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Wed, 05/16/2018 | The Daily

Annual WiUX Conference

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

New study examines what smartphone users find meaningful or meaningless

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

Video of Kate Starbird disinformation lecture

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

HCDE researchers compare crowdsourced exercise plans to personal trainers

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

Apps for children should emphasize parent and child choice

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 receives academic excellence medal from Engineering dean

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

Five HCDE students recognized in Husky 100

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

Kate Starbird receives CAREER Award from National Science Foundation

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.

Wed, 04/04/2018

Professor Aragon brings UCD Charette to Chile

While on a Fulbright Award to teach and research in Chile, HCDE Professor Cecilia Aragon is introducing computer science students to the user-centered design process with curriculum from back home in HCDE.

Tue, 04/03/2018

HCDE welcomes Dianne Hendricks to the faculty

As a lecturer in HCDE, Dr. Dianne Hendricks will lead the Engineering Communication Program for the College of Engineering. Dr. Hendricks brings an interdisciplinary science and engineering background and extensive experience leading teams and teaching writing-intensive engineering courses.

Fri, 03/23/2018

Reimagining the visitor experience at the new Burke Museum

Led by HCDE Lecturer Tyler Fox, students in a winter-quarter Directed Research Group used human-centered design to develop concepts for visitor engagement opportunities within the new Burke Museum. Students in the course presented their concepts to Burke staff and the HCDE community on March 5, 2018.

Thu, 03/22/2018

Julie Kientz receives Google Research Award to study inclusive media engagement for children

HCDE Associate Professor Julie Kientz has received a Google Faculty Research Award to study how technology can foster engagement between children with and without disabilities. The research team includes HCDE PhD student Kiley Sobel and iSchool Assistant Professor Jason Yip.

Thu, 03/22/2018 | College of Engineering

A robot confidant

The University of Washington College of Engineering features Project EMAR, a social robot being developed by UW researchers to better understand teen stress and emotional well-being.

Thu, 03/08/2018

Starbird receives grant to study disinformation flows

HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird has been awarded a research grant via John Carroll University to analyze social media data related to disinformation flows. 

Wed, 02/28/2018 | The Daily

The Daily features EmComp Lab disinformation research

A study by researchers in Assistant Professor Kate Starbird's Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation Lab discovers twitter activity by Russian troll accounts within domestic conversations surrounding gun violence and race relations. The UW Daily reports.

Fri, 02/09/2018 | UW Daily

Student Research Group Designs Website to Salvage Campus Food Waste

The UW Daily highlights recent work by an HCDE Directed Research Group led by lecturer and MS alumna Irini Spyridakis. The group has been working to design a website that can match UW dining hall leftovers with local nonprofits.

Thu, 01/18/2018 | Interactions Magazine

Sean Munson on Rethinking Assumptions in the Design of Health Tracking Tools

In the current issue of Interactions Magazine, HCDE Assistant Professor Sean Munson discusses six common assumptions in the design of health tracking tools and provides insights about where designers and researchers should go from here.

Wed, 12/20/2017

HCDE research group explores bioluminescence for displays

In Autumn 2017, Human Centered Design & Engineering faculty members Brock Craft and Tyler Fox launched a new Directed Research Group to give students hands-on experience creating displays using living organisms.

Sat, 12/02/2017 | Science Magazine

Scott Miles on Earthquake Early Warning Systems

HCDE Research Scientist Scott Miles recently returned from Mexico where he studied how local residents perceived and used their earthquake early warning system. Miles and his research team summarized their recommendations in an editorial for the December 2017 issue of Science Magazine.

Mon, 11/27/2017

Kate Starbird presents at Engineering lecture series

Recent public debate around “fake news” has highlighted the growing challenge of online misinformation. This complex problem lies at the intersection of technology, human cognition and human behavior — and may make us unwitting accomplices to the spread of incorrect facts and misleading communication. Hear from Kate Starbird, whose research investigates online rumors to explore what conspiracy theories reveal about political propaganda.

Wed, 11/22/2017

Rosner and team receive Seattle Design Foundation grant

A team of designers including HCDE Assistant Professor Daniela Rosner has received the 2017 Seattle Design Foundation grant for a proposed project addressing the question, "How can we better design for future dialogues across generations and demographics?"

Thu, 11/09/2017

HCDE recognizes veteran Tyler Fox

In honor of Veterans Day, HCDE recognizes army veteran and HCDE faculty member: artist, technologist, and educator Dr. Tyler Fox. Fox’s background encompasses research and art in areas as broad as posthumanism and physical computing, and he attributes his career to the freedoms allowed by his service in the United States Army.

Thu, 11/02/2017

Starbird to study how people adapt after earthquakes

HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird is embarking on a research project to study how people adapt to power outages and water shortages immediately following a natural disaster, to help policymakers, businesses and individuals better prepare for the future. The team will use earthquakes in Los Angeles as a case study.

Wed, 10/04/2017

Remembering Mike Sinkula

HCDE mourns the loss of dedicated alumnus and affiliate faculty member Mike Sinkula. Mike graduated with his Master's in HCDE in 2014 and has been an instructor of HCDE's user-centered web design course ever since. He passed away in his home on Friday, September 27, 2017.