News

Thu, 02/29/2024

HCDE Professor and Chair Julie Kientz is joining the esteemed ranks of the SIGCHI Academy, and Associate Professor Kate Starbird receives the prestigious 2024 SIGCHI Social Impact Award. These awards celebrate their remarkable contributions to Human-Computer Interaction, recognizing their excellence in research, teaching, practice, and service. 

Tue, 02/27/2024

Melissa Ewing and Meghan Oxley, staff in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, were nominated for the 2024 UW Distinguished Staff Award in the category of impact, recognizing them for their exemplary contributions to the department and University.

Thu, 02/22/2024

Judy Ramey, one of HCDE’s founding faculty members and former department chair, has written a libretto for an opera titled Valparaiso, a chamber opera set in a retirement home that "explores the humor and pain, the love and loss, of four residents as they navigate the changes and challenges of advancing age." Ramey and composer Steven Luksan will debut Valparaiso at Seattle’s Horizon House in March 2024, with additional performances planned in the spring and summer.

Tue, 01/23/2024

HCDE and Allen School professors Sucheta Ghoshal, Daniela Rosner, and Vikram Iyer have been awarded a new $1.66 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore community-based integration of smart technologies into black diasporic agriculture practices.
Collaborating with diasporic farming communities in the Seattle area and beyond, the researchers will study how AI impacts diasporic urban farming and how the co-development of AI-based tools shapes diasporic knowledge.

Tue, 11/28/2023

UW researchers, including HCDE PhD Candidate Sourojit Ghosh, found that when prompted to create pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, sexualized images of certain women of color and failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples.

Thu, 10/12/2023

Dr. Katya Cherukumilli, assistant professor in HCDE, brings a background in interdisciplinary research that combines methods in human-centered design, environmental engineering, and public health to advance equitable access to safe drinking water.

Mon, 10/09/2023

Dr. Shana Lee Hirsch, senior research scientist in HCDE and co-director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center, is the UW lead on a new grant to study the needs and opinions of coastal communities regarding potential offshore wind energy development.

Thu, 09/07/2023

In a keynote presentation delivered at the International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, HCDE Professor Cynthia Atman overviews her decades of research exploring how engineering students and experts engage in design, and how her findings can be useful for teaching design to engineers.

Tue, 08/01/2023

HCDE Associate Professor Kate Starbird spoke with Dr. Umair A. Shah, Washington State Secretary of Health, for the Public Health Connects Speaker Series. In the 30-minute conversation, Starbird and Shah discussed the landscape of misinformation, disinformation, and rumoring on social media, and its impacts on public health. 

Fri, 07/28/2023

HCDE PhD Candidate Jay Cunningham has been named a 2023 University of Washington Bonderman Fellow. With support from this travel fellowship, Cunningham hopes to reconnect with his ancestral roots; explore vibrant cities, communities, and landscapes; and gain a deeper understanding of Black diasporic history and culture extending from West Africa to the Americas.