With apps and activity trackers measuring every step people take, morsel they eat, and each symptom or pain, patients commonly arrive at doctor’s offices armed with self-tracked data. Yet health care providers lack the capacity or tools to review five years of Fitbit logs or instantaneously interpret data patients have been collecting about themselves, according to new ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø research.
Pakistan’s water managers are using NASA satellites to more effectively monitor groundwater supplies, thanks to a partnership with ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø civil and environmental engineers. It’s part of a larger effort to use the vast amount of data and observations collected by Earth-orbiting satellites to better quality of life in developing countries.
Driverless vehicles could intensify car use — reducing or even eliminating promised energy savings and environmental benefits, a new study co-authored by a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø researcher finds. If people can work, relax and even hold meetings in their fully automated vehicles, they may drive more.
A more efficient and clean wood-burning cookstove — developed by Vashon Island’s BURN Design Lab and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø mechanical engineers — will reduce the amount of fuel families need to collect or buy by 55 percent. It will also reduce exposure to the harmful particulate pollution produced by traditional cooking flames.
With “Passive Wi-Fi,” ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø computer scientists and electrical engineers have generated Wi-Fi transmissions using 10,000 times less power than conventional methods. The system can transmit Wi-Fi signals at rates up to 11 megabits per second — lower than maximum Wi-Fi speeds but 11 times faster than Bluetooth — that can be decoded on any of the billions of devices with Wi-Fi connectivity.
Four faculty members at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 23, include Bingni Brunton, assistant professor of biology; Christopher Laumann, assistant professor of physics; Matthew McQuinn, assistant professor of astronomy; and Emina Torlak, assistant professor of computer science and engineering. The 126 Sloan Fellows for 2016 were nominated by senior colleagues in their field, department or institution. Committees with the Sloan Foundation then examined each…
Three members of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø faculty have received the 2016 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early-career scientists and engineers.
Tom Anderson, a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø professor of computer science and engineering and alumnus, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Also elected are ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø civil engineering alumnus Jon Magnusson and computer science alumnus Albert Greenberg.
Pursuing scientific or engineering careers in industry, government or private research after getting a Ph.D. used to be considered a one-way ticket out of academia. But new ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø research finds numerous benefits — to students, researchers and academic institutions looking to diversify their faculty — in making that return trip easier.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø mechanical engineers are developing a handheld microscope to help doctors and dentists distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells in an office setting or operating room.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø transportation engineers have developed an inexpensive system to sense Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals from bus passengers’ mobile devices and collect data to build better transit systems.
A new laser mapping technology and smartphone app developed by ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø electrical engineers allows you to point your phone at a plate of food and get an estimate of the total calories and nutrition.
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø is home to 26 researchers included on Thomson Reuters’ list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” for 2015, which was released Jan. 14. The distinction, based on an analysis of over a decade of research paper citations among 21 general scientific fields, is meant to recognize scientists who are most cited by their peers.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø computer scientists, with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are launching a new research group to develop technological solutions that will make financial products more available to the lowest-income people around the world.
In December, the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø’s Department of Bioengineering began accepting applications for its newest graduate degree program, the Master of Applied Bioengineering. The one-year, full-time program begins in August, and will train students to apply engineering design and entrepreneurship skills to address unmet clinical needs and to transform biomedical research into technologies for improving health care. The degree will position graduates to respond to market-based demands of industry, medicine and translational research.
Three scientists at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø have proposed a way to speed up common bioassays used in research and diagnostics. Their solution, reminiscent of the magic behind washing machines, could reduce wait times to a fraction of what they once were. As they report in the journal Small, biological assays that once took hours could instead take minutes.
The built environment influences decisions to walk or bike differently for lower- and higher-income groups, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø researchers have found. Neighborhood density, accessible destinations and fewer vehicles were associated with more walking and biking in lower-income groups, while neighborhood attractiveness was relevant for higher-income groups.
DO-IT, a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø program, is looking for high school students with disabilities to apply to be program scholars. Applicants must be a current high school sophomore or junior in Washington, have an aptitude and interest in attending college, have any disability, and must be motivated to participate and interested in interacting with other students with a variety of disabilities. The application can be found online. Applicants who are selected as DO-IT scholars are loaned computers and adaptive technology needed to…
From a new president and lasers cooling liquids to spotting rare sea creatures and major collaborations, great things have happened at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø in 2015. Here’s a look back at the top stories of the year. These stories were chosen based on the total number of views they received on our website and are not in any particular order. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Regents name Ana Mari Cauce president October 13, 2015 The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Board of Regents selected Interim President Ana Mari Cauce to be…
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering has won a $16M NSF grant to develop the first implantable device to reanimate paralyzed limbs and restore motor function in stroke or spinal cord injury patients.
Forests help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by storing it in trees, but a sizeable amount of the greenhouse gas actually escapes through the soil and into rivers and streams, a new paper finds.
A new ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø study finds that fuel efficiency improvements needed to meet U.S. climate commitments are on par with what the auto industry delivered in the 1970s and 1980s.
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø will offer a new Master of Science in Data Science program to provide students with advanced technical expertise in managing, modeling and visualizing big data to meet the growing needs of industry and research.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø researchers have reconstructed 3-D models of celebrities such as Tom Hanks from large Internet photo collections. The model can deliver speeches that the real actor never performed – one step toward developing fully interactive digital personas of people from family or historic photo collections.
A collaboration between ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø developmental psychologists and computer scientists has demonstrated that robots can “learn” much like babies – by experiencing the world and eventually imitating humans.
The Power Over Wi-Fi (PoWiFi) system developed by ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø engineers is one of the most innovative and game-changing technologies of the year, according to Popular Science, which included it in the magazine’s annual “Best of What’s New” awards announced this week.
Since the first laser was invented in 1960, they’ve always given off heat. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø researchers are the first to solve a decades-old puzzle — figuring out how to make a laser refrigerate water and other liquids.
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø held its first ever Innovation Summit today in Shanghai, China. The event brought together industry leaders from China and the United States, who discussed how they are turning ideas into impact, connecting academia to industry and helping solve the world’s most pressing problems.
The National Science Foundation has selected the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, along with the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Berkeley, to co-lead one of four Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs around the country.
By more accurately predicting how variations in DNA sequences affect gene splicing, a new ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø model and publicly available Web tool can help narrow down which genetic mutations cause disease and which have little effect on a person’s health.
Peering into a grocery store bin, it’s hard to tell if a peach or tomato or avocado is starting to go bad underneath its skin. A new affordable hyperspectral camera technology developed by ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and Microsoft Research uses both visible and invisible near-infrared light to “see” beneath surfaces and capture hidden details.
A ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø otolaryngology resident and bioengineering student have used 3-D printing techniques to create lifelike models to help aspiring surgeons – who currently practice on soap, apples, and vegetables – learn to perform ear reconstruction surgeries.
Computer scientist and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø alumnus Christopher Ré is one of 24 recipients of “genius” grants this year from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the organization announced Sept. 28. Ré, an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University, pursues new approaches to help computers analyze large, complex datasets. The diverse array of applications for Ré’s approach range from discovering new drugs to fighting human trafficking. “He has taken the area of database research to a…
A new ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø study that tested 65 wines from America’s top four wine-producing states — California, Washington, New York and Oregon — found all but one have arsenic levels that exceed what’s allowed in drinking water. But health risks from that toxic element depend on what else a person is eating.
Leaders from the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of China’s most prestigious public research universities, signed an agreement Wednesday to work together on “smart cities” research, teaching and collaborations in their respective electrical engineering departments.
The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø computer scientists have created an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can solve SAT geometry questions as well as the average American 11th-grade student, a breakthrough in AI research.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø CSE professor Pedro Domingos’ book “The Master Algorithm” is an essential primer on machine learning, and a popular science romp through one of today’s hottest scientific topics.. It unveils the deep ideas behind the algorithms that increasingly pick our books, find our dates, manage investments and run our lives — and what informed consumers ought to know about them.
Polly Myers is a lecturer in the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Department of History and author of the book “Capitalist Family Values: Gender, Work, and Corporate Culture at Boeing,” published by University of Nebraska Press.
A new wearable technology developed at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø called MagnifiSense can sense what devices and vehicles its user interacts with, which can help track that individual’s carbon footprint, enable smart home applications or even assist with elder care.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø machine learning researchers have developed a new approach to optimization – a key step in predicting everything from election results to how proteins will fold – that won a top paper prize at the world’s largest artificial intelligence conference.