Technology

Students in the Jackson School of International Studies delve into cybersecurity policy and its societal implications. 

Industrial design professor Jason O. Germany was part of a team that designed a low-cost ventilator on short notice during the pandemic. 

As tech companies continue to delay return to offices, some service workers hope for a full return in the coming months. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Amazon is making another move into physical retail, this time with plans to open department store-like locations in Ohio and California that would sell items such as clothing and electronics, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

New updates to the Sephardic Studies Digital Collection, a "virtual bookshelf" with more than 140,000 pages of published Ladino works.

Doctoral student in computer science and Jewish Studies Graduate Fellow Ben Lee created a powerful search tool of scanned historical newspaper pages.

Amazon announced Thursday it intends to delay reopening its offices until Jan. 3, a move that raises fresh questions about the pace of recovery in Seattle and Bellevue where well-paid workers from Amazon and other tech firms are critical economic drivers. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

The UW and Washington State University are adding artificial intelligence research institutes thanks to $40 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. UW’s research lab, the AI Institute for Dynamic Systems, will focus on fundamental AI and machine learning theory. Steve Brunton, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the UW and associate director of the institute, is referenced. The UW's J. Nathan Kutz, professor of applied mathematics; Krithika Manohar, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Maryam Fazel, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Daniela Witten, professor of biostatistics; and David Beck, research associate professor of chemical engineering, are mentioned.

"A GoFundMe campaign is a poor — and unfair — substitute for functional social programs. The crowdfunding business, to which hundreds of thousands of people turned for help with rent and other basic needs during the pandemic, may well be a platform for 'inspiring acts of kindness,' but every donation also dictates who is being left behind," write Nora Kenworthy, associate professor of nursing and health studies at UW Bothell, and Mark Igra, a graduate student in sociology at the UW.

It's official — NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in action after a computer anomaly suddenly shut down the 32-year-old system for a month. And in celebrating its comeback, Hubble released two spectacular new images on Monday showing the depths of the universe. The images were captured as part of a program at the University of Washington.

Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, says that the lack of access Facebook gives researchers and others to data makes it difficult to assess how information is spreading on the social media platform. [Segment starts at 24:35]

After one of the cryptocurrency market’s worst routs, a growing band of disgruntled traders are organizing to pressure — with a combination of social media and legal threats — the online exchange Binance to compensate them for their losses. Tim Leung, professor of applied mathematics at the UW, is quoted.

Facebook’s back-and-forth with the Biden administration got ugly over the weekend. The social network scrambled to respond to the president’s striking accusation that the company is “killing people” for allowing the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

The U.S. National Science Foundation today announced 11 new artificial-intelligence research institutes, including one led by the University of Washington. These institutes are part of a $220 million investment spanning seven research areas in AI. Each institute will receive about $20 million over five years.

Seattle-based health data company Truveta today announced $95 million in fresh funding and the addition of three new participating health care systems, bringing its total to 17. Tyler McCormick, associate professor of statistics and of sociology at the UW, is quoted.