Technology

Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSFDOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids in our solar system. The findings include hundreds of distant worlds beyond Neptune as well as 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects.

Nowadays, musicians finding the most success are not only refining their musical skills, but also business, publicity, and technical skills like studio recording and production. With the latter in mind, the University of Washington School of Music is stepping up their offerings. The UW's Ted Poor, associate professor of music; and Andrew Munsey, assistant professor of music and technology, are quoted. Jol-Franois Durand, director of the UW School of Music and professor of composition, is mentioned.

An astronomical alert system developed at the UW started off with a bang this week, sending out 800,000 notifications about moving asteroids, exploding stars and other celestial changes detected by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Eric Bellm, research associate professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

On Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, when the Vera C. Rubin Observatory a wide-field telescope in Chile fitted with the worlds largest digital camera detected 800,000 cosmic changes in a single night. Eric Bellm, research associate professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has issued its first real-time alerts of changes in the night sky. The ultrafast alerting system, developed at the UW, will eventually detect up to seven million changes in the cosmos every night and notify scientists around the world.

During this year's Super Bowl on Sunday, some blind and low-vision fans will be able to experience football more directly thanks to tactile devices that vibrate to indicate the position of the ball on the field.

The devices, which are designed by OneCourt, vibrate in dif­fer­ent ways for dif­fer­ent plays like tackles, touchdowns, and field goals. OneCourt is a Seattle-based startup founded by Industrial Design alum Jerred Mace (BDes 2023).

Various companies from Google to Blue Origin to smaller startups are looking to Earth's orbit as the next data center frontier. And companies in Seattle are leading the charge. Today, how close are we to actually putting data centers in space? Saadia Pekkanen, professor of international studies at the UW, is interviewed.

Arts & Sciences weigh in on their own use of AI and what they see as the benefits and drawbacks of AI use in undergraduate education more broadly. 

Three College of Arts & Sciences professors discuss the impact of AI on their teaching and on student learning. The consensus? It’s complicated.

New research supported by Yingjie Cheng, a University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in astronomy, uncovered a contender for one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar a notable visual feature that can play an important role in the evolution of a galaxy.

UW School of Music alum Andrea Roberts, an audio engineer, has worked with recording artists in a wide range of genres — including Beyoncé.

With the recent arrival of generative AI programs that can write conversationally, produce vivid imagery, and perform myriad tasks for us, some technologists believe the superintelligent machines of science fiction are right around the corner. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted. This story was originally published in National Geographic.

The comet 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, according to NASA. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

What happens if you let teens craft the rules that dictate their use of phones at school? You get policy ideas with a nuanced, holistic perspective that rival those being officially issued by the adults in leadership. The UWs Youth Advisory Board, a group of approximately 20 teens from Seattle-area schools, recently published its first memo tackling this contentious issue. The UW's Rotem Landesman, doctoral student in the Information School, and Luca Magis-Weinberg, assistant professor of psychology, are quoted.

Emily Levesque, an associate professor of astronomy at the UW who specializes in massive stars and supernovas, joined host Leah Pezzetti on The Sky Above to discuss the biggest and best discoveries to come from the James Webb Space Telescope this past year.