More than 40 91爆料 students will compete in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge 2015. It asks students from around the state to identify an environmental problem, develop a solution, build a prototype and sell their idea to judges. Twenty-two interdisciplinary student teams will pitch and demonstrate their solutions April 2 at an invitation-only daylong event. The competition challenges students to come up with “clean-tech innovations” that reduce waste, minimize energy consumption or contribute to a healthier planet….
91爆料 News blog
The Labor Archives of Washington, part of 91爆料 Libraries Special Collections Department, is creating an online resource called the Minimum Wage History Project to document the 2013-2014 campaign that succeeded in mandating a $15 minimum hourly wage in the cities of Seattle and Sea-Tac. The effort kicks off with a public program, “Preserving Solidarity Forever: The Minimum Wage History Project,” 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 11, in Kane Hall’s Walker-Ames Room. James Gregory, 91爆料 professor of history, will speak,…
No one would argue that exposing children to secondhand smoke is bad, but should it be considered child abuse? Taryn Lindhorst, a 91爆料 associate professor of social work, says no. In an opinion piece published online in the Annals of Family Medicine earlier this month, Lindhorst argues that treating children’s exposure to secondhand smoke as child abuse and reporting parents to authorities takes a punitive approach to addiction and harms both children and families. “Removing kids from their families, their…
Years ago, a fellow educator made a comment that stuck in Christine Stickler’s head. University students don’t need to travel to a foreign country for spring break to immerse themselves in another culture, she said 鈥� they can do that right here in Washington state. That observation led Stickler to launch the 91爆料’s Alternative Spring Break program, which sends out teams of undergraduates to small rural and tribal communities throughout Washington to work with elementary and middle school students on…
The 91爆料’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Everett-based company OceanGate this month unveiled the first model of its joint project to build a new type of submarine for human research and exploration in the deep sea. Cyclops 1 was a developed over the past year and a half in the Applied Physics Lab’s co-laboratory space down by the Ship Canal. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush introduced the vessel and gave tours of the inside March 11 on the dock of…
The 91爆料’s latest step toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 came last week, with the release of its Climate Action Strategy for Transportation, or CAST. The CAST follows the 91爆料 Climate Action Plan, a set of broad strategies to guide the 91爆料 to the goal of carbon neutrality that was released in 2009. The CAST suggests specific actions for reducing emissions in the transportation sector. 鈥淭his represents an important step toward strategically reducing a significant portion…
Norman J. Johnston will be remembered as a dedicated and community-minded architect, city planner, teacher and critic. He died Monday, March 16, 2015, in his Seattle home. He was 96. Memorial for Norman J. Johnston 2 p.m. Sunday, May 31, 91爆料 Club. Johnston earned a bachelor’s degree in art from the 91爆料 in 1942. He returned to the campus in 1960 as a faculty member in architecture and urban planning, and taught until his retirement in…
Members of the 91爆料 community are invited to a free daylong conference for technology professionals at the 2015 91爆料 TechConnect Conference on March 24. Explore, learn and connect with other IT colleagues and choose from a dozen presentations about the future of information technology at the 91爆料 鈥� from human resources and payroll modernization to accessibility and the latest in computer networking. Keynote speakers start the day with a presentation at 8:30 a.m. by 91爆料 Vice Provost for Innovation Vikram…
Attorney General Bob Ferguson has appointed Senior Counsel Karin Nyrop as the new chief of his office’s 91爆料 Division. The division provides legal services to the university, including 91爆料 Bothell, 91爆料 Tacoma and the 91爆料 Medical Center. “The 91爆料 will be well served by Karin’s impressive combination of legal expertise, leadership experience, personal achievements and demonstrated commitment to public service,” said Ferguson in a statement. Nyrop brings 30 years of legal experience to this position. She…
91爆料 Libraries has opened up a new multimedia space on the third floor of Allen library for the use of students, faculty and staff. It’s called the mediArcade, and is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to those with a Husky card. With iMacs, large televisions and DVDs, video game consoles, several media editing programs and even VHS playback, 91爆料 community members can use the room to watch videos and listen to music, or to create and edit their…
One of modern science’s grand challenges is understanding how the human brain actually works 鈥� from cataloging millions of individual cells to figuring out how the circuitry that underlies our thoughts and actions decodes information. By deconstructing these intricate processes, engineers can use the human brain to build everything from smarter computers to better speech recognition programs to artificial limbs that can “recognize” thoughts. Some of the 91爆料’s leading experts on this process 鈥� called “Reverse- Engineering the…
Blossom update: 100 percent in bloom as of聽March 14. Follow聽@uwcherryblossom聽for more info. The cherry trees in the Quad at the 91爆料聽reached full bloom March 14. Exact timing always depends on the weather 鈥� if we have sunny, warm days, the trees reach full bloom faster, but colder weather stretches out the timing. Still, full bloom by mid-March is about a week earlier than most years, according to Sara Shores, the 91爆料 arborist. Depending on the weather, the blossoms will likely…
Online education has great potential to improve lives, but few people in developing countries have access to such classes. The 91爆料 Information School’s Technology & Social Change Group will conduct research as part of a $1.55 million multiagency initiative to study and address this need. The project will include research on online course enrollment in Colombia, the Philippines and South Africa, and is being conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development together with Coursetalk.com, the largest source of online…
A document from the 91爆料 Sephardic Studies Program‘s Digital Library and Museum appears in a new PBS documentary called “The Jewish Journey: America.” The documentary will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 16, on KBTC, Tacoma’s public broadcasting station, and is now available for viewing online as well. The hour-long film, directed by Emmy-winner Andrew Goldberg, traces Jewish immigration to America over five centuries, using the perspectives of immigrants, historians and Jewish-American writers. The film’s producers contacted Devin Naar,…
No matter what your business 鈥� from a nonprofit museum that wants to deepen visitor engagement to a chain store looking for new markets 鈥� it鈥檚 essential to be able to extract meaningful patterns and results from often massive reservoirs of data. Improving this “art and science” of data analysis, reporting and visualization is the focus of the DRIVE/conference developed by the 91爆料, which will draw more than 700 IT and data professionals to Seattle and Bellevue on…
New research from the 91爆料 College of Built Environments on the “spatial clustering of obesity” in urban areas has helped clarify and build upon work a 2007 study began. The takeaway, in brief: In King County, Washington, at least, low property values match with high body-mass indexes, or BMIs in less diverse, lower-income South King County, and higher property values match with low BMIs in more populous, prosperous North King County. Body-mass indexes are a measure of a person’s relative…
The power of social media in fueling movements such as Black Lives Matter, the racial justice campaign sprung from last year’s protests in Ferguson, Missouri, has become increasingly evident in recent years. Recognition of those grassroots efforts is the focus of the fifth annual Women Who Rock “unconference” event, to be held Saturday, March 7, at Rainier Valley Cultural Center in South Seattle. The event’s theme, Rocking Media Justice, celebrates the use of social media to document the realities of…
Take five minutes and experience the life of a rocket scientist building a prototype to bring back samples of objects in space. In these tests, success is nose-diving into the California desert, which stands in for the surface of an asteroid. In the “Asteroid Sampler” video, which aired Jan. 15 on Discovery Channel Canada, a 91爆料 team of faculty, graduate students and undergraduates launched a new type of rocket in California. The work is part of a NASA-funded project to…
Seattle’s first-ever “Handathon” will bring together students, faculty and clinicians in a hackathon-style, 24-hour event that challenges two dozen graduate and undergraduate students to design creative improvements to an existing 3-D printed prosthetic hand. Research teams from the 91爆料, 91爆料 Bothell and Seattle Pacific University have been designing and printing prosthetic hands, and now they’re hoping a larger community of students can help improve the design with a little friendly competition. “We are hoping for lots of fun,…
What does climate change mean to you, in three minutes or less? That’s what the 91爆料’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences is asking all high school and undergraduate students in the state of Washington in a video competition that will award up to $5,000 to the top entries in each age category. The 91爆料 Climate Change Video Contest, running now until April 13, is open to any student in the state who wants to enter as an individual or…
Fendall Yerxa, a former faculty member in the Department of Communication, died in October 2014 at the age of 101. He is remembered as a patient teacher and an insightful and highly professional old-school journalist. He worked as Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The New York Times and managing editor of the International Herald Tribune. He anchored ABC News and even hosted his own television magazine-style program. He was an on-air news analyst for KOMO News in Seattle. And he…
Polar Science Weekend, held in partnership with the 91爆料 Applied Physics Laboratory, blows into the Pacific Science Center this Friday through Sunday. For the 10th year, this event will give visitors a taste of exploration at the ends of the Earth. Discover why polar regions are crucial to climate change, examine real ice cores from Greenland, and learn about penguins and narwhals from some of the world’s experts. The schedule includes presentations, exhibits and demonstrations for all ages. This year…
The possibility of longtime prisoners being released from prison and leading happy, productive lives may seem unlikely. But a new radio documentary project aims to dispel that perception. The Rethinking Punishment Radio Project is a collaboration between 91爆料 professor Katherine Beckett and two radio journalists from the University of British Columbia. The first episode, which aired Feb. 25 on the Cited podcast, tells the story of Jeff Coats, who served 17 years in adult prison for charges including robbery and…
Five 91爆料 professors have received the 2015 Sloan Research Fellowships that honor early career scientists and scholars who are seen as rising stars in their fields. The 91爆料’s winners are Brandi Cossairt, assistant professor of chemistry; Cole Trapnell, assistant professor of genome sciences; Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; Emily Fox, assistant professor of statistics; and Thomas Rothvoss, assistant professor of computer science and engineering and of mathematics. Each faculty member will receive $50,000 from…
In the first half of her March 2 faculty recital in Meany Hall titled “Around Robin,” Robin McCabe will play a well-loved piano suite by French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel. And then in the second half, things are going to get a little nutty. McCabe, 91爆料 professor of piano, said she’ll start with Ravel’s “Miroirs,” which she calls “very evocative, heady music, and a nice foil for the antics of the second half.” And by antics, she means second-half performances…
Factors affecting the quality of life for marginalized populations are the focus of a three-part 91爆料 lecture series that starts tomorrow. The 10th Annual Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lectures presents, “The Psychological Science of Inequity and Inequality,” bringing together faculty from the 91爆料 Department of Psychology with national experts for the free public talks. The first, at 7 p.m. Feb. 18, is titled “Implicit Bias: How Should Psychological Science Inform the Law?” and features 91爆料 psychology professor Anthony Greenwald and…
The 91爆料 College of Built Environments has added two names to the Roll of Honor located in the auditorium of Architecture Hall 鈥� Roland Terry and Grant Jones. A celebration for the two honorees will take place April 29. Terry was a Seattle architect committed to artistry appropriate to its regional setting who also played a role in developing the regional version of Modernism. His buildings, which include Washington Park Towers in Seattle, Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore…
The 91爆料 has chosen 14 researchers across campus to receive this year’s 91爆料 Innovation Awards. The awards are given to encourage early and mid-career scientists to pursue projects that may not yet qualify for outside funding, but show future promise and will engage students in innovative, creative work. “These are some of the most creative thinkers in our midst and are at the heart of the 91爆料鈥檚 innovation ecosystem. We congratulate them for fueling the innovative research and…
There is a widely recognized gender gap in the English language Wikipedia. Two members of the campus community are teaming to offer a four-hour hands-on workshop and discussion to bring feminist dialogues and theory to the information website, the seventh most-viewed in the United States. The event, titled “I Love To You: Critical Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,” will be from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, in the 91爆料 Research Commons. It is being organized by Amanda Menking, a doctoral…
Pardon, Princeton. Step aside, Harvard. Maybe next time, Yale and Columbia 鈥� this one’s going to the 91爆料 Department of English. 91爆料 colleges and departments are often named among the best in the country for science, technology and research. But the latest ranking has more to do with semi-colons than computer algorithms: USA Today has named the 91爆料 English Department as the third-best in the country for English majors. “The university challenges students to view the world through…
The Green Seed Fund, a grant fund for sustainability research projects at the 91爆料, will award money to six projects that contribute to the university’s sustainability goals, are well-planned and achievable and will help the 91爆料 reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The six winning projects for 2015 will share about $250,000 in grant money and were chosen by a committee of students, faculty and staff. The projects are: Carbon challenge: Footprint reduction through curricular development and community building: This 91爆料…
Amy Snover, director of the 91爆料’s Climate Impacts Group and assistant dean for applied research in the 91爆料’s College of the Environment, has been named a White House Champions of Change for her work in promoting climate education and literacy. She will be honored during a ceremony Monday at the White House from 10 a.m. 鈥� noon Pacific Time. The event includes a panel discussion where participants will talk about their work and the challenges and opportunities they encountered. The…
Laurie Olin, teacher, artist, innovator and one of landscape architecture’s most famous names, will return to his alma mater to deliver the College of Built Environments’ 2015 Dean鈥檚 Distinguished Lecture at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Architecture Hall. His talk will be titled “Global, Regional, Local; Working Toward a Meaningful Landscape.” Olin is known for his design of Battery Park City and Bryant Park in New York City, as well as the London’s Bishopsgate, the outdoor sculpture garden at…
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has worked for years with the 91爆料 Information School‘s Technology & Social Change Group on the foundation’s multi-year Global Libraries Initiative, dedicated to improving digital connectivity around the world. The Gates Foundation announced in May 2014 that the initiative is entering a three- to five-year winding-down phase and is creating a “legacy strategy” to help leave the library field in strong shape after that time. The strategy is still being drafted, but…
Are you a 91爆料 alum or other local educator who’s passionate about your work and willing to talk publicly about it? The 91爆料 College of Education and the Seattle Times are hosting a storytelling event at the university on Feb. 25 and are looking for a handful of teachers to share five-minute personal stories onstage. To be considered, call the Seattle Times at 206-464-2057 and leave a two-minute, condensed version of your story and your full name, phone number and…
A recent study found that graduates of the 91爆料’s two early-entrance university programs excelled in their academic and subsequent professional lives. The study was published in January in Roeper Review, a publication focused on education for gifted students. It looked at the academic, professional and personal outcomes for 192 students in the 91爆料 Early Entrance Program, which started in 1977 and enrolls students as young as age 13, and 91爆料 Academy, an early admission program started in 2001….
The 2015 Super Bowl just got serious, because now it involves a bet over delicious seafood between dining services at the 91爆料 and the University of Massachusetts. UMass threw down the gauntlet, in the form of lobster, and the 91爆料 responded with crab. Here’s the bet: If the Seahawks win, UMass will provide a seafood dinner 鈥� a clambake of lobster, clams, steamers, corn and Boston cream pie 鈥� for eight lucky students in 91爆料 housing chosen at…
Three members of the 91爆料 College of the Environment are among the first 20 recipients of a Wilburforce Fellowship, a new year-long training for conservation scientists in Western North America. The year-long program provides communication and leadership training to help build a community of conservation scientists and encourage them to reach beyond the scientific audiences. The three 91爆料 fellows are: Jonathan Bakker, an associate professor in the 91爆料’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences who works on the restoration of…
The 91爆料’s eScience Institute and GitHub, a code-sharing and publishing service, are hosting a town hall discussion on campus 6-9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, to talk about the role of software in academic research today. Six panelists will give short presentations, followed by a discussion moderated by Arfon Smith with GitHub. Dan Halperin, director of research in scalable data analytics at 91爆料’s eScience Institute, and Marina Meila, a 91爆料 associate professor of statistics, will join other speakers from…
All faculty are invited to a town hall discussion of the proposed new faculty salary policy at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Walker Ames Room (225) in Kane Hall. The first half of the program will be devoted to a panel discussion and debate of the major arguments for and against the policy that have emerged so far. The five faculty panelists and the moderator come from diverse units: 聽Arts & Sciences, Medicine, Business, Public Health, 91爆料 Bothell,…