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Mon, 09/28/2020

HCDE Professor Kristin Dew, collaborators working with Duwamish River communities on grassroots science network

HCDE Assistant Teaching Professor Kristin Dew is a co-Principal Investigator on a project to support a community-science network among residents of Seattle’s Lower Duwamish River area.

Tue, 09/15/2020

HCDE researchers named Computing Innovation Fellows

HCDE PhD candidate Rafal Kocielnik and incoming postdoctoral researcher Abigale Stangl have received Computing Innovation Fellowships from the Computing Research Association and its Computing Community Consortium. These fellowships were created with support from the National Science Foundation to connect recent (or soon-to-be) PhD graduates in computing disciplines with postdoctoral research positions at other academic institutions.

Sat, 09/05/2020

Nadya Peek, collaborator Jennifer Jacobs receive NSF award to research digital fabrication tools for low–volume manufacturing

Nadya Peek, assistant professor in HCDE, and her collaborator Jennifer Jacobs, assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara, have received a new grant from the National Science Foundation to research digital fabrication tools for low-volume manufacturing.

Fri, 08/28/2020

Sonia Savelli receives NOAA award to study probabilistic risk communication in tornado forecasting

HCDE Research Scientist Sonia Savelli is the principal investigator on a new grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study how people interpret and use evolving tornado forecast information and how forecast communication can be improved.

Tue, 08/25/2020

Cecilia Aragon, DO–IT collaborators awarded $1 million to further advancement of women with disabilities in STEM Careers

HCDE Professor Cecilia Aragon is co-principal investigator on AccessADVANCE, a new project awarded $1 million by the National Science Foundation to increase the participation and advancement of women with disabilities in academic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Tue, 08/25/2020

Welcoming second cohort of the HCDE Alumni Leadership Board

The HCDE Alumni Leadership Board welcomes nine new members: Daniel Aldridge, Ankur Agrawal, Josh Baker, R. Jill DeMarco, Alex Fromm, Sarah Kepa, Hannah Nursalim, Rigo Ordaz, and Veronika Sipeeva. The new members join inaugural Board members Sharla Akers (Board President), Gary J. Anderson, Kendall Avery, Michael Berg, Nathan Bilbao, Hasani C.M. Burns, Matthew Carthum, Paula Chuchro, and Matt Reynolds in service to the Department as they continue to plan events, continuing education opportunities, and publish observations from the field on the ALB Blog. Meet our new board members here.

Thu, 08/20/2020

Nadya Peek receives Sloan Foundation award to research testing in distributed manufacturing

HCDE Assistant Professor Nadya Peek has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to research methods for testing and verification in distributed production. Support from the award enables Peek and students in her research lab, Machine Agency, to research what quality control could look like for production with widespread and distributed digital fabrication equipment. Peek asks, “If open source hardware designs can easily be widely shared, how do we ensure that they can also safely be widely produced?”

Thu, 08/20/2020 | Columbia University Press Blog

Affiliate professor Zakiya Hanafi on translating works of philosophy

Dr. Zakiya Hanafi, an affiliate faculty member in HCDE, has spent the last decade of her career translating works of philosophy from Italian and French into English. In a new blog post on the Columbia University Press Blog, Dr. Hanafi shares the observations that inspired her to become a translator and discusses why translation is so important today.

Tue, 08/18/2020 | College of Engineering

Engineering STARS

Since 2013, STARS — the Washington STate Academic RedShirt program — has provided the extra support that underserved Washington students need to succeed in engineering. HCDE alumna Tuyen Truong (BS, '17), now a product designer at Dropbox, reflects on how she's using her degree and how STARS helped get her there.

Mon, 08/03/2020

Shana Hirsch publishes new book about impact of climate change on scientists

The climate change impacts of drought, wildfire, and extreme flooding can destabilize the daily work of scientists. In Anticipating Future Environments, HCDE Research Scientist Shana Hirsch tells the story of how ecological restorationists working to recover salmon in the Columbia River Basin are adapting their scientific practices to deal with climate change.

Thu, 07/23/2020

Julie Kientz and Shwetak Patel establish HCDE Student Emergency Support Fund

Julie Kientz, Professor & Chair of HCDE, and her husband Professor Shwetak Patel are establishing an endowment to support HCDE students facing unexpected financial hardship.

Thu, 07/16/2020

Charlotte Lee and David Ribes receive NSF award to study research collaboration across the sciences

Scientific research increasingly relies on collaboration across many different areas of expertise. Challenges arise for scientists when they need to do convergent research that requires translation and use of diverse expertise, tools, and analytic techniques. HCDE Professors Charlotte Lee and David Ribes have received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how scientists collaborate across different fields and areas of expertise.

Mon, 07/13/2020

Charlotte Lee receives NSF award to study remote work during coronavirus pandemic

In the wake of COVID-19 outbreaks, organizations large and small made a sudden shift to remote working to support social distancing. HCDE Associate Professor Charlotte Lee has received a rapid research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation to study how organizations and individuals are adapting to remote work, and to develop guidance about how to support such shifts in the future.

Mon, 07/13/2020

Julie Kientz, Sean Munson, and collaborators studying family life and technology during the coronavirus pandemic

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, American families are urgently adapting to new ways of working, managing child and elder care, and facilitating remote learning experiences. HCDE Professors Julie Kientz and Sean Munson, together with the iSchool's Jason Yip and Alexis Hiniker, have received a rapid-response research grant from the NSF to study the pandemic’s effect on family life and the role of technology.

Mon, 07/13/2020

Kate Starbird and collaborators studying misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic

HCDE Associate Professor Kate Starbird and her collaborators with the UW’s Center for an Informed Public received a rapid-response research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation to study how scientific knowledge, expertise, data, and communication affect the spread and correction of online misinformation about an emerging pandemic.

Mon, 07/13/2020

Scott Miles and collaborators are researching community impact of coronavirus pandemic on Seattle region

HCDE Research Scientist Dr. Scott Miles is on an interdisciplinary team of researchers awarded a one-year Rapid-Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Seattle region.

Wed, 07/08/2020

Sonia Savelli studying risk communication and decision making during coronavirus pandemic

HCDE Research Scientist Dr. Sonia Savelli has received an NSF rapid-response grant to study how people make decisions based on complex risk information, and how communication about risk can help people make more informed decisions.

Tue, 07/07/2020

Kate Starbird interviewed by The Seattle Times about misinformation during coronavirus pandemic

HCDE Associate Professor Kate Starbird was interviewed by Seattle Times about the spread of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and leading up to the 2020 election.

Fri, 06/26/2020

Shana Hirsch is appointed Associate Director of the UW Pacific Marine Energy Center

Dr. Shana Lee Hirsch, a postdoctoral research scientist in HCDE, will work with PMEC to understand and facilitate university-industry collaboration in the marine energy industry in the US.

Wed, 06/24/2020

The State of K–12 HCDE Outreach in the Design Charrette Program

K-12 Outreach in HCDE is constantly evolving, and our department’s efforts in this area have been expanding. In order to understand how our program has changed over the years, let’s take a look back at its journey to date.

Tue, 06/23/2020

Elin Björling and Project EMAR receive CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund

Dr. Elin Björling, senior research scientist and lecturer in HCDE, has received an Innovation Gap Fund grant from CoMotion and the Population Health Initiative. The one-year, $50,000 award will support Björling and Maya Cakmak, assistant professor in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, to develop a robust prototype for their Project EMAR social robot project to enable school implementation studies in the fall.

Fri, 06/19/2020

Graduation Address to the class of 2020 by Phil Spencer, EVP of Gaming at Microsoft

Department alumnus Phil Spencer delivered the Graduation Address at the HCDE 2020 Graduation & Awards Ceremony. Spencer spoke about the power of technology to bring people together, and the critical role today's graduates will play in designing a more just future.

Wed, 06/17/2020

Nadya Peek named to MIT Technology Review list of Innovators Under 35

Nadya Peek, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, is one of 35 innovators recognized in the annual MIT Technology Review "35 Innovators Under 35."

Tue, 06/16/2020

Welcoming Sarah Coppola to the HCDE faculty

Dr. Sarah Coppola is joining the HCDE faculty as an Assistant Teaching Professor in September 2020. Coppola comes to HCDE from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is a postdoctoral fellow in Human Factors Engineering.