91̽�� researchers developed the first system that incorporates tiny cameras in off-the-shelf wireless earbuds to allow users to talk with an AI model about the scene in front of them. For instance, a user might turn to a Korean food package and say, “Hey Vue, translate this for me.” They’d then hear an AI voice say, “The visible text translates to ‘Cold Noodles’ in English.”

The prototype system called VueBuds takes low-resolution, black-and-white images, which it transmits over Bluetooth to a phone or other nearby device. A small artificial intelligence model on the device then answers questions about the images within around a second. For privacy, all of the processing happens on the device, a small light turns on when the system is recording, and users can immediately delete images.��

The team will April 14 at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona.��

“We haven’t seen most people adopt smart glasses or VR headsets, in part because a lot of people don’t like wearing glasses, and they often come with , such as recording high-resolution video and processing it in the cloud,” said senior author , a 91̽��professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “But almost everyone wears earbuds already, so we wanted to see if we could put visual intelligence into tiny, low-power earbuds, and also address privacy concerns in the process.”

Cameras use far more power than the microphones already in earbuds, so using the same sort of high-res cameras as those in smart glasses wouldn’t work. Also, large amounts of information can’t stream continuously over Bluetooth, so the system can’t run continuous video.��

The team found that using a low-power camera — roughly the size of a grain of rice — to shoot low-resolution, black-and-white still images limited battery drain and allowed for Bluetooth transmission while preserving performance.

There was also the matter of placement.��

“One big question we had was: Will your face obscure the view too much? Can earbud cameras capture the user’s view of the world reliably?” said lead author , who completed this work as a 91̽��doctoral student in the Allen School.��

The team found that angling each camera 5-10 degrees outward provides a 98-108 degree field of view. While this creates a small blind spot when objects are held closer than 20 centimeters from the user, people rarely hold things that close to examine them — making it a non-issue for typical interactions.

Sixteen participants also wore VueBuds and tested the system’s ability to translate and answer basic questions about objects. VueBuds achieved 83-84% accuracy when translating or identifying objects and 93% when identifying the author and title of a book.

This study was designed to gauge the feasibility of integrating cameras in wireless earbuds. Since the system only takes grayscale images, it can’t answer questions that involve color in the scene.��

The team wants to add color to the system — color cameras require more power — and to train specialized AI models for specific use cases, such as translation.�� 

“This study lets us glimpse what’s possible just using a general purpose language model and our wireless earbuds with cameras,” Kim said. “But we’d like to study the system more rigorously for applications like reading a book — for people who have low vision or are blind, for instance — or translating text for travelers.” 

Co-authors include , a 91̽��master’s student in the Allen School, and , , , and , all 91̽��students in electrical and computer engineering.��

For more information, contact vuebuds@cs.washington.edu.

Even on a campus like the 91̽��’s — home to particle accelerators, wave tanks and countless other bespoke pieces of equipment — the machinery in the stands out. Take the dilution fridge, a large, white, cylindrical device that can cool a small chamber to one hundredth of a kelvin above absolute zero — the coldest possible temperature in the universe.��

“This is the coldest fridge money can buy,” said , a 91̽��assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the former director of the lab, which goes by the nickname QT3. “When it’s running, the chamber inside this device is about 100 times colder than outer space. At that temperature, it’s much easier to study and manipulate a material’s quantum properties.”

The lab also houses a photon qubit tabletop lab: a nondescript set of boxes, lasers and lenses that can demonstrate the “spooky” — a term scientists actually use — phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, where two particles appear to communicate instantaneously with each other despite being physically apart.

Or there’s the lab’s latest acquisition, the scanning tunneling microscope, which can image individual atoms within a solid material, allowing researchers to study the structure of materials at the smallest scales.

An interdisciplinary group of researchers has been marshalling resources and expertise to create QT3 for three years, and now, the lab is opening its doors as a unique one-stop shop resource for quantum researchers and educators at the UW.

“The idea of this lab is to improve access to quantum hardware,” Parsons said. “It’s rather hard to acquire equipment like this. And there are a lot of researchers that may have good ideas that they want to test, but don’t have the resources yet for their own equipment. So we’re inviting researchers, initially from across campus, but also from other universities and from industry, to come in and test their ideas. This can be a hub for quantum experts to share their ideas and collaborate.”

The lab also boasts hardware that can demonstrate known quantum principles and techniques, making it useful for students in quantum fields. In addition to the entanglement device, Parsons’ students developed a machine that can suspend charged particles — in this case, tiny grains of pollen — in midair using electric fields. Researchers use the same technique to trap single atoms and manipulate their quantum properties, making the lab’s ion-trapping machine good practice for more complex work.

Some students even work at the lab through an undergraduate staffing program, and have helped install instrumentation, write code to power equipment and build parts for custom microscopes. The program provides yet another avenue for students to get hands-on experience with unusual machinery and techniques.��

“Quantum mechanics is inherently counterintuitive, and that makes it a powerful teaching tool,” Parsons said. “In the QT3 lab, students will encounter systems where their everyday intuition breaks down, and they must rely on careful reasoning and experimentation instead. They learn how to debug when results don’t match expectations, how to test simple cases and how to build understanding about hardware step by step.”

The cosmically cold dilution fridge remains something of a centerpiece, even as the lab fills up with specialized equipment. The extreme environment within the device strips heat, light and other stray energy away from materials, allowing researchers to observe the peculiar quantum properties that remain. One such property is superposition, or the ability of a particle like an electron to maintain multiple mutually exclusive properties at the same time. Scientists use superposition to create a powerful, tiny piece of technology: a quantum bit, or qubit.��

“Traditional computers use bits, which can only be one or zero. A qubit, on the other hand, we can make one plus zero,” Parsons said. “It’s both at the same time, and only when we measure it do we find out which one it is. We can use this unusual property to build a new class of computers that excel at tasks like communications and encryption.”

QT3 is part of a collaborative effort to solidify 91̽��as a leader in quantum research and applications. Most of the lab hardware was funded by a congressional earmark championed by Senator Maria Cantwell’s office. Departmental funding from across the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences helped rehab the lab space. The National Science Foundation provided seed funding for the instructional lab equipment.

The 91̽��has also spent the past decade investing heavily in faculty with quantum expertise.

“Very few places have expertise across the full quantum stack, from materials up to algorithms,” said , a 91̽��professor of physics and founder of QT3. “The 91̽��has quantum faculty in electrical and mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, materials science and chemistry. Our faculty work on superconducting qubits, spin defects, photons, trapped ions, neutral atoms and topological qubits. Our advantage is the breadth of our investment.”

The lab is now available to researchers and students across the UW, and private companies are encouraged to reach out about partnering. Parsons has already used the lab to teach a graduate-level class in electrical and computer engineering for students who included employees from Boeing, Microsoft and quantum computing company IonQ. The lab is hiring for a full-time manager to maintain the equipment and help users make the most of the facility.��

“Here in academia, we can improve the building blocks for applied technologies like quantum computing, and then transfer those learnings to industry for further scaling,” Parsons said.

For more information, contact Parsons at mfpars@uw.edu.

UPDATE April 7, 2026: The original version of this story omitted two 91̽��programs that were included in the rankings: Occupational Therapy (Tied for 20th) and Physical Therapy (Tied for 31st).��

The 91̽��’s graduate and professional degree programs again were recognized as among the best in the nation, according to .

Topping this year’s list include programs at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in the College of Engineering and the College of Education. The College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Environment also had top-rated programs.

In total, 81 graduate and professional degree programs across the 91̽��placed in the top 35 in this year’s U.S. News rankings.

“These rankings highlight the strength and impact of the 91̽��’s graduate and professional programs,” said 91̽��President Robert J. Jones. “These programs equip students with the skills and knowledge to meet critical workforce needs and serve society, while demonstrating the power of higher education to advance the public good. We are proud to foster an environment where students and faculty can thrive and have a real impact on the world around them.”

While the 91̽��celebrates the success and impact of the programs recognized by U.S. News — and notes that many applicants use these rankings to help them select schools and discover potential areas of study — the University also recognizes shortcomings inherent in the ranking systems.

The 91̽��School of Law and the 91̽��School of Medicine withdrew from the U.S. News rankings in 2022 and 2023, respectively, citing concerns that some of the methodology in the rankings for those specific disciplines incentivize actions and policies that run counter to the schools’ public service missions.

91̽��leaders continue to work with U.S. News and other ranking organizations to improve their methodologies, to the extent that the organizations are open to it. Schools, colleges and departments continually reevaluate the benefits and potential shortfalls of participating in specific rankings.

Excluding the School of Law and the School of Medicine, 29 91̽��programs placed in the top 10, and 81 are in the top 35.

 The 91̽��this year placed in the top 10 nationwide in public affairs, biostatistics,  nursing, computer science, education, psychology, speech and language pathology, statistics and Earth sciences.

The UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade and tied for fifth in the nation this year. The Evans School’s environmental policy program was ranked second, while public finance and budgeting as well as leadership both ranked No. 10.

The 91̽��School of Nursing’s doctor of nursing practice program tied for No. 1 among public institutions. The School of Public Health has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade, coming in this year at No. 9. The school also had three programs in the top 10: biostatistics, environmental health sciences and epidemiology.��

The UW’s programs in speech and language pathology tied for No. 6.�� Two programs from the College of Education placed in the top 10. And the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering this year tied for seventh place overall with three programs ranked in the top 10, including artificial intelligence, programming language and systems.

U.S. News ranks biostatistics in two ways. 91̽��ranked No. 3 as a science discipline that applies statistical theory and mathematical principles to research in medicine, biology, environmental science, public health and related fields. UW’s School of Public Health ranked No. 7 in biostatistics as an area of study that trains students to apply statistical principles and methods to problems in health sciences, medicine and biology. At the UW, biostatistics is a division of the School of Public Health.

In some cases, such as the College of Arts & Science and the Foster School of Business, U.S. News ranks several professional disciplines housed within academic units. Programs in dentistry are not ranked.��

The rankings below are based on preliminary data and may be updated. relies on both expert opinions and statistical indicators.

TOP 10:

Library and Information Studies (overall): Two-way tie for 1st (ranked in 2025)

Public Affairs (environmental policy): 2nd

Library and information studies (digital librarianship): Two-way for 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Library and Information Studies (information systems): 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Biostatistics: 3rd

Physics (nuclear): Two-way tie for 3rd (ranked in 2024)

Nurse practitioner (doctor of nursing practice): Four-way tie for 4th

Evans School of Public Policy & Governance (overall): Four-way tie for 5th

Library and Information Studies (library services for children and youth): Two-way for 5th (ranked in 2022)

Computer science (systems): Tied for 6th

Education (elementary education): 6th

Psychology (clinical): Three-way tie for 6th

Speech-language pathology: Five-way tie for 6th

Statistics: Four-way tie for 6th

Public Health (biostatistics): 7th

Computer science (overall): Three-way tie for 7th

Computer science (programming language): Tied for 7th

Education (secondary education): 7th

Nursing (midwifery): Five-way tie for 7th

Public Health (environmental health sciences): 7th

School of Social Work (overall): 7th (ranked in 2025)

Public Health (epidemiology): 8th

Computer science (artificial intelligence): 9th

Earth sciences: Tied for 9th 

Geophysics: Three-way tie for 9th (ranked in 2024)

Public Affairs (nonprofit management): 9th

School of Public Health (overall): Tied for 9th

Public Affairs (public finance and budgeting): 10th

Public Affairs (public management and leadership): 10th

TOP 25:

Biological sciences: Five-way tie for 16th

Business (accounting): 10-way tie for 16th

Business (entrepreneurship): Five-way tie for 17th

Business (information systems): Three-way tie for 15th

Business (part-time MBA): Three-way tie for 11th

Business (full-time MBA): 20th

Business (management): Five-way tie for 25th

Business (marketing): Eight-way tie for 25th

Chemistry (analytical): Four-way tie for 16th (ranked in 2024)

Chemistry: Seven-way tie for 22nd

Chemistry (inorganic): Three-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2024)

Computer science (theory): Tied for 11th

College of Education (overall): Tied for 24th

Education (administration): Tied for 11th

Education (curriculum/instruction): Tied for 12th

Education (policy): Tied for 14th

Education (special education): Tied for 12th

College of Engineering (overall): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical): Tied for 17th

Engineering (biomedical/bioengineering): Five-way tie for 12th

Engineering (civil): Four-way tie for 13th

Engineering (computer): 12th

Engineering (electrical): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (industrial/manufacturing/systems): Seven-way tie for 24th

Engineering (materials engineering): Five-way tie for 25th

Library and Information Studies (school library media): Two-way tie for 11th (ranked in 2022)

Mathematics (applied math): 21st (ranked in 2024)

Nursing master’s (overall): Tied for 12th

Nurse practitioner (adult gerontology acute care): Tied for 11th

Nurse practitioner (family): Tied for 15th

School of Pharmacy (overall): Tied for 14th

Physics (overall): Tied for 20th 

Public Affairs (public policy analysis): 14th

Public Affairs (social policy): Tied for 13th

Public Affairs (urban policy): Three-way tie for 21st

Public Health (health care management): Three-way tie for 16th 

Public Health (health policy and management): 11th

Public Health (social behavior): 13th

Sociology (overall): Two-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2025)

Sociology (population): Two-way tie for 15th (ranked in 2022)

TOP 35:

Business (analytics): Seven-way tie for 32nd

Business (executive MBA): Three-way tie for 29th

Business (finance): Nine-way tie for 31st

Business (international MBA): Tie for 32nd

Business (production & operations): Five-way tie for 27th

Engineering (chemical): Tied for 28th

Engineering (mechanical): 34th

English: Two-way tie for 34th (ranked in 2025)

Fine arts: 15-way tie for 34th

History: Three-way tie for 31st (ranked in 2025)

Mathematics: Four-way tie for 26th

Occupational Therapy: Tied for 20th

Physical Therapy: Tied for 31st

Political science: Five-way tie for 33rd (ranked in 2025)

This winter was ; as a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed to an abysmal ski season, but they can also set the stage for dangerous avalanches. At temperatures close to freezing, precipitation can fall as rain but freeze when it hits the snow, forming an icy crust. Snow that accumulates on top of that crust is unstable and prone to abrupt slides, causing an avalanche that can close down a major highway in moments, endanger backcountry skiers and more.

Avalanche experts in Western Washington know how to manage the risks associated with rain-on-snow events, but many of their counterparts in colder regions like Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana are less familiar with these dynamics. New research from the 91̽�� shows that as winters in these regions warm, their snowpacks may come to resemble those of maritime areas, with more rain-on-snow events, icy crusts and complex avalanche forecasting.��

The findings in ARC Geophysical Research.

“This winter’s warmth is a harbinger,” said lead author , a 91̽��graduate student of civil and environmental engineering. “We know that temperatures will keep rising, and our work is a red flag for cooler regions of the greater Pacific Northwest, such as Idaho and Western Montana, that aren’t used to dealing with ice crusts and their resulting avalanche problems.”

The study is part of a larger effort to understand the structure of snow as it accumulates, which has implications for weather and avalanche forecasting, wildlife dynamics and more.��

“Snow scientists are pretty good at measuring snow depth and volume,” said senior author , a 91̽��professor of civil and environmental engineering. “We’re also pretty good at figuring out how much water you get if all that snow melts. But our models aren’t as good at representing snow structure, such as layers of different densities and crystal types that increase avalanche risks. And we really want to know how the structure of snow changes as the climate changes. That’s a tricky question that no one has tackled, particularly for rain-on-snow conditions.”

To dig into that question, the researchers studied how warming influences ice layer formation in seasonal snowpacks. First, they collected temperature and precipitation data captured by 53 monitoring stations across the Pacific Northwest for the past 25 years. They used a computer model to identify days when ice layers likely formed at each location. They then checked the model against real-world measurements at one of the locations — a station at Snoqualmie Pass — and found that the model matched the measurements with 74% accuracy.

Finally, they used the same model to simulate those same 25 winters at 2 C and 4 C warmer than they were, and looked for changes to the number of ice crusts across the region. , the Pacific Northwest is expected to warm by 2 C to 5 C by 2050 as compared to pre-2000 temperatures.

The results were split regionally by the Cascade mountains. In colder, inland parts of the Pacific Northwest — places like Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana — higher temperatures created more rain-on-snow days and more avalanche-prone ice layers. Locations in the warmer, maritime Cascades saw the opposite effect: Higher temperatures created slush instead of ice, potentially reducing the avalanche risk associated with ice crusts.��

The predicted snowpack changes may also impact wildlife behavior. Some foraging mammals, such as reindeer, dig down into the snow in search of food and may have a hard time breaking through an icy crust. Conversely, firm ice might provide a better running surface for animals fleeing predators. Specific regional effects will require additional study.

What’s clear now is that those who work or play in avalanche terrain in broad swaths of the Pacific Northwest — and even beyond — may need to adjust to a new set of risk factors.

“I’d love to see this shared with avalanche forecasters widely, both as a call to action and as a way to help them understand what their snowpack might look like in the future,” Alden said.

, the director of geospatial science at Audubon Alaska and former doctoral student of environmental and forest sciences at the UW, is a co-author.

This research was funded by the NASA Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science program and the 91̽��Program on Climate Change’s Graubard Fellowship.

For more information, contact Alden at cdalden@uw.edu.

At the 91̽�� Harris Hydraulics Lab, an odd scene plays out. Over and over again, researchers from the 91̽��and the (PNNL) pass a small rubber model of a marine animal through a large tank filled with flowing water and fitted with a spinning turbine. On some runs, the model bonks against the turbine blades; on others, it receives a glancing blow or sails past undisturbed. When bonks or knicks occur, a small collision sensor on one of the turbine’s blades detects the impacts and plots the interactions in a computer program.

The researchers are repeatedly simulating something that they hope will rarely happen in the wild: a collision between marine wildlife like a seabird, seal, fish or whale — or submerged debris like logs — and an underwater turbine.��

“We want to make sure we’re minimizing the chances of a collision in the first place,” said Aidan Hunt, a senior research engineer in mechanical engineering at the 91̽��and member of the (PMEC). “But if a collision were to occur, we want to be able to detect it, and potentially avoid it, in real time. The available evidence suggests that collisions are rare, but we’re taking a ‘trust-but-verify’ approach.”

Marine energy — power harvested from tides, waves and currents — has enormous potential as a clean, renewable resource. But more information is needed about how large, commercial installations of underwater turbines or power-generating buoys could affect marine wildlife, whether through increased noise in the environment, habitat change or direct interactions with equipment.��

The marine collision experiments are part of the , a collection of projects led by PNNL to study the environmental impact of marine energy.��

The work at Harris Hydraulics follows a by PNNL and the 91̽��Applied Physics Lab using a four-foot-tall prototype turbine installed at the entrance to Sequim Bay. In that study, researchers trained an underwater camera on the turbine for 109 days and then catalogued every instance of an animal approaching or interacting with the turbine. The camera captured more than 1,000 instances of fish, birds and seals approaching the turbine blades. There were only four collisions, and all were small fish.��

“This study was a first step, but a promising one,” said co-author , a research scientist at the 91̽��Applied Physics Lab. “We didn’t see any endangered species in our study, and the risk of collision for seals and sea birds seemed to be quite low. We’re excited to get back out there with the camera and learn even more.”

The Sequim Bay experiment generated hours of valuable data, but that degree of intense monitoring may not be practical in large commercial installations in the future. Cheaper impact sensors, like the ones logging bath toy impacts at Harris Hydraulics, could be a solution, researchers say.�� 

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower & Hydrokinetics Office, through the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Triton Initiative and the TEAMER program.

For more information, contact Hunt at ahunt94@uw.edu or Emma Cotter at emma.cotter@pnnl.gov.

As climate change nudges weather in the eastern Cascades in extreme and volatile directions, forest managers in the region have a lot to juggle. Hotter, drier summers are contributing to bigger and more frequent wildfires. Meanwhile, warmer winters may cause the Cascades to lose 50% of its annual snowpack over the next 70 years. Mountain snow supplies the Yakima River Basin with 75% of its water supply, making it a crucial reservoir for both nature and agriculture . Less winter snow also leads to drier and more fire-prone forests in the summer.

To encourage fire resilience, forest managers use tried-and-true tools like controlled burning and the selective felling of trees to thin out the forest. Both methods remove fuel and help return forests to historical conditions — but less is known about their impact on snowpack.

To address this knowledge gap, a team of researchers at the 91̽�� and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) embarked on an ambitious, multiyear study of snowpack along Cle Elum Ridge, an area of the eastern Cascades in the headwaters of the Yakima River Basin. The group experimentally thinned the forest to varying degrees in a roughly 150-acre area. Then, they measured the amount and duration of snowpack during the winter of 2023 and compared it to a previous winter before the forest treatment.��

The results were encouraging: Forest thinning efforts increased snowpack by 30% on north-facing slopes and by 16% on south-facing slopes. Thinning aided snowpack the most where it created a patchwork of gaps in the forest rather than a more even density; gaps of 4-16 meters in diameter seemed to be the “sweet spot” for snow.��

The research points toward more refined forest management practices that can optimize for both wildfire resilience and snowpack.

in Frontiers in Forest and Global Change.

“At its core, this research shows that reducing wildfire risk and protecting water resources don’t have to be competing goals,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alaska who completed this work as a 91̽��doctoral student of civil and environmental engineering. “That’s genuinely good news for a place facing both growing wildfire threats and increasing water vulnerability. So much of the climate conversation focuses on loss, which makes findings like this especially meaningful.”

Predicting snowpack in forested areas, especially those at higher altitudes, hinges on understanding how much snow reaches the ground and how much lands in the forest canopy. Snow on the ground is more likely to stick around through the season, whereas snow in the trees may either melt or sublimate back into water vapor. In either case, it wouldn’t add to the reservoir of water that melts in the spring and summer.�� 

“Trees intercept snow and so can reduce snowpack, but trees also shade snow and so can retain snowpack,” said senior author , a 91̽��professor of civil and environmental engineering. “The dominant effect depends on winter temperatures, and the Cascade crest near Cle Elum is right on the border where the effect flips from trees decreasing snow to trees saving snow.” 

found that natural gaps in the forests of the eastern Cascades accumulated more snow. This, combined with other research, gave the team reason to hope for a positive connection between forest thinning and snowpack, though it wasn’t a sure thing. have found that open areas elsewhere in the Western U.S. saw reduced snowpack.

Thus, it was time for a direct — and complex — study of managed forests.

Researchers picked Cle Elum Ridge for the work, where TNC’s forest managers were planning thinning treatments to improve forest health and wildfire resiliency. The orientation of the ridge allowed them to compare north- and south-facing slopes — southern slopes in the region see more sunshine and less snow retention on average. From October 2021 to September 2022, the researchers worked with TNC’s forest managers and local contract loggers to remove trees on both slopes in a gradient, from no thinning to extensive. The team also set up time-lapse cameras at several strategic points to measure snow depth over time.

Then, they waited for snow to fall.

By March 2023, the area was close to its peak snowpack, and the team returned with staff and equipment from the 91̽�� (RAPID). The RAPID crew flew a specialized drone that generated a detailed 3D map of the study area using a laser-mapping technology called lidar.��

By comparing the new 3D map and timelapse imagery to lidar data captured before the forest treatment, the team was finally ready to calculate two things: the change to the forest structure, and its effect on the snowpack.

Across the whole study area, the team found that thinning helped the forest recover 12.3 acre-feet (or about four million gallons) of water in the form of snow per 100 acres on north-facing slopes, and 5.1 acre-feet (or about 1.5 million gallons) per 100 acres on south-facing slopes.��

As expected, areas where the thinning opened gaps in the canopy were most effective at restoring snow storage that had been previously lost to environmental degradation and climate change. Gaps of 4-16 meters in diameter seemed to retain the most snow, though there were few gaps larger than 16 meters to evaluate.

One surprising result: The way forest managers thin forests doesn’t reliably create gaps. Forest managers map out their reductions using the density of trunks in an area, not canopies, as their primary measurement.

“Imagine a group of 100 people all holding umbrellas in the rain,” said co-author , director of the 91̽��Climate Impacts Group. “They’re standing close enough together that their umbrellas overlap, so none of the rain hits the ground. If you remove 10 of the umbrellas randomly, you’d still have plenty of coverage overall. But, if you remove 10 umbrellas that are right next to one another, you create a gap in the umbrella ‘canopy,’ and you get a 10% increase in the amount of rain that hits the ground.”

That realization adds a nuance to the findings. It’s likely that forest thinning can benefit both wildfire and snowpack resilience at the same time, but only if managers keep canopy gaps in mind.��

“One thing we all learned was that snow people and tree people speak different languages,” Lumbrazo said. “Different experts look at totally different variables to help them decide whether or not to cut down a single tree. So an important goal is to get everyone speaking the same language. And I think this paper is one step towards better communication.”

Overall, the results suggest practical changes to forest management practices in the eastern Cascades. For example, managers might consider more tree-thinning on north-facing slopes, since snowpack gains may be greater there. With further research, these learnings may also extend to other regions in the Pacific Northwest.��

The work could also aid collaboration between forest managers and hydrologists at a time when the region needs all the water it can get.

“As we lose snowpack, everything becomes really squeezed,” said co-author , a senior aquatic ecologist at TNC who earned her doctorate in aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW. “We are currently in our third consecutive year of water restrictions in the Yakima River Basin, and are staring down one of the lowest snow years on record. However, our research shows that the treatments currently used for restoring fire resilient forests are compatible with the forest structure needed for supporting water security. And in a world where climate change is reducing water supplies and increasing wildfire severity, we are pleased to report that the same forest treatments can support both goals.”

Co-authors include , a former 91̽��graduate student of civil and environmental engineering; , a former 91̽��undergraduate student of atmospheric and climate science; , a data processing specialist at the 91̽��RAPID facility; and , director of Forest Conservation and Management at The Nature Conservancy.

This research was funded by The Washington Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and the National Science Foundation.��

For more information, contact Lundquist at jdlund@uw.edu, Dickerson-Lange at dickers@uw.edu or Howe at emily.howe@tnc.org.��

Tohoku University and the 91̽��, two leading academic research institutions of the Pacific Rim, announced “Q-DREAM,” a significant expansion of their decades-long collaboration.

The agreement, signed by university leaders in Tokyo on Friday, provides a broader, future-oriented framework that represents areas of the highest potential synergy. The two universities will engage in joint research, education and innovation in quantum information science & engineering, disaster resilience, engineering and advanced manufacturing, and medicine — summarized with the acronym Q-DREAM.

The Q-DREAM agreement will accelerate joint research and global impact, increase student and faculty exchange programs, enhance international visibility and funding opportunities, and foster innovation ecosystems connecting academia, industry and government. The first part of this new initiative will focus on quantum materials and is set to begin immediately. The remaining focus areas are expected to roll out over the next few years.

The UW-Tohoku collaboration has grown and deepened since it began in 1996. Rooted in aerospace research, the relationship has broadened to include clean energy technology related to transportation, materials for industrial applications and seismic engineering. Since 2017, Academic Open Space (AOS), has provided a strong foundation facilitating research matching across diverse fields and fostering vibrant faculty and student exchanges. And Q-DREAM allows for even more trans-Pacific interaction.

Q-DREAM’s work will include the following focus areas:

• Quantum: Builds on both institutions’ internationally recognized leadership in quantum materials, information science and technologies to accelerate the translation of discoveries into real-world applications with impact across science, industry and national security.
• Disaster resilience: Addresses natural hazards and climate-driven risks, including earthquakes, tsunamis and extreme weather events, with the goal of strengthening community preparedness and infrastructure resilience.
• Engineering & advanced manufacturing: Advances AI-driven engineering, sustainable and resilient manufacturing, and next-generation robotics.
• Medicine: Collaborates at the intersection of engineering and medicine to drive translational research and health innovation, with the goal of accelerating the path from discovery to clinical and societal impact.

“Addressing today’s complex challenges requires bold, collaborative solutions,” said 91̽��President Robert J. Jones. “When leading research universities align around a shared vision, we amplify our ability to advance discovery, drive innovation and serve the public good. We look forward to deepening this partnership with Tohoku University and advancing our shared work in the years ahead.”

Tohoku University President Teiji Tominaga echoed those sentiments.

“Our shared strengths in engineering, science and medicine position us to deliver even greater global impact,” said Tominaga. “Through this collaboration, we are committed to building resilience, advancing scientific discovery and improving lives.”

The Q-DREAM agreement was signed by the leaders of both institutions on the eve of 91̽��Converge Tokyo, the UW’s annual gathering for its global community of alumni and friends.

Heart rate is an important sign of fetal health, yet few technologies exist to easily and inexpensively track fetal heart rates outside of doctors’ offices. This can create risks for pregnancies in low-resource regions where doctors are far away or inaccessible.��

A team led by 91̽�� researchers has created DopFone, a system that uses an off-the-shelf smartphone’s existing speaker and microphone to accurately estimate fetal heart rate. The phone mimics a Doppler ultrasound, emitting a tone and listening for the subtle variations in its echo caused by fetal heart beats. A machine learning model then estimates the heart rate. In a clinical test with 23 pregnant women, DopFone estimated heart rate with an average error of 2 beats per minute, or bpm. The accepted clinical range is within 8 bpm.��

The team Dec. 2 in the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.��

“Eventually DopFone could let people test fetal heart rate regularly, rather than relying on the intermittent tests at a doctor’s office, or not getting tested at all,” said lead author , a 91̽��doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “Patients might then send this data to doctors so that they can better judge patients’ health when they’re not in a clinic.”

Traditional Doppler ultrasounds, the clinical standard for fetal heart rate monitoring, work by sending high-frequency sound into a person’s body and tracking how the echo changes in frequency. They’re very accurate at measuring fetal heart rate but require costly equipment and a skilled technician to operate it.

To use DopFone, a user places the phone’s microphone against their abdomen for one minute. The phone emits a subaudible 18 kilohertz tone. The team chose this low frequency because — unlike a Doppler’s high frequencies, above 2,000 kilohertz —  it sits within the range smartphone microphones can record while still traveling well through tissue. As the tone is reflected through the user’s abdomen, the fetus’s heartbeat creates small shifts in the sound.��

A machine learning model then estimates the heart rate using the audio and the patient’s demographic information

The team tested DopFone in 91̽��Medicine’s maternal-fetal medicine division on 23 pregnant patients between 19 and 39 weeks of pregnancy. On average its readings were within 2.1 bpm of the medical Doppler ultrasound. Its accuracy was slightly diminished for patients with high body mass indexes, though those readings were still within normal limits. Because an irregular fetal heartbeat is often an emergency, DopFone was not tested on patients with irregularities.��

Next, the team plans to gather more data outside a lab to better train the model. Eventually they want to deploy it as a publicly available app.

“This women’s health space is often overlooked,” Garg said. “So I want to focus on accessible alternatives that can be available to people in low resource areas, whether that’s here in the U.S. or in other countries. Because health belongs to everyone.”

Co-authors include , a 91̽��graduate student in electrical and computer engineering; and , both OB/GYNs in 91̽��Medicine’s  maternal-fetal medicine division; and , a 91̽��assistant professor in the Allen School. , a 91̽��professor in the Allen School and in electrical and computer engineering, and of the Georgia Institute of Technology, were senior authors. This research was funded by the 91̽��Gift Fund.��

For more information, contact Garg at pgarg70@uw.edu.

The 91̽�� and Microsoft have announced the expansion of their long‑standing partnership uniting world-class academic research with world-leading technology. 91̽��and Microsoft aim to accelerate AI discovery, prepare students and workers for an AI-driven economy, and help communities understand and use AI responsibly.

The announcement, made today by 91̽��President Robert J. Jones and Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith during an event at the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, will increase the University’s access to the most advanced AI computing power, expand internship and applied research opportunities for its students, and develop community AI literacy programs, including a foundational AI course for working Washingtonians.

“Our long-standing partnership with Microsoft demonstrates what’s possible when universities and industry come together to support students and our society, and we are grateful for their continued support,” Jones said. “Together, we’re expanding students’ access to hands-on learning, advancing AI research and strengthening our workforce.”

This announcement builds on Microsoft’s decades-long support of the University, including $165 million of investments in student scholarships and enhancements to the UW’s world-leading computer science and engineering programs. In tandem with ongoing state and federal support, these investments have helped increase access to education and contributed to the state’s highly skilled workforce.

“President Jones has outlined a bold vision for the 91̽��, one that expands access and affordability in higher ed, forges radical partnerships and strengthens civic health,” Smith said. “It’s essential that this vision includes broad access to AI technology and the skills to use it, so students, workers and communities across Washington are prepared for this new era of computing and can share fully in its benefits.”

The timing of the announcement comes as forecasts predict a need to fill 1.5 million job vacancies in Washington by 2032 — about 640,000 new jobs and 910,000 openings due to retirements, according to Partnership for Learning. Up to 75% of those vacancies will require post-secondary credentials, with four-year and advanced degrees in highest demand. If current trends hold, experts predict a shortfall of nearly 600,000 credentialed workers in Washington over the decade.

“It’s critical that industry, colleges and universities, and policy makers continue to work together to maintain the region’s economy and climate of innovation and discovery,” Smith said. “That includes avoiding going backward by making cuts to core state funding that would make a college degree less accessible to our state’s students.”

The budgets proposed by the Washington State Legislature’s majorities would keep funding for the 91̽��largely stable. Historically, the Legislature has created a fertile environment for workforce growth and training through the Washington Workforce Education Investment Act (WEIA) and the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS).

Since passage in 2019, with support from Microsoft and other business leaders, the WEIA has generated more than $2 billion in dedicated funding to expand higher education access in Washington.�� WSOS — a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership in which private employers contribute philanthropic dollars that are matched by the State of Washington to expand access to higher education in high-demand fields — has delivered nearly $150 million in total scholarships statewide, combining private donations and state matching funds. One-third of WSOS scholars attend the UW.

“These new elements of our partnership with Microsoft continue to position the 91̽��and our state as leaders in access to higher education and at the forefront of the emerging technologies that can drive broad-based prosperity,” Jones said.

Microsoft and the UW’s expanded partnership will:

• Provide faculty, researchers and students with access to advanced computing capabilities that enable modern AI training, experimentation and research, and instruction. Microsoft is supplementing this effort by donating Microsoft Azure cloud computing credits to help accelerate the development of a research cloud computing platform.
• Launch a new initiative to connect 91̽��faculty, visiting professors and students with real-world research opportunities at Microsoft. This is based on a new “research marketplace” that will be established and supported by Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. It will be complemented by 10 additional graduate student-researcher slots per year — eight through the Microsoft Research organization and two in the AI for Good Lab.
• Support undergraduate students as they become civic leaders, helping them build ethical judgment, digital citizenship and agency to co-design how emerging technologies, including AI, will serve communities and democracy.
• Join forces with UW’s Continuum College, an institution serving more than 50,000 learners annually through 400 programs serving young people, working adults and senior citizens. The 91̽��and Microsoft will develop programming that helps Washingtonians navigate AI-related workforce transitions with confidence and purpose. This collaboration will result in new courses and other learning pathways focused on career resilience, evolving job demands and navigating the challenges that accompany shifting career identities.
• Beginning this fall, the 91̽��and Microsoft will launch a new collaboration on Microsoft’s Redmond campus that reimagines how universities and industry work together. This part of the work will deepen workforce‑connected education and applied learning. The collaboration will support the co‑development of select courses and learning experiences for Microsoft employees navigating rapid AI‑driven change, while enabling 91̽��students to learn alongside industry professionals and gain real‑world insight as part of their academic experience. Additional details will be announced later this year.

Since becoming the UW’s 34th president in August 2025, President Jones has set out three key priorities for the University: increasing access to education, including through the goal of making a 91̽��degree debt-free for Washington undergraduates; spurring radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change; and eliminating any artificial barriers between the University and the communities it serves.

Along with strategic planning underway at the UW, Jones is engaging with corporate and civic leaders, as well as organizations throughout the region, to expand existing partnerships with the UW. Through these relationships, he aims to support access and affordability for students and the economic vitality and social fabric of Washington state and beyond.

For more information, contact Victor Balta at balta@uw.edu.

Five 91̽�� faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 17, are , an assistant professor of physics, , an assistant professor of chemistry, and , an assistant professor of biology, all in the College of Arts & Sciences; , an assistant professor of computer science in the College of Engineering; and , an assistant professor of oceanography in the College of the Environment.��

Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, and including this year’s fellows, 136 faculty from 91̽�� have received a Sloan Research Fellowship, according to the Sloan Foundation.��

Sloan Fellowships are open to scholars in seven scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics — and honor early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.��

The 126 Sloan Fellows for 2026 were selected by researchers and faculty in the scientific community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in their field. Each fellow will receive $75,000 to apply toward research endeavors.��

This year’s fellows come from 44 institutions across the United States and Canada.��

Maria “Masha” Baryakhtar

�������ⲹ���ٲ���’s research in the Department of Physics focuses on theories beyond the established Standard Model of particle physics and on creating new ideas and directions for testing these theories. Such theories address outstanding puzzles in our existing understanding and often predict new, ultralight, feebly interacting particles beyond those we have discovered so far. The existence of these particles can be tested through exquisitely precise experiments in the lab or by observing extreme objects in the sky like black holes and neutron stars.

“My research program aims to search high and low for new, as yet hidden particles and forces. Because of their nature, these particles require a range of creative search strategies. The directions I am establishing use new technologies and data from the sky to the lab and may be the only way to shed light on the truly dark elements of our universe.”

Matthew R. Golder

�ҴDZ�����’s research in the Department of Chemistry addresses the omnipresent “plastics problems” from two different vantage points. First, the team thinks about new ways to prolong the useful lifetime of commodity materials. The researchers use molecular engineering to keep plastics in use longer before discarding. The Golder Research Group also develops new methods to make and repurpose plastics, with an emphasis on green chemistry and making plastics more recyclable.

“Plastics are paramount to daily life, so there are numerous opportunities to improve performance and mitigate waste. We operate at the interface of fundamental organic chemistry and applied materials science to enhance plastic integrity and sustainability. By doing so, my students really take this mission to heart and constantly dream up new ways to creatively (re)design commodity plastic materials.” 

Vikram Iyer

������’s research in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering seeks to address sustainability challenges across the full computing stack from creating recyclable polymers to reimagining the way we build computing hardware by designing AI systems to and . In particular, the group’s work goes beyond simply reducing energy consumption to quantify and tackle the environmental impacts of materials and manufacturing.��

“My group both leverages innovations from outside of computing like chemistry and material science to drive sustainability and applies computing techniques from AI to programming languages to fundamentally advance environmental sciences. This work is highly interdisciplinary and takes some extra effort at the beginning for each of us to understand the technologies and methods developed by our collaborators. By doing this, we can come up with completely new ideas that have real world impact like enabling carbon reduction at major companies like Amazon, and creating systems like battery-free robots that push the boundaries of technology.”

Willem Laursen

�����ܰ������’s research in the Department of Biology is focused on understanding how animals detect and respond to sensory cues in their environment. Using genetic manipulation, neurophysiology and behavioral analyses, the lab’s current focus is to understand how disease vector mosquitoes use sensory cues to locate hosts, mates and egg-laying sites.

“It is an honor to be selected as a Sloan Fellow. This award will support our lab’s research on the role of the mosquito gustatory, or taste, system in critical behaviors, such as blood feeding. While mosquitoes use all of their senses to efficiently locate hosts, their taste system is surprisingly understudied. By examining the gustatory systems of blood-feeding insects, we hope to better understand how taste cues on the skin and in the blood are detected and used to guide their specialized behaviors, lines of inquiry that could ultimately identify new targets for controlling the spread of disease.”

Frankie Pavia

�ʲ�������’s research in the School of Oceanography develops and applies new isotopic techniques to study feedbacks in the Earth system. His work spans the oceanic, atmospheric, lithospheric, and human domains, on timescales ranging from minutes to millennia.

“The oceans are a repository and reactor for materials originating on land, in the atmosphere, in Earth’s interior and from outer space. Chemical fingerprints of oceanic interactions with these reservoirs can be unlocked using unique analytical chemistry techniques, especially those involving the precise measurement of isotope ratios. My current research aims to discover new interactions between the oceans and the Earth system in the past, present and future, by pioneering interdisciplinary studies that use measurements of stable and radioactive isotopes to determine how much and how fast the Earth system changes. Current projects involve using cosmic dust to reconstruct sea-ice coverage, sensitively detecting human-derived carbon in the oceans, and understanding the past and future impacts of oceanic calcium carbonate dissolution on storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide.” 

Contact Baryakhtar at mbaryakh@uw.edu, Golder at goldermr@uw.edu, Iyer at vsiyer@cs.washington.edu, Laursen at wlaursen@uw.edu, and Pavia at fjpavia@uw.edu.