New research led by the 天美影院 provides clear evidence that highly walkable areas lead to significantly more walking. Authors compared the steps per day of 5,424 people who moved one or more times among 1,609 U.S. cities. Across all relocations, when the Walk Score rose or fell more than 48 points, average steps increased or decreased by about 1,100 per day.
Antimicrobial resistance is a lurking threat in hospitals around the world. As more strains of bacteria and other microbes evolve defenses against available drugs, more patients run the risk of contracting infections that defy treatment. Now, 天美影院 researchers offer new insights into measures currently used to control the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria and other infectious agents in health care facilities.
天美影院 researchers recruited self-identifying Democrats and Republicans to make political decisions with help from three versions of ChatGPT: a base model, one with liberal bias and one with conservative bias. Democrats and Republicans were both likelier to lean in the direction of the biased chatbot they were talking with than those participants who interacted with the base model.
天美影院professor of aeronautics and astronautics Jim Hermanson took a ride Wednesday morning aboard a U.S. Navy Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet 鈥� better known as one of the Blue Angels.聽
Researchers at the 天美影院 and Microsoft developed a new type of low-carbon concrete by mixing dried, powdered seaweed with cement. The seaweed-fortified cement has a 21% lower global warming potential while retaining its strength.
天美影院 researchers developed the game AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles. In the game, users get a chance to solve puzzles by completing patterns of colored blocks. They can then ask various AI chatbots to solve and have the systems explain their solutions 鈥� which they nearly always fail to do accurately.
In 2023, 天美影院 researchers recruited a group of 29 laid-off U.S. tech workers to discuss the effects of recent mass layoffs on employees. Overall, the group was ambivalent about tech work. They said it was often unfulfilling, despite their plans to continue in the industry.
天美影院researchers designed a headphone system that translates several people speaking at once, following them as they move and preserving the direction and qualities of their voices. The team built the system, called Spatial Speech Translation, with off-the-shelf noise-cancelling headphones fitted with microphones.
A UW-led team has developed a system, called ProxiCycle, that logs when a passing car comes too close to a cyclist (four feet or less). A small, inexpensive sensor plugs into bicycle handlebars and tracks the passes, sending them to the rider鈥檚 phone. The team tested the system for two months with 15 cyclists in Seattle and found a significant correlation between the locations of close passes and other indicators of poor safety, such as collisions.
The 天美影院鈥檚 graduate and professional degree programs were widely recognized as among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 2026 Best Graduate Schools released late Monday.
A new data set called OS-CONNECT maps sidewalks and other pedestrian paths statewide, from Forks on the Olympic Peninsula to Clarkston in the southeast. In House Bill 1125, the Washington State Legislature assigned the UW’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology to build the data set, which was completed well ahead of its projected 2027 goal.
Recent recognition of the 天美影院 includes the Best Paper Award at NeurIPS Pluralistic Alignment Workshop, Scialog: Early Science with the LSST Collaborative Innovation Award and 2024 AVS Thin Film Young Investigator Award. Professor wins ‘best paper’ at NeurIPS Pluralistic Alignment Workshop Max Kleiman-Weiner, assistant professor in the 天美影院Foster School of Business, received the $1,000 Best Paper Award on Pluralistic Alignment at the NeurIPS 2024 Workshop. The Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS, is one of…
Researchers deployed a robotic feeding arm in a pair of studies outside the lab. In the first, six users with motor impairments used the robot to feed themselves a meal in a 天美影院cafeteria, an office or a conference room. In the second study, a community researcher and co-author on the research used the system at home for five days.
天美影院doctoral student Brett Halperin interviewed picketing film workers about AI during the 2023 strikes.
天美影院researchers developed a new system for turning used coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects, such as packing materials and a vase. They inoculate the paste with Reishi mushroom spores, which turn the coffee grounds into a resilient, fully compostable alternative to plastics.
Three 天美影院 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.聽
For Valentine’s Day, 天美影院News asked 12 天美影院 researchers to share their love stories: What made them decide to pursue their career paths?
Two 天美影院 researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. For World Cancer Day, 天美影院News asked them to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.
A 天美影院team studied how AI systems portray teens in English and Nepali, and found that in English language systems around 30% of the responses referenced societal problems such as violence, drug use and mental illness. The Nepali system produced fewer negative associations in responses, closer to 10% of all answers.
天美影院researchers have developed IRIS, a smart ring that allows users to point and click to control smart devices. The prototype Bluetooth ring contains a small camera which sends an image of the selected device to the user鈥檚 phone. The user can control the device by clicking a small button or 鈥� for devices with gradient controls, such as a speaker鈥檚 volume 鈥� rotating the ring.
Alex Prybutok, 天美影院assistant teaching professor of chemical engineering, studies anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in engineering education.
A research team at 天美影院and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory examined the atomic composition of enamel samples from two human teeth.
天美影院 researchers created a method for training AI systems 鈥� both for large language models like ChatGPT and for robots 鈥� that can better reflect users鈥� diverse values. It predicts users鈥� preferences as they interact with it, then tailors its outputs accordingly.
天美影院 researchers developed a system for detecting subtle biases in AI models. They found seven of the eight popular AI models they tested in conversations around race and caste generated significant amounts of biased text in interactions 鈥� particularly when discussing caste. Open-source models fared far worse than two proprietary ChatGPT models.
Jie Xiao, 天美影院 professor of mechanical engineering, talks about batteries and how academia can help support the growing domestic battery manufacturing industry.
天美影院assistant professor Sheng Wang discusses BiomedParse, an AI medical image analysis model that works across nine types of medical images to better predict systemic diseases. Medical professionals can load images into the system and ask the AI tool questions about them in plain English.
A team led by researchers at the 天美影院 has created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Voices and sounds outside the bubble are quieted an average of 49 decibels, even if they鈥檙e louder than those in the bubble.
NASA has awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant to establish a regional scientific consortium based at the 天美影院, in partnership with Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The consortium will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the space environment 鈥� both in low-Earth orbit and beyond 鈥� affects living things.
天美影院 researchers created MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer that can automatically measure a room and print objects onto the floor. The team鈥檚 graphic interface lets users design objects in a space that the robot has mapped out. The prototype, which the team built on a modified consumer vacuum robot, can add a range of objects to rooms.
天美影院researchers collaborated with people at multiple institutions to collect pre-storm data and place sensors to measure storm surge levels and wave height during Hurricane Helene’s landfall.
The Remote Hub Lab allows students to access physical engineering equipment from anywhere in the world. A primary focus of the lab is to use a process called “digital twinning,” to create virtual models that mirror real-world systems, which enables students to experiment, learn and innovate in a risk-free, cost-effective environment.
Niloofar Mireshghallah, a 天美影院postdoctoral scholar, discusses why math and reasoning have so challenged artificial intelligence models and what the public should know about OpenAI鈥檚 new release.
天美影院researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient 鈥� it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.
A team led by 天美影院 researchers found that large language models, such as ChatGPT, can make social media bots more sophisticated at evading detection. But these models can also improve systems that detect bots.
The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. But since 2000, water managers have struggled to predict how much water will come from the snowpack. The problem lies with the lack of rainfall in the spring, according to new research from the UW.
In a survey of 315 people conducted by researchers at the 天美影院 and Georgetown University, respondents largely found creating and sharing sexually explicit 鈥渄eepfakes鈥� unacceptable. But far fewer respondents strongly opposed seeking out these media. Previous research has shown that other people viewing non-AI image-based abuse harms the victims significantly.
Two new studies introduce AI systems that use either video or photos to create simulations that can train robots to function in the real world. This could significantly lower the costs of training robots to function in complex settings.
Fifteen faculty members at the 天美影院 have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2024. They are among 36 scientists and educators from across the state announced Aug. 1 as new members. Selection recognizes the new members鈥� 鈥渙utstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥�
Several common injuries seem to haunt women’s sports. Jenny Robinson, a 天美影院 assistant professor, is interested in designing better methods to help female athletes train to prevent and recover from injuries.
Two 天美影院 researchers are investigating how to mitigate the effects of climate change on common road pavements, such as asphalt and concrete.