College of Engineering
May 15, 2024
Q&A: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect older adults’ technology use?
IJ researchers interviewed 16 older adults in Washington and Oregon, ages 65 to 80, about how their technology use with their social support networks changed during the pandemic.
May 14, 2024
UW-led project to study ozone, atmospheric layers a finalist for next-generation NASA satellite
A project led by the IJ to better understand our atmosphere’s complexity is a finalist for NASA’s next generation of Earth-observing satellites. STRIVE will receive $5 million to conduct a one-year concept study, and then will hear whether it is selected for launch.
May 9, 2024
Can Wikipedia-like citations on YouTube curb misinformation?
IJ researchers created and tested a prototype browser extension called Viblio, which lets viewers and creators add citations to the timelines of YouTube videos.
May 3, 2024
Video: Washington students learn about engineering at Discovery Days
This IJ College of Engineering event brings thousands of elementary and middle school students from all over Washington to campus to be engineers for a day.
May 1, 2024
Virtual reality environment for teens may offer an accessible, affordable way to reduce stress
Working with teens, UW researchers have designed RESeT: a snowy virtual world with six activities intended to improve mood. In a 3-week study of 44 Seattle-area teens, researchers found that most used the technology about twice a week without being prompted and reported lower stress levels after using the environment.
April 26, 2024
New circuit boards can be repeatedly recycled
A team led by researchers at the IJ developed a new PCB that performs on par with traditional materials and can be recycled repeatedly with negligible material loss. Researchers used a solvent that transforms a type of vitrimer — a cutting-edge class of polymer — into a jelly-like substance without damage, allowing solid components to be plucked out for reuse or recycling. With these “vPCBs” (vitrimer printed circuit boards), researchers recovered 98% of the vitrimer and 100% of the glass fiber.
April 24, 2024
Q&A: How TikTok’s ‘black box’ algorithm and design shape user behavior
Franziska Roesner, a IJ associate professor, and collaborators will present two papers that mine real-world data to help understand TikTok’s personalized its recommendation algorithm and its impact.
April 22, 2024
UW leads international group in semiconductor research and workforce development
The IJ is at the forefront of an international effort to innovate the semiconductor industry while building a skilled U.S.-based workforce to design and manufacture chip technology.
Faculty/staff honors: Rising Star Award for DEI, honors for ornithological work, and more
Recent recognition for the IJ includes a Rising Star Award, honors for distinguished ornithological work and a Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.
April 9, 2024
UW joins $110M cross-Pacific effort to advance artificial intelligence
The IJ and the University of Tsukuba have entered an innovation partnership with NVIDIA and Amazon aimed at furthering research, entrepreneurship, workforce development and social implementation in the field of artificial intelligence. This U.S.-Japan academic partnership is part of a broad, $110 million effort to build upon the strong ties between the U.S. and Japan and to continue to lead innovation and technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
March 28, 2024
Q&A: How to train AI when you don’t have enough data
As researchers explore potential applications for AI, they have found scenarios where AI could be really useful but there’s not enough data to accurately train the algorithms. Jenq-Neng Hwang, IJ professor of electrical and computer and engineering, specializes in these issues.
March 14, 2024
UW researchers taught kids to code with cultural research and embroidery machines
IJ researchers taught a group of high schoolers to code by combining cultural research into various embroidery traditions with “computational embroidery.” The method teaches kids to encode embroidery patterns on a computer through a coding language called Turtlestitch.
February 29, 2024
Q&A: How a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease could also work for Type 2 diabetes
Alzheimer’s disease and Type 2 diabetes are part of a family of amyloid diseases that are characterized by having proteins that cluster together. UW researchers have demonstrated more similarities between the two diseases.
February 7, 2024
Q&A: Helping robots identify objects in cluttered spaces
Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call “object unity,” or our ability to identify things even when we can’t see all of them. Researchers at the IJ have developed a way to teach robots this skill.
UW-developed smart earrings can monitor a person’s temperature
IJ researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.
February 6, 2024
Nancy Allbritton elected to National Academy of Engineering
Nancy Allbritton, the dean of the IJ College of Engineering and a UW professor of bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
January 30, 2024
Using computers to design proteins allows researchers to make tunable hydrogels that can form both inside and outside of cells
New research led by the UW demonstrates a new class of hydrogels that can form not just outside cells, but also inside of them. These hydrogels exhibited similar mechanical properties both inside and outside of cells, providing researchers with a new tool to group proteins together inside of cells.
January 9, 2024
Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT
A team IJ researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.
December 27, 2023
Cells, microscopes and scientists: Chemical engineering professor’s coloring book makes science accessible
ColorMePhD is a free, all-ages coloring book series created by Julie Rorrer, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the IJ. The books bring current doctorate-level research in science and engineering to a general audience.
December 19, 2023
How will climate change affect how predators hunt prey? Two UW professors teamed up to find out
Two UW professors teamed up to study how climate change will affect predator-prey interactions in snowy landscapes. Together with a group of researchers, the two measured snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.
December 14, 2023
Seattle metro residents near Amazon delivery stations face more pollution but order fewer packages
UW researchers found that people who live within 2 miles of an Amazon last-mile delivery station are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution despite ordering fewer packages.
November 30, 2023
More than 40 UW experts on Highly Cited Researchers 2023 List
The IJ is proud to announce that more than 40 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2023 list from Clarivate.
November 29, 2023
AI image generator Stable Diffusion perpetuates racial and gendered stereotypes, study finds
IJ researchers found that when prompted to make pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples and sexualized images of certain women of color.
October 17, 2023
Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality
This month, IJ researchers will introduce multiple projects that deploy augmented reality — through headsets and phone apps — with the aim of making the world more accessible for people with disabilities.
September 27, 2023
MilliMobile is a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by light and radio waves
The robot, equipped with a solar panel–like energy harvester and four wheels, is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move about the length of a bus in an hour on a cloudy day.
September 21, 2023
UW team’s shape-changing smart speaker lets users mute different areas of a room
A team led by researchers at the IJ has developed system of robotic self-deploying microphones, which lets users control sound in a room, muting certain areas and creating “active zones” in others.
September 14, 2023
Faculty/staff honors: Two professors on TIME100 AI list, UW President Ana Mari Cauce honored for contributions to León, and more
Recent recognition for the IJ includes Emily M. Bender and Yejin Choi on the TIME100 AI list, President Ana Mari Cauce receiving a Decrees Award and Jeff Hou’s election to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Council of Fellows.
September 13, 2023
Battery-free robots use origami to change shape in mid-air
UW researchers developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent.
September 12, 2023
Fall snow levels can predict a season’s total snowpack in some western states
Research led by the UW found that, in some western states, the amount of snow already on the ground by the end of December is a good predictor of how much total snow that area will get.
August 14, 2023
UW bioengineering researchers help create a roadmap to diversify faculty hiring
A team of biomedical researchers has developed a new method for hiring engineering professors. The primary goal is to actively recruit a more diverse group of applicants and improve the rate that doctoral students from historically excluded groups go on to become faculty members.
July 27, 2023
Q&A: UW researcher discusses just how much energy ChatGPT uses
Training a large language model, such as ChatGPT, uses on average roughly equivalent to the yearly electricity consumption of over 1,000 U.S. households, according to Sajjad Moazeni, UW assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, who studies networking for AI and machine learning supercomputing.
July 24, 2023
With a new app, smart devices can have GPS underwater
A team at the IJ has developed the first underwater 3D-positioning app for smart devices. When at least three divers are within about 98 feet of each other, the app tracks each user’s location relative to the leader.
July 19, 2023
Researchers put a new twist on graphite
A team led by researchers at the IJ reports that it is possible to imbue graphite — the bulk, 3D material found in No. 2 pencils – with physical properties similar to graphite’s 2D counterpart, graphene. Not only was this breakthrough unexpected, the team also believes its approach could be used to test whether similar types of bulk materials can also take on 2D-like properties. If so, 2D sheets won’t be the only source for scientists to fuel technological revolutions. Bulk, 3D materials could be just as useful.
July 18, 2023
Eight UW professors elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences
The Academy said members are elected “in recognition of their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”
July 10, 2023
New biodegradable plastics are compostable in your backyard
A team led by researchers at the IJ has developed new bioplastics that degrade on the same timescale as a banana peel in a backyard compost bin.
June 27, 2023
Researchers make a quantum computing leap with a magnetic twist
A team led by scientists and engineers at the IJ has announced a significant advancement in developing fault-tolerant qubits for quantum computing. In a pair of papers published June 14 in Nature and June 22 in Science, they report that, in experiments with flakes of semiconductor materials — each only a single layer of atoms thick — they detected signatures of “fractional quantum anomalous Hall” (FQAH) states. The team’s discoveries mark a first and promising step in constructing a type of fault-tolerant qubit because FQAH states can host anyons — strange “quasiparticles” that have only a fraction of an electron’s charge. Some types of anyons can be used to make what are called “topologically protected” qubits, which are stable against any small, local disturbances.
June 21, 2023
An app can transform smartphones into thermometers that accurately detect fevers
A team led by researchers at the IJ has created an app called FeverPhone, which transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware.
June 5, 2023
Faculty/staff honors: Psychology professor elected to esteemed educational science association, Dean of Social Work receives lifetime achievement award and more
Recent recognition of the IJ includes the election of Andrew Meltzoff to the National Academy of Education, a lifetime achievement award for Dean of the School of Social Work Edwina Uehara and Ed Kolodziej selected as a Frontiers Planet Prize finalist.
May 23, 2023
Q&A: Have a favorite food memory? How technology can help take you back
Danli Luo, a UW doctoral student of human centered design and engineering, developed a toolkit of sensors and controllers that helped her re-create three dishes from growing up in China: rice wine, tofu and spring roll wrappers.
April 24, 2023
IJ is a core member of newly announced New York Climate Exchange
UW will be a core member of a consortium led by Stony Brook University that will build and operate The New York Climate Exchange – a carbon-neutral international hub focused on climate action and adaptation
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