News

Wed, 02/01/2023

HCDE alumna Dr. Alexis Hope (BS '10, MS '12) has been named a 2023 United States Artists Fellow in the category of Architecture & Design. The prestigious fellowship honors creative accomplishments of artists and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development.

Tue, 01/31/2023

HCDE mourns the loss of alumna Karen Kasonic who passed away on January 14, 2023, after a long struggle with breast cancer.

Mon, 01/30/2023 | UW Electrical & Computer Engineering

Levity Technologies, a project led by UW Electrical & Computer Engineering researchers and HCDE Assistant Professor Nadya Peek, has received a $50k grant from the UW CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund. Levity is revolutionizing sample mixing in biology labs with robotics, improving yields and accuracy.

Sat, 01/28/2023 | UW Magazine

HCDE alumna Rachel Barnecut (BS ’12, MS ’18) is featured in UW Magazine about her career transition to entrepreneurship. In the interview with fellow alumna Aleenah Ansari (BS '19), Barnecut discusses creating Matcha Magic, a plant-based Matcha bar located in Bellevue.
 

Wed, 01/11/2023

Julie Kientz is the UW lead on the AI Institute for Exceptional Education, a new multi-campus institute that will create artificial intelligence technologies for children with speech and language processing challenges. Collaborating with Kientz at UW is Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Mari Ostendorf.

Fri, 12/02/2022

A UW research team led by HCDE PhD student Spencer Williams is working with the public to design research summaries that improve awareness and trust in COVID vaccine safety research.

Thu, 12/01/2022

HCDE researchers Jay Cunningham, Daniela Rosner, and Julie Kientz have received a grant from Google Research to develop equitable, community-collaborative design methods to mitigate racial disparities in automated speech recognition technologies.

Mon, 11/28/2022

Help HCDE build a more accessible and equitable student experience by making a gift to support students this #GivingTuesday, November 29. Donations to the Mary B. Coney Endowed Fund help send PhD students to conferences and workshops while gifts to the Kientz & Patel Student Emergency Fund provide immediate impact to students facing unexpected financial hardship.

Mon, 11/14/2022

Human Centered Design & Engineering students and community partners came together for an autumn quarter design jam to address the question: how might we solidify the presence of small retail stores in our cities?

Fri, 11/04/2022

A new grant from the University of Washington's Population Health Initiative supports HCDE PhD student Tricia Aung and Associate Professor Sean Munson in developing a pilot human-centered design hub within the Government of Tanzania that will be equipped to innovate solutions to nutrition issues.

Thu, 10/20/2022

On October 13, 2022, HCDE Professor and Chair Julie Kientz and former Washington State Governor and Challenge Seattle CEO Christine Gregoire spoke at an event hosted by CoMotion’s Mobility Innovation Center to celebrate the Virtual Coordination Center for Multimodal Corridor Management project.

Mon, 10/10/2022

The grant is part of the National Science Foundation's new Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program, designed to support the creation of sustainable, high-impact, open-source ecosystems. Collaborating with Peek is Lilo Pozzo, a professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering.

Thu, 10/06/2022

The three year, $1.8 million award is part of an investment by the National Science Foundation in research projects designed to increase opportunities for US workers and generate positive societal and economic impacts at the local and national level.

Thu, 10/06/2022

A new project led by HCDE PhD student Brett Halperin and Associate Professor Daniela Rosner asks the question, "how might interactive sonic narrative streetwear support urban community-based amplification of space, place, and belonging?" Urban@UW is supporting this work with a Research Spark Grant.

Fri, 09/23/2022

HCDE welcomes three new professors to the faculty in the 2022-2023 academic year. Arpita and Alan Marks are joining the department as assistant teaching professors, and Ana Pinto da Silva is joining the department as an associate teaching professor and director of the Master of Human Computer Interaction + Design (MHCI+D) program.

Fri, 09/23/2022

All Things HCDE is a podcast created by a group of HCDE students in the Summer 2022 Design for Passion series. The 37 minute podcast is now available on HCDE's YouTube Channel.

Thu, 09/15/2022

Meena Muralikumar, an HCDE PhD candidate, is awarded the 2022 Google PhD Fellowship in the category of Human Computer Interaction. The Fellowship supports Muralikumar's investigations into supporting UX Practitioners to design with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Thu, 08/18/2022

HCDE Professor and Chair Julie Kientz has been selected to the Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) fellowship program for the 2022-2023 academic year. ELATES is a national leadership development program designed to promote women in academic STEM fields, and faculty allies of all genders, into institutional leadership roles. 

Tue, 08/02/2022 | Designing Up

How HCDE Professor Beth Kolko is setting the stage for entrepreneurs to flourish, and PhD Student-turned-CEO Melinda Haughey is bringing her HCDE education to the core of her new company.
 

Tue, 07/12/2022 | Designing Up

HCDE's new mentorship program paired 185 students with 54 mentors in the 2021-2022 school year. Recent participants weigh in about the benefits of the program for both students and mentors.

Wed, 06/29/2022 | Designing Up

In this Q&A with HCDE Research Scientist Shana Hirsch and Associate Professor David Ribes, learn how researchers in HCDE's Data Ecologies Lab are contributing to sustainability, energy futures, and ecological justice.

Fri, 06/24/2022 | Designing Up

A study by HCDE senior Koyo Nakamura, published in the ACM International Conference on Design of Communication Student Research Competition, looks at how people engage in self-reflection before bedtime, and how designers can support reflection using non-digital means.

Wed, 06/22/2022 | Designing Up

A new course on Service Design is an opportunity for HCDE graduate students to connect human-centered design principles to large-scale ecosystems. In the Autumn 2021 Service Design course, one team developed BugBox, a concept for a meal delivery subscription service that uses insect protein. 

Tue, 06/14/2022 | Designing Up

Welcome to our annual Designing Up publication, where we highlight activities and accomplishments of students, alumni, and researchers from the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering.

Tue, 06/14/2022

In Dear Design, a HCDE Directed Research Group led by Professor Cindy Atman, students explored their design processes by creating postcard representations of their ideal "design signatures." Artifacts created by the students are now on display in a pop-up gallery on the fourth floor of Sieg Building.