh is wearing eyeglasses with thin, round dark frames and a black t-shirt against a warmly lit building interior.

From natural disasters to cyberattacks, events requiring rapid, coordinated responses of varying complexity and scale could be addressed more efficiently and effectively with the help of artificial intelligence. That’s the thinking behind two new National AI Research Institutes involving University of Washington researchers, including Allen School professors Simon Shaolei Du and Sewoong Oh, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Read more →

May 17, 2023

National Science Foundation recognizes seven Allen School students for advancing research in molecular computing, robotics, security and more

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recognized seven Allen School students as part of its 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition. The NSF GRFP supports students for their potential to demonstrate excellence and innovation in teaching and research early in their careers. The students — six graduate students and one undergraduate student — were recognized in the Comp/IS/Eng or Engineering categories. Read more →

May 16, 2023

Allen School’s Husky 100 honorees give back to the UW community and beyond as scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and leaders

The word "Washington" in University of Washington font in white on a purple fabric banner mostly obscuring campus buildings, backed by a pale blue sky and a burst of sunlight above the "o"

Six Allen School students were recently named to the 2023 class of the Husky 100, an honor recognizing undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the University of Washington. Husky 100 students make connections in and out of the classroom, making a positive impact on campus and in their communities. This year’s Allen School inductees are living those values, proving Huskies are stronger when in a pack. Read more →

May 8, 2023

Allen School team earns NSDI Test of Time Award for research into how third-party trackers “badger” people online

Tadayoshi Kohno and Franziska Roesner smiling and standing side by side against a wall painted with visible brush strokes in shades of blue, both wearing lanyards with NSDI name tags around their necks. Kohno is wearing a grey zip-up sweatshirt over a purple t-shirt, and Roesner is wearing a blue floral-patterned blouse.

There was a time when cookies were exclusively considered something to be savored — back when chips referred to chocolate rather than silicon. Once “cookies” became synonymous with online tracking, privacy researchers weren’t so sweet on the concept. That includes Allen School professors Franziska Roesner and Tadayoshi Kohno, who investigated the online tracking ecosystem for their 2012 paper “Detecting and Defending Against Third-Party Tracking on the Web.” Roesner, Kohno and co-author David Wetherall received a Test of Time Award at NSDI 2023 for their influential work. Read more →

May 4, 2023

Professors Su-In Lee and Sara Mostafavi awarded CZI Data Insights grants to advance explainable AI for biomedical research

Portraits of Su-In Lee and Sara Mostafavi side by side, divided by a diagonal purple line. Lee is seated in front of a whiteboard wearing glasses and a black suit and looking off to the left of frame (her right), holding a pen behind an open laptop. Mostafavi is posed in a grey cardigan open over a white button-down shirt and glasses, looking at the camera in a building atrium with an elevator bank visible behind her.

Single-cell genomics is revolutionizing biomedical research by enabling high-volume analysis of gene expression at the cellular level to understand the origins of disease and identify targets for potential treatment. To accelerate this progress, researchers are increasingly turning their attention to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyze these connections at scale. But the size and complexity of the resulting datasets, combined with noise and systematic biases in experimentation, make it difficult to build meaningful AI models from which to derive new biological insights. Professors Su-In Lee and Sara Mostafavi are working on solutions to the problem Read more →

April 25, 2023

Inspired by the “pure magic” of AI, Allen School undergraduate Matt Deitke begins his next act

Matt Deitke, wearing glasses and a black sweater over a white shirt, smiles in front of a blurred background of a window showing a lake.

The 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” opens in black and white. After a tornado sweeps up her Kansas home and drops it with a thud, Dorothy, the story’s protagonist, opens the front door and is greeted by a world of color. “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” she says. Allen School senior Matt Deitke is not from Kansas, nor has he been to the Land of Oz. Yet he experienced a similar revelation, minus the intervention from Hollywood or Mother Nature. When Deitke was in high school, he spent long hours using Adobe Photoshop to manually — and tediously — colorize images for school projects. That changed when he encountered a different kind of technical wizardry, one that opened up a new world of color. Read more →

April 24, 2023

Alumni Nicola Dell and Dhruv Jain among four UW-affiliated researchers honored by SIGCHI for innovation supporting underserved or vulnerable populations

Portrait of Dell (left) wearing a green silk blouse and silver necklace and portrait of Jain (right) wearing dark framed acrylic glasses, white t-shirt, charcoal v-neck sweater and charcoal wool blazer.

Nicola Dell (Photo by Jeff Weiner)

SIGCHI, the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction, has honored four researchers with ties to the University of Washington with 2023 SIGCHI Awards. Allen School alum Nicola (Nicki) Dell (Ph.D., ‘15), a leader in applying technologies to safeguard victims of technology-enabled intimate partner violence (IPV), received a Societal Impact Award, while Dhruv (DJ) Jain (Ph.D., ‘22), received an Outstanding Dissertation Award for his work on technologies to enhance… Read more →

April 20, 2023

Allen School undergraduates Jan Buzek and Nuria Alina Chandra named 2023 Goldwater Scholars

Jan Buzek, wearing sunglasses and a blue shirt, smiles in front of a background of a lake and green trees. A silver pole is also behind him. A gold line running diagonally separates Buzek's photo with Nuria Alina Chandra's. Chandra, wearing a mustard-colored scarf and black jacket, smiles in front of a blurred background of a city. The buildings behind her are yellow with red roofs and have many windows.

Jan Buzek (left) and Nuria Alina Chandra were named 2023 Goldwater Scholars.

Allen School undergraduates Jan Buzek and Nuria Alina Chandra are among five University of Washington students to be named 2023 Goldwater Scholars by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The Goldwater Scholars program recognizes and supports outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences. Buzek is a junior studying computer science and mathematics who counts Allen School… Read more →

April 12, 2023