CSE Undergrad News

New Course for Spring! Innovation Readiness: Cultivating an Innovation Mindset

Do you want to be an innovator? A new course for undergraduate students introduces innovation as a process, not an accident, and presents skills for students to practice to foster an innovation mindset.

Goals: Through active learning, case studies, lectures and team exercises, students will learn how to:

• Define problems for innovation
• Create processes for solving problems
• Design a personal innovation plan
• Identify innovation in everyday settings
• Work in multidisciplinary teams
• Improve authentic social networking skills

Lectures: Monday/Wednesday, 9:30–11:20am

Lab: One hour on Fridays

Register via:

• EE 299, section A (SLN 13294)
• ME 295 (SLN 21326)
• COM 495 (SLN 12542)

Want to learn more about the 2016 – 2017 animation course series? Attend an info session!

www.cs.washington.edu/research/ap

When:

• Wednesday, April 6th @ 1:00-3:00 PM
• Thursday, April 14th @ 4:00-6:00 PM
• Tuesday, April 19th @ 1:00-3:00 PM
• Wednesday, April 27th @ 2:00-4:00PM
• Friday, May 6th @ 1:00-3:00 PM

Where:

Paul G. Allen Center room 691 (Gates Commons, 6th floor)

What:

Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) and the Animation Research Labs invite you to an information session on the Animation Production undergraduate course sequence at UW Seattle. This sequence runs from Summer 2016 (A term) through Spring 2017. The Summer course, Story Design for Computer Animation, is highly recommended but optional.

The Animation Capstone culminates in a very professional and exciting collaboratively produced digital short film, similar in process to Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks productions. Examples of previous award winning films produced in the dept will be shown and questions regarding applications and admission, etc. will be addressed. We look forward to seeing you there. Light refreshments will be served.

Questions: Contact emc29@cs.washington.edu

ENGR498C, Social and Environmental Impacts of Consumer Technology, is a new course exploring significant social and environmental impacts of technology with particular emphasis on consumer products. The course will cover a broad range of technologies from the production of plastics to the use of cell phones, in terms of how these technologies impact people, culture, ecosystem, and public health.

What happens to all that plastic used in our every day lives? What happens to your old phone when you get a new one? How has technology changed the way we think, focus, interact, and relate to the world? In this course, we will look at these and other similar questions raised by our design, use, and distribution of consumer technology. Technology is often far more than what initially meets the design engineer’s eye. Join us as we explore the consequences of its use and disposal around the world.

When: Spring Quarter 2016
Where: EEB 026
Time: Tuesday, 3:30-5:20 p.m.
Credits: 2 (I&S)
Instructor: Denise Wilson

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:

The Engineering Capstone Design Award supports teams of undergraduate engineering students working on capstone design projects. Funding for this award is made possible through private support by alumni and friends of the College of Engineering. Awards can be used for supplies/materials, equipment, travel, or training relevant to the capstone design project. Distribution of awards varies based on funding availability and the distribution decisions of the Capstone Review Committee. In 2015, the maximum amount awarded was $1,000.

Requests for funding can be submitted through the Catalyst application. The application deadline is March 4, 2016 at 5:00pm. Applicants will receive award notifications by March 18, 2016.

The application can be found at: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/enghmw/291080.

Please pass this information along to undergraduate students currently working on team capstone projects.

Please contact Mike Engh at enghmw@uw.edu if you have questions about the application process.

Sincerely,

Brian Fabien

Brian C. Fabien, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, Academic Affairs
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
University of Washington
370 Loew Hall, Box 352180
Seattle, WA 98195

This is just a brief reminder to everyone about a few notes from advising:

• Starting this week the UW will charge you $20/day that you make changes to your record.  So if you are switching sections, dropping a course, or adding research, try to do it all in one day.

Second, everyone should take note that just about every 400 level course that was packed full has anywhere from 5-15 spaces in it. We really can’t solve this problem for any of you, but the longer you hold onto courses, the more you stress out your comrades.  Everything was super full the last week of Dec.  Next time registration comes around and you’re worried that courses are full, keep this in mind.  I wish there was a good solution for this, but we don’t have one.  If you have suggestions, feel free to email ugrad-advisor@cs

We did have a few issues getting everyone into 332, 312 and 344, but at least in those cases, students have a lot more flexibility in their coursework.  We are trying to increase all class sizes to continue to make this process easier moving forward. Since we have grown every year, it’s a bit of a moving target.

• If you haven’t filed for graduation yet, you need to do that.   If you are graduating in Winter, you have until the 3rd Friday of this quarter, if you are graduating spring or summer, you should still try to file sometime this quarter, but it doesn’t matter so much when you do it.
• If you want to sign up for research, there is an online form linked from the research pages. Please be very careful which “type” of research you sign up for. There is a max of 9 credits of honors 498B, and 6 total credits for 498A.  A max of 9 total credits of any combination of 498 graded research.  See the research pages for more information.

We’ve heard some rumbling in the student population about changes in 401.   We contacted the instructors of the course to see if they were interested in sharing more information about the new changes and here’s what they had to say:

Instructor: Anat Caspi: Caspian@cs.uw.edu

COURSE:   CSE481H Accessibility Capstone: Designing Technology Promoting Independence and Quality of Life
MEETINGS:   Tuesdays/Thursdays
TIME:   noon - 1:20pm
CSE 481H: sln 12960
INSTRUCTORS:  Anat Caspi (CSE), Bruce Hemingway (CSE)

COURSE DESCRIPTION: CSE 481H, Accessibility Capstone is an interdisciplinary, project-based course centered around a design project in which small teams of students work closely with a stakeholder (person with disability, caregiver or therapist) to design a device, piece of equipment, app, or other solution that helps increase quality of life and independence for individuals with disabilities. We encourage engineers, designers, and rehabilitation medicine students to join this course.

BACKGROUND:

This is an incredibly interesting and exciting time to be involved in access technologies. There are novel tools, sensors, chips, interfaces, 3D printers, open source software and actuators that are cheaply and readily available facilitating rapid prototyping, development and deployment of customized solutions to many problems. The main challenge, however, is to create a sustainable social enterprise around the creation, deployment and support of these technologies so they may benefit their end users in both the short and long term. Some example projects for which we have stakeholders ready to work with students:

   - Autonomy in Choosing Caregivers: People with disabilities are often unable to choose their own caregivers (unless they are family or friends). This project will create a platform allowing clients with disabilities to choose their support workers. The platform will support search for support workers or clients who are geographically compatible and are seeking similar working relationships.
   - Automated QC for 3D Customizable devices:  There is a growing movement designing and manufacturing affordable Assistive Technology products for people with disabilities. The intent is producing high quality, open-source designs which are 3D printed and assembled by makers or people with disabilities all around the world. The aim is to massively increase innovation and reduce the cost of Assistive Tech by 10x across the board, globally. Early prototypes, and other similar projects, have achieved cost savings of at least this much. The 3D printing lab at UW Bothell is interested in creating universal methods to make the design and manufacturing of such devices more streamlined, easier to create and better quality controlled. The objective would be to create open-source ventilator parts platform for anyone in the world to use. In partnership with Seattle Children's Hospital
   - Object recognition for individuals with low-vision: Google, Inc. has just open-sourced its object recognition system (three releases back). The models in the system have been trained not only to identify what is in the image, but to perform some kind of reasoning about the salient features in it. If the recognition module identifies a face, it will attempt to perform face recognition based on customizations that the end user has made (like sharing their photos). Providing an app that can inform the end user about what is seen by the camera is of great value. Prioritizing and organizing the output is potentially even more so.  

   - Brain development and education: The Brain Development and Education Lab at UW studies the neurobiological basis of learning to read and/or developing new techniques for measuring the developing human brain. The lab combines quantitative MRI (diffusion, T1, etc.), functional MRI, MEG and behavioral measurements to model how changes in brain structure relate to changes in cortical computation and behavior. The lab’s goal is to understand how the brain’s reading circuitry develops in response to education and how targeted behavioral interventions prompt changes in the brain’s of children with dyslexia. Based on their findings, the lab has developed suggested ways of modifying early reader programs (educational programs teaching young learners to read) that are customized to the end user. The partner, the Brain Development and Education Lab, is interested in building web apps or tablet apps that are responsive and can demonstrate their findings.

We hope you'll join us in designing and building impactful technologies this winter quarter!

CSE 490D:  Technology for the Developing World:  Digital Financial Services This winter quarter we are offering a 1-credit, undergraduate reading seminar on technology in the developing world, with an emphasis on digital financial services.   The purpose of the seminar is to provide an introduction to a research area at the intersection of computer science and global development.  One of the mechanisms to bring people out of poverty is to increase access to financial services, including mobile money and savings instruments.  To accomplish this, it is necessary to utilize multiple technologies that can be deployed in resource constrained environments.

The seminar will meet on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:20 pm, and will be coordinated by Richard Anderson (Anderson@cs) and Ruth Anderson (Rea@cs).   The seminar will provide  an introduction to the area of technology in the developing world and digital financial services through reading basic papers in the area.

The format will be discussion, with discussion leaders responsible for guiding a discussion (but not giving a full recap of the paper).  There will be no papers or tests.   The seminar is CR/no Cr.   For more information, contact either of the instructors.  The seminar is open for registration now to CS and CE majors.

This course is open to all Engineering majors.  CS students as well.  Everyone should be able to register by tomorrow.

Our leadership seminar invites alumni back to share their knowledge about companies, experiences, interview tips, career tracks, why someone may consider industry versus graduate school and other related topics.

SLN 13437   

EE 400A   

Friday 10:30-11:20am  

1 credit   

Room: EXED 110 (bank of america executive education center just behind Dempsey Hall). 

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Swanson Academic Counselor | Undergraduate Programs

stepswan@uw.edu

The advising staff is getting a lot of email about full courses.  Here’s the official scoop, please read!

1. This always seems to happen.
2. It always stresses everyone out (sorry!).
3. There is hoarding going on with your peers, shame them into not hoarding courses as this messes up everyone’s plans.
4. PLEASE sign up on notify so we can see where the demand is for courses, we are actively trying to add space as I type.
5. MOST of the time we can get the majority of students in when they show up in the first week, so all is not lost.
6. What about getting into a different section of a course you’re registered for? We can often help with this, but generally don’t do it until after the main registration period, so hang tight and then email advisors with all the relevant info: your name, student number, sln of section you’re in, slns of sections you’d like, and we’ll see what we can do, but try hard to wait until Period II registration

https://www.cs.washington.edu/students/ugrad/before_you_register#major

Please do not contact faculty directly. CSE advisors manage overload requests for 300- and 400-level majors classes (i.e., those open only to CS or CE majors) during the first week of the quarter.  Here are actions you can take if desired classes are full:

1. Register for the UW Notify program so you’ll be alerted to space opening in the course. This also helps the department understand where current demand is falling.
2. Continue watching the time schedule for an open space. Also consider other courses you can take and register for them.
3. If you cannot enroll before the start of the quarter, plan to attend class. During the first few days of the quarter, the instructor will tell you how to fill out the online overload form for students who still need to register. At the end of the first week, advisors will give out add codes if there is room in the course to overload.
4. If you have trouble registering due to prerequisites, contact an advisor for assistance.  Include your full name and student number for a prompt response.

With respect to non-CSE courses, the Gateway Center for Undergrad Advising provides tips and specific departmental information for getting into closed courses. For most courses, checking the time schedule for openings is your best chance of getting a space.