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University of Washington and Microsoft study of online search activity during the pandemic offers a new window into the second-level digital divide

A school-aged girl is pictured from behind, in the right of the frame, seated at a table in a brightly lit room with a notebook viewing a person on a laptop screen. The girl has long hair pulled into a ponytail with a pink elastic band and a decorative headband visible behind her left ear and is wearing a pink hooded sweatshirt.
Photo by Giovanni Gagliardi on Unsplash
In the spring of 2020, schools and offices across the nation closed their doors en masse to in-person learning and working, restaurants and retail stores began extolling the virtues of curbside dining and delivery, and Zoom became a household name. In the midst of the global health emergency caused by the emergence of COVID-19, many of the services and activities people rely on as part of their daily lives — from doctors’ appointments to… Read more →
December 9, 2022

Family matters: For the Winston siblings, the intersection of software engineering and neuroscience research is relatively inspiring at the UW

Group photo of the five Winston siblings wearing business attire and name tags on lanyards around their necks, standing side-by-side in front of a metal railing with buildings of various styles of stone, metal and glass in downtown Pittsburgh in the background.
The Winston siblings pose for a family photo in downtown Pitttsburgh during the ICSE 2022 conference (from left): Caleb, Cailin, Cleah, Claris and Chloe
Back in May, a group of five student researchers advised by Allen School professors Rajesh Rao and René Just disembarked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering. They had traveled to ICSE 2022 from Seattle to present a paper describing a methodology they had developed at the University of Washington for… Read more →
December 7, 2022

Balloons, The Tower of Terror and Fibonacci sequences: How the UW programming team qualified for the ICPC World Finals

Nathan Akkaraphab, Milin Kodnongbua, and Phawin Prongpaophan stand in front of a white banner while holding a placard with the words, the University of Washington, on the front. Kodnongbua holds mulitcolored balloons.
The University of Washington team at the ICPC North America Championship, from left: Nathan Akkaraphab, Milin Kodnongbua, and Phawin Prongpaophan.
By the end, colors filled the room.  Blues, yellows, pinks and reds, all bobbing about, to and fro. When the clacking stopped, the popping began. And the trio of Allen School students, triumphant, smiled.  “Team communication and coordination is the key to success,” said their bespectacled coach, who was watching from afar. “It’s a bonding experience.”  The International Collegiate Programming Read more →
December 6, 2022

The sound of touch: UW and Microsoft researchers earn ISS 10-year Impact Award for advancing innovative interaction technique via on-body sensing

Person sliding fingertip with small sensor device across their forearm in front of a computer screen showing a selection of menu icons superimposed on each other horizontally, with the green and white phone icon selected Nearly a decade ago, well before mixed reality and the metaverse went mainstream, a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s UbiComp Lab and Microsoft Research were making noise within the human-computer interaction community with a novel approach to on-body sensing. Their technique, which leveraged transdermal ultrasound signals, turned the human body into an input surface for pressure-aware continuous touch sensing and gesture recognition without requiring extensive, not to mention expensive, instrumentation. Last week, that same team collected the… Read more →
December 2, 2022

A winning combination: Allen School recruits nine new faculty with expertise in computational neuroscience, machine learning, quantum computing, and more

Hand silhouetted against the sun, giving the "dubs up" symbol, with ring and middle finger crossed in between pinky and index finger to resemble the letter "W," against a purple background When it comes to recruiting at the University of Washington, the latest promising commits to the Husky football team tend to grab most of the headlines. Here in the Allen School, we’re pursuing our own version of “Purple Reign” on a different playing field: the intense competition that is faculty recruiting in computer science and computer engineering.  The results of the 2022 season are in, and the Allen School scored nine outstanding educators and researchers who are rising stars in… Read more →
December 1, 2022

Technology for all: Kelly Mack earns ARCS Dorothy L. Simpson Leadership Award for championing accessibility through research and service-leadership

Portrait of Kelly Mack in lilac, aqua, and black floral short sleeve dress, amethyst pendant necklace, and pearl stud earrings standing in front of an ivy covered brick building. Allen School Ph.D. student Kelly Mack is a problem solver who aims to ensure that other researchers take accessibility and disability into account — both in their research methods and during their design process. She has carried this accessibility mindset into her work with industry, where she helped establish the first disability-focused employee resource group as an intern at Snap Inc., and into her leadership of a chapter of Girls Who Code, where for the past five years she… Read more →
November 22, 2022

Reaching to the moon, getting VOCAL, and other highlights from the Allen School’s 2022 Research Showcase

A group of researchers prepares a demo on robot-assisted feeding. Two researchers are seated behind a table, one holding a smartphone up to the other to speak into; the third researcher is standing on the other side of the table holding a smartphone and looking toward a robotic arm. A monitor screen is visible showing images of a plate of food with a fork from above and the side. Two other people near a research poster are visible in the background.
Award winners and runners up celebrate onstage with members of Madrona Venture Group during the Allen School’s annual Research Showcase
After a pandemic-enforced hiatus, last week the Allen School welcomed industry partners, alumni and friends to its 2022 Research Showcase this week to celebrate the groundbreaking work of its students and faculty. The typically annual event, which is hosted by the Industry Affiliates Program, welcomes industry partners and alumni to engage with the school’s research and learn more about… Read more →
November 21, 2022

‘I love the elegance of math’: Simon Du named Samsung AI Researcher of the Year for exploring deep questions surrounding deep learning

When Allen School professor Simon Shaolei Du opened his inbox on a cloudy Friday morning in October, he wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary, let alone a trip around the world.  The website had slated the announcement for late September. When the date came and went, Du put the thought from his mind. Yet there it was. A click, a glow, then a smile.  “It was very short notice, actually,” he said, grinning again.  Next, plane tickets and slide… Read more →
November 9, 2022

What it’s like to be the first: Allen School community members share their stories to mark the National First-Generation College Celebration

National First Generation College Celebration on November 8 For first-generation college students, navigating the complexities of higher education can be intimidating. Often there isn’t a blueprint from which to work. Yet for the more than 30% of undergraduates across the University of Washington who are first-generation students, it’s far from a solo journey.  In honor of the National First-Generation College Celebration taking place today, the Allen School is highlighting members of its community who are among the first in their families to pursue a college degree. Here… Read more →
November 8, 2022

Allen School researchers team up with clinicians and global health experts to repurpose inexpensive earphones to screen babies for hearing loss

ALT TEXT: A young boy wearing a grey and black zip-up jacket with green and orange trim and jeans sits in an ivory-colored plastic chair as a researcher seated adjacent to him in a dark grey office chair holds a probe to his ear. The probe is attached to a smartphone sitting on the researcher's lap. The researcher is wearing glasses, with a mask around his chin, a plaid button down shirt and dark cotton trousers. The child is looking down at the smartphone screen. There is a desk with papers and a pen and a backpack behind the child.
Allen School Ph.D. student Justin Chan, right, tests a child’s hearing in Kenya. Dr. Nada Ali/University of Washington
If you’re a frequent flyer, you may have amassed a motley collection of complimentary airline earbuds over the course of your travels — if you didn’t toss them in the trash immediately after clearing customs, that is. Soon, those throwaway pieces of plastic and wire could potentially transform the lives of children around the world. A team that includes Allen School professor… Read more →
October 31, 2022

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