Thu, 11/08/2018

HCDE PhD student Cynthia Bennett received the Best Student Paper Award at the 20th International Conference on Computers and Accessibility for her paper, "Interdependence as a Frame for Assistive Technology Research and Design."

Wed, 11/07/2018

Human Centered Design & Engineering three-time alumnus Alex Thayer (PhD, '12; MS, '04; BS '00), Chief Experience Architect and Director of the Immersive Experiences Lab at HP, returned to campus in October 2018 to deliver a talk for the UW DUB community.

Tue, 10/09/2018 | UW Engineering

HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird analyzes how false information spreads online. In a new interview with the College of Engineering, Starbird describes what it’s like to study information that’s disseminated to mislead, how it affects all of us, and how to be a savvier consumer of online content.

Tue, 08/21/2018 | College of Engineering

The College of Engineering highlights Meal Matchup, a project co-led by HCDE student Madison Holbrook (BS '18) and Lecturer Irini Spyridakis (MS '10) to pair excess food from UW dining halls with community agencies in need. The Meal Matchup pilot rolled out in May 2018. "The best part of this project is knowing you can dream up an idea, communicate it, find interested people, and develop something that will actually make a difference," Holbrook said.

Tue, 08/14/2018

HCDE Assistant Professor ​Leah Findlater has been selected to receive a Mozilla Research Grant for her project "Task-Appropriate Synthesized Speech." Thanks to this award, Findlater will work with UW students to study the design of devices and interfaces that use voice interaction.

Wed, 08/08/2018

HCDE Assistant Professor Leah Findlater has received an NSF grant to advance wearable sound awareness technologies for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Findlater and her collaborators will be developing and evaluating new wearable devices to sense, localize, and identify sounds.

Mon, 08/06/2018 | UW News

An interdisciplinary team of researchers including HCDE alumna Alexis Hiniker (PhD '17) and Master's student Sijin Chen published a study about how children respond to voice-activated technologies. The researchers believe voice-activated devices could be designed to help better engage with children.

Fri, 08/03/2018

HCDE PhD student Doug Divine and Professor Mark Zachry received a best paper award at the 2018 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference for the paper, "Reflecting on Work in Project Based Organizations: Leveraging Email to Construct Activity System Models for Project Work."

Wed, 08/01/2018

Bjørn, Professor of Human Centered Computing at the University of Copenhagen, is the recipient of a Fulbright Award to support her research on makerspace methodologies. She will join the department as a visiting professor in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Wed, 07/25/2018

HCDE Lecturer Tyler Fox has authored a chapter in a new textbook about contemporary third wave human-computer interaction. In the chapter, “Problematic Milieus: Individuating Speculative Designs,” Fox provides an overview of speculative design and describes its value as a theoretical tool for exploring how things come to be in the world.

Tue, 07/17/2018

Mary-Colleen Jenkins, a lecturer in the College of Engineering's Engineering Communication Program, is recognized by UW Professional & Continuing Education for excellence in teaching.

Thu, 07/05/2018 | UW News

University of Washington News catches up with HCDE Assistant Professor Daniela Rosner to hear about her new book, Critical Fabulations. Rosner's book explores how uncovering design stories from the past can shape how we design more inclusive technology today.

Tue, 06/26/2018

"Whose stories underpin design? And what methods might be possible if designers tell those stories differently?" HCDE Assistant Professor Daniela Rosner explores these questions in her new book, Critical Fabulations, published by MIT Press.

Fri, 06/22/2018

HCDE held its 2018 Graduation & Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, June 5. Guest speaker Sara Zewde presented the graduation address, and for the first year representatives from the undergraduate and graduate student body delivered speeches. See the 2018 HCDE Award of Excellence recipients and a full list of graduates here.

Tue, 06/19/2018

Cynthia Bennett, a PhD student in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, has received a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant to support her dissertation on disability-informed human-centered design.

Tue, 06/05/2018

HCDE PhD candidate Cynthia Bennett has received the Dennis Lang Student Award from the University of Washington's Disability Studies Program. The Dennis Lang Student Award is given annually to two undergraduate or graduate students who demonstrate academic excellence in areas related to Disability Studies and commitment to issues of social justice as they relate to people with disabilities.

Thu, 05/17/2018

With the help of researchers from HCDE's CoSSaR center, law enforcement and transportation agencies are joining forces to mitigate the traffic congestion resulting from major incidents on I-5 through Seattle. In a new video, HCDE Professor Mark Haselkorn (CoSSaR director) and Research Scientist Sonia Savelli describe the initiative aimed at making Seattle and surrounding areas a safer, more resilient place for people, businesses, and the services they rely on.

Wed, 05/16/2018 | The Daily

The HCDE student-run Women in User Experience (WiUX) conference was held May 12, 2018. This year’s theme was Breaking Barriers, and the talks provided insight from current professionals who navigate these challenges and have developed confidence in their skills. The UW Daily reports on the 2018 event.

Thu, 05/10/2018

Today’s smartphones offer great benefits to society. Apps to gather information, increase productivity, and interact with loved ones are at our fingertips. At the same time, smartphones can be tools of meaningless consumption and distraction. As a result, many people feel conflicted about how they spend time on their phone, and fall into patterns of behavior that they wish they could change.

Fri, 05/04/2018

Watch HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird's lecture delivered as part of the UW Provost's Office lecture series on confronting fake news and misinformation.

Wed, 05/02/2018 | UW News

A team of researchers led by HCDE PhD student Elena Agapie is studying how exercise plans developed by non experts compare to those developed by personal trainers. The team developed CrowdFit, a platform for exercise planning that relies on crowdsourcing from nonexperts to create workout plans that meet national exercise recommendations and individual user's schedules and interests. The researchers found that nonexperts could create exercise plans as effective as experts under certain conditions. In addition, CrowdFit improved the quality of exercise plans created by nonexperts.

Tue, 05/01/2018 | UW News

UW News reports on recent research by iSchool Assistant Professor Alexis Hiniker (HCDE PhD, 2017) and HCDE Associate Professor Julie Kientz. The researchers found that parents don't need to fear their child playing with new technology devices, but that thoughtfully designed content that intentionally supports parent-child interactions facilitated the same kind of play and development as analog toys.

Tue, 04/24/2018

Kaitlyn Zhou, a senior in the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering, has been selected to receive the 2018 Dean's Medal for Academic Excellence from the UW College of Engineering. Zhou has the distinction of being the first student studying Human Centered Design & Engineering to receive this honor.

Tue, 04/10/2018

HCDE students Samantha Gil Vargas, Sharon Heung, Melissa Medsker, Tsewone Melaku, and Burren Peil have been named to the 2018 cohort of the Husky 100. The Husky 100 recognizes UW students across all three campus who are making the most of their time at UW—both inside and outside of the classroom. 

Thu, 04/05/2018

HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird has received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Award from the National Science Foundation to support her research into why and how disinformation—or false information created intentionally to mislead and/or confuse—spreads online.