The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering annually holds a ceremony to celebrate graduates from across our academic programs and recognize select students with awards for academic excellence, leadership, innovation, and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Graduating students may invite their friends and family; tickets are not required.
2026 Graduation & Awards Ceremony
Friday, June 12
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Husky Union Building (HUB) Ballroom, UW Seattle
Agenda
| 9 a.m. | Graduating student check-in begins |
| 9:30 a.m. | Doors open for families and friends |
| 10 a.m. | Graduation ceremony + Welcome remarks by HCDE Professor & Chair Julie Kientz + Graduation address by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar + Recognition of graduates + Presentation of awards |
| 12 p.m. | Conclusion |
2026 guest graduation speaker
Ram Shankar Siva Kumar
Data Cowboy at Microsoft | Author of "Not With A Bug"
Ram Shankar Siva Kumar is a Data Cowboy working on the intersection of machine learning and security. At Microsoft, he founded the AI Red Team, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and engineers to proactively attack AI systems and defend from attacks.
His recent book on attacking AI systems, NOT WITH A BUG has been called “Essential Reading” by Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer and received wide praise from industry leaders at DeepMind, OpenAI as well as policy makers and academia. He is donating his proceeds of the book royalty to Black In AI.
His work on AI and Security has appeared in industry conferences like RSA, BlackHat, Defcon, BlueHat, DerbyCon, MIRCon, Infiltrate, academic workshops at NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, IEEE S&P, ACM - CCS. His work has been covered by Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Wired, and Geekwire. He founded the Adversarial ML Threat Matrix, an ATT&CK style framework enumerating threats to machine learning. His work on adversarial machine learning appeared notably in the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) Final report presented to the United States Congress and the President.
He is currently a Tech Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he is broadly investigating two questions: How do we assess the safety of ML systems? What are the policy and legal ramifications of AI, in the context of security? He is also a Technical Advisory Board Member at the University of Washington.
Information for graduating students
RSVP for the HCDE graduation ceremony
The HCDE Graduation RSVP form is open. All HCDE BS, MS, and PhD students graduating Autumn 2025 through Summer 2026 should complete the form by May 26 to:
- Confirm participation in the ceremony
- Indicate how their name should appear in the printed program
Graduate degree & MyGrad deadlines
- MS students
Students graduating in spring quarter must have requested their degree in MyGrad by April 17. The Spring graduation request opens March 30. - PhD students
PhD students must have scheduled their doctoral exam in MyGrad by April 17.
Regalia
Wearing regalia is traditional but not required. Students may order regalia through the UW regalia order form (available May 11 - 24). Need help? Watch this video for instructions on how to wear your cap, gown, and hood.
- Engineering undergraduates wear orange tassels.
- Master’s students wear orange hoods.
- MS and PhD graduates carry their hood draped over their left arm and hand it to a faculty member during the ceremony.
Information for guests
Directions & Parking
Plan your visit to the HUB by car, transit, or bike. The closest public parking is in Padelford Garage.
Guest entry
- No tickets are required — students may invite as many guests as they’d like. Seating is first come, first served, and guests are encouraged to arrive early. Available seats may fill and guests may be asked to stand off to the sides of the room.
- Ushers will guide guests to seating. For safety reasons, standing room is not permitted along the back of the room unless accommodations were requested in advance by the graduates.
- Accessible seating is available near the front of the venue for guests with a disability. One additional guest may sit with each person who requires disability seating.
Order of ceremony
- Student check-in begins at 9 a.m. in the HUB South Ballroom
- Guest entry begins at 9:30 a.m. through the main ballroom doors
- Graduates will be seated together in the center of the ballroom, grouped by degree program (BS, MS, PhD)
- Please note: No food or refreshments will be provided. There is a convenience store and coffee shop on the HUB ground floor.
Prohibited items
- Bullhorns, megaphones, whistles, or other sound amplification devices.
- Signs larger than 24” x 24.”
- Guests with signs or balloons are asked to stay near the back of the room to avoid blocking views.
Ceremony recording
A recording of the ceremony will be posted on HCDE’s Youtube channel by Wednesday, June 17.