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November 18, 2024

Q&A: UW professor discusses how academia can help battery manufacturing in the US

Two lithium ion batterys on a conveyer belt

Jie Xiao, 天美传媒 professor of mechanical engineering, talks about batteries and how academia can help support the growing domestic battery manufacturing industry.


Q&A: A new medical AI model can help spot systemic disease by looking at a range of image types

UW assistant professor Sheng Wang discusses BiomedParse, an AI medical image analysis model that works across nine types of medical images to better predict systemic diseases. Medical professionals can load images into the system and ask the AI tool questions about them in plain English.


November 5, 2024

What UW political experts will be watching for on Election Day

Black and red hands holding voting slips in the air in front of a white background

Before the results of the 2024 election start rolling in, UW News asked three 天美传媒 professors of political science to discuss what鈥檚 on their minds heading into the final hours.


October 29, 2024

Q&A: After developing a better way to count homelessness, UW researchers discuss how more accurate data can help providers and people

Seattle buildings at sunset

America鈥檚 homeless services system relies on a massive amount of data, and at first glance, that data is exacting. Federal reports describe the country鈥檚 unhoused population in granular detail, listing precisely how many people are experiencing homelessness in each city along with detailed demographic data. Want to know how many people ages 55-64 slept outside…


October 4, 2024

Q&A: New dataset provides a robust picture of Hurricane Helene鈥檚 destruction 鈥 and could help design more resilient communities

A person on a beach holding a small white device attached to a pole

UW researchers collaborated with people at multiple institutions to collect pre-storm data and place sensors to measure storm surge levels and wave height during Hurricane Helene’s landfall.


September 23, 2024

Q&A: How the Remote Hub Lab can prepare engineering students for their future careers

A person with a virtual reality helmet on stands in front of a screen that showcases a virtual world with two buildings and a parking lot

The Remote Hub Lab allows students to access physical engineering equipment from anywhere in the world. A primary focus of the lab is to use a process called “digital twinning,” to create virtual models that mirror real-world systems, which enables students to experiment, learn and innovate in a risk-free, cost-effective environment.


September 17, 2024

AI researcher discusses the new version of ChatGPT鈥檚 advances in math and reasoning

Math equations written on glass.

Niloofar Mireshghallah, a UW postdoctoral scholar, discusses why math and reasoning have so challenged artificial intelligence models and what the public should know about OpenAI鈥檚 new release.


August 13, 2024

Q&A: Using marijuana can worsen outcomes for young adults with psychosis 鈥 how can mental health professionals help them stop?

A cropped shot of a person holding a marijuana plant.

Young adults with psychosis tend to use cannabis at extremely high rates, and their symptoms can be exacerbated by long-term marijuana use. A team of 天美传媒 researchers is focused on this particular group.聽


July 25, 2024

Q&A: Nail salon air is filled with fragrance chemicals 鈥 could they harm workers’ health?

A nail salon worker, left, gives a manicure to a client wearing a fluffy robe. Bottles of nail products are in the background.

A study led by UW researcher Diana Ceballos is most comprehensive study to date of the specific fragrance chemical mixtures found in nail salon air, and will allow researchers to further study the potential health risks. 聽


July 23, 2024

Q&A: UW researcher aims to understand common women’s sports injuries

A softball player's legs. The player has one foot on a base and one foot on the ground.

Several common injuries seem to haunt women’s sports. Jenny Robinson, a 天美传媒 assistant professor, is interested in designing better methods to help female athletes train to prevent and recover from injuries.


July 16, 2024

Q&A: The climate change toll on roads 鈥 two UW professors weigh in

A road with a field to the lefthand side. The sky is blue with some clouds.

Two 天美传媒 researchers are investigating how to mitigate the effects of climate change on common road pavements, such as asphalt and concrete.


July 1, 2024

Q&A: How the H5N1 bird flu outbreak could become humanity’s problem

Hundreds of small, white chickens stand on the floor of a large barn.

A major outbreak of a new strain of bird flu 鈥 formally named Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 鈥 has killed millions of wild birds and infected poultry, dairy cattle, domestic cats and a small number of humans.聽UW experts explain how bird flu evolves and what it could mean for humans.


June 11, 2024

Q&A: Why social media rarely leads to constructive political action

A book cover with clouds and the phrase "Log Off" at the center.

But in her new book 鈥淟og Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,鈥 Katherine Cross, a UW doctoral student in the Information School, argues that social media has limited political value.


April 24, 2024

Q&A: How TikTok鈥檚 鈥榖lack box鈥 algorithm and design shape user behavior

A hand holds a smartphone with the TikTok app open.

Franziska Roesner, a 天美传媒 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 23, 2024

Q&A: UW research shows neural connection between learning a second language and learning to code

Closeup of woman with glasses looking at code. The code is reflected in her glasses.

New research from the 天美传媒 shows the brain鈥檚 response to viewing errors in both the syntax (form) and semantics (meaning) of code appeared identical to those that occur when fluent readers process sentences on a word-by-word basis, supporting a resemblance between how people learn computer and natural languages.


March 28, 2024

Q&A: How to train AI when you don’t have enough data

A drawing of dots connected to lines

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, 天美传媒 professor of electrical and computer and engineering, specializes in these issues.


Q&A: UW researcher discusses the vital role of Indigenous librarians

Shelves of library books are out of focus, except for a few books in the center of the frame. Behind them, a window sheds bright light.

Sandy Littletree, a UW assistant professor in the Information School, discusses the importance of working Indigenous ways of knowing into libraries, archives and data repositories.


March 11, 2024

Q&A: How Instagram influencers profit from anti-vaccine misinformation

A person's hand holds a smartphone, with the Instagram analytics page open. There's a green plant in the background.

New research from the UW examines how three wellness Instagram influencers profited from anti-vaccine misinformation.


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 15, 2024

Q&A: What is the best route to fairer AI systems?

Two people's hands gesture to pieces of paper between two laptops on a desk.

Mike Teodorescu, a 天美传媒 assistant professor in the Information School, proposes that private enterprise standards for fairer machine learning systems would inform governmental regulation.


February 7, 2024

Q&A: Helping robots identify objects in cluttered spaces

A shelf in a lab. The shelf contains the following items: a pitcher on its side, a bowl in front of a bottle of Soft Scrub, a mug on a plate and a spoon balanced on the plate. Everything except the plate has a green box around it. The plate has a red box around it.

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 天美传媒 have developed a way to teach robots this skill.


January 9, 2024

Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT

A cellphone running ChatGPT sits on a textbook that's slightly out of focus.

A team 天美传媒 researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.


November 16, 2023

Q&A: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals

An assistive-feeding robotic arm attached to a wheelchair uses a fork to stab a piece of fruit on a plate among other fruits.

A team led by researchers at the 天美传媒 developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.


October 25, 2023

UW experts offer hot takes on El Ni帽o, weather and ocean temperatures

map of global oceans with red spots in Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean

Five 天美传媒 experts comment on the current El Ni帽o, its effect on Pacific Northwest winter weather, as well as on regional and global ocean temperature trends.


October 24, 2023

How can social media be better? Four UW researchers compare strategies

A silhouette of a person looking at a phone.

The turmoil at large tech platforms has many people reconsidering what they want out of social media. Four researchers at the 天美传媒 are exploring different approaches to improve people’s experiences.


October 17, 2023

Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality

A drawing of a phone labeling accessibility problems in a kitchen.

This month, 天美传媒 researchers will introduce multiple projects that deploy augmented reality 鈥 through headsets and phone apps 鈥 with the aim of making the world more accessible for people with disabilities.


September 22, 2023

Q&A: How new software is changing our understanding of human brain development

An MRI image of a baby's brain

A team including researchers at the 天美传媒 recently used new software to compare MRIs from 300 babies and discovered that myelin, a part of the brain鈥檚 so-called white matter, develops much slower after birth.


September 6, 2023

Q&A: Older adults want more say in companion robots, AI and data collection

An older person's hand is held by a younger person's hand.

Clara Berridge, associate professor of social work at the 天美传媒, discusses her research into how older adults feel about technology that’s marketed for their safety and security, such as location trackers and companion robots.


August 16, 2023

Q&A: As AI changes education, important conversations for kids still happen off-screen

Jason Yip, a UW associate professor in the Information School, discusses how parents and schools can adapt to new technologies in ways that support children’s learning.


August 9, 2023

In the Field: UW team to spend six weeks visiting deep-ocean observatory

ship by dock in morning sun

Twenty-five undergraduates are among the participants on a 41-day cruise off the Oregon coast aboard the UW’s large research vessel, the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. Principal investigator Deborah Kelley, professor of oceanography, answers questions about the expedition to visit and maintain the cabled ocean observatory.


July 27, 2023

Q&A: UW researcher discusses just how much energy ChatGPT uses

A hand holding a phone that has ChatGPT on the screen

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.


May 31, 2023

UW researcher discusses the buzz behind ‘Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’

A screenshot of Zelda protagonist Link standing outside the Shrine of Resurrection in the "Tears of the Kingdom" game

UW News sat down with Michele Newman, a 天美传媒 doctoral student in the Information School, to learn more about fans’ dedication to “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”


May 23, 2023

Q&A: Have a favorite food memory? How technology can help take you back

A hand holding a spring roll open in the palm. Inside the spring roll are noodles and finely chopped vegetables. Behind the hand is a plate containing more vegetables.

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 19, 2023

Q&A: Two ways UW researchers are studying marine microplastics

microplastics seen in a water tank

Two 天美传媒 researchers are using very different methods to investigate the issue of marine microplastics. For Earth Day, UW News asked them to discuss their research.


April 10, 2023

Beyond Trump 鈥 UW political scientists on the legacy of the indictment on the U.S. presidency

The indictment of former President Trump isn’t just about an individual but about the office of the presidency, and what the country is willing to accept from its leaders, say 天美传媒 political scientists James Long and Victor Menaldo,


March 16, 2023

Q&A: Navajo Nation water rights case an opportunity to reaffirm treaty obligations, UW law professor says

Monte Mills, professor of law at the 天美传媒 and director of the UW Native American Law Center, discusses the significance of Arizona v. Navajo Nation, a water rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.


February 9, 2023

UW experts discuss the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Three 天美传媒 experts have provided quotes in response to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday morning.


February 8, 2023

Q&A: UW researcher discusses future of quantum research

Kai-Mei Fu headshot

Scientists at the 天美传媒 are pursuing multiple quantum research projects spanning from creating materials with never-before-seen physical properties to studying the 鈥渜uantum bits鈥 鈥 or qubits (pronounced “kyu-bits”) 鈥 that make quantum computing possible. UW News sat down with Professor Kai-Mei Fu, one of the leaders in quantum research on campus, to talk about the potential of quantum R&D, and why it鈥檚 so important.


January 23, 2023

Q&A: How AI can help people be more empathetic about mental health

A team led by researchers at the 天美传媒 studied how artificial intelligence could help people on the platform TalkLife, where people give each other mental health support. The researchers developed an AI system that suggested changes to participants’ responses to make them more empathetic. The best responses resulted from a collaboration between AI and people.


November 21, 2022

Q&A: Managing Washington鈥檚 gray wolf population 鈥 through fear

gray wolf looking at the camera

Wolf management in Washington has been controversial. Rob Anderson, who obtained his Ph.D. at the 天美传媒, explains the dynamic of managing a species through fear.



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