Research

Hearing aid technology is improving all the time with the help of AI, thanks to researchers like Shen Yi, professor of speech & hearing sciences. 

As books evolve with new technologies, Geoffrey Turnovsky, professor of French, explores the history of texts — and the reading experience. 

The historic parallels that help explain Elon Musk’s rampage on the federal government. Erin McElroy, assistant professor of geography at the UW, is quoted.

People are increasingly falling for their favorite chatbots, spending hours each day building relationships with their artificial lovers. Chatbot site Janitor AI told Semafor that users have started 2.1 million conversations with its Valentine’s Day bots since they went live on Tuesday, representing about a quarter of all interactions on the site and breaking the company’s all-time daily user record. Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the UW, is quoted.

Three University of Washington faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 18, are Amy L. Orsborn, the Clare Boothe Luce assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering and bioengineering, Dianne J. Xiao, an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Amy X. Zhang, an assistant professor of computer science in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. 

For Valentine's Day, UW News asked 12 University of Washington researchers to share their love stories: What made them decide to pursue their career paths?

UW professors Xiaodong Xu, Cynthia Vinzant, and Shayan Oveis Gharan have been honored by the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their research accomplishments.

A growing number of people use surveillance cameras inside their home. Interaction design professor James Pierce explores how others spending time in the home are affected. 

Thousands of grasshopper specimens from mountains in Colorado show trends in how the insects changed in size over 65 years. With earlier emergence of spring greenery and earlier summer drought, grasshopper species that emerged early in the year grew larger, while grasshopper species that emerge later in the year grew smaller in size. The study, led by UW biologist Lauren Buckley, shows that changes in insect size can be predicted based on lifecycles and environmental conditions.

A combination of enduring holiday stress and seeking a New Year’s change drives interest in information about ending marriages. Julie Brines, associate professor of sociology at the UW, is quoted.

Exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) is associated with depression in women, possibly via reproductive health, according to a study published online Jan. 21 in Menopause. Anwesha Pan, a doctoral student of anthropology at the UW, is mentioned.

The full image includes some 2.5 billion pixels compiled from observations spanning more than 1,000 orbits around Earth. Ben Williams, research associate professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

At the turn of the century, 3.8 million people banded together in a real-time search for aliens — with screensavers. The project was called SETI@home. The hope was that with the power of millions of computers, researchers could comb through radio signals hitting Earth from outer space to find a hint of something unusual. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is interviewed.

The Hubble Space Telescope has generated the most comprehensive survey yet of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest galactic neighbor to the Milky Way. The new mosaic of about 2.5 billion pixels yields new clues to the galaxy's history. UW astronomers presented the findings Jan. 16 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Three exotic new species of superconductivity were spotted last year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup. Matthew Yankowitz, associate professor of physics and of materials science & engineering at the UW, is quoted.