News | December 10, 2019
‘Carpentry Compiler’ turns 3D models into instructions on how to build them
Even to an experienced carpenter, it may not be obvious what the best way is to build a structure they’ve designed. A new digital tool, Carpentry Compiler, provides a way forward, converting the shapes of the structure to a step-by-step guide on how to produce them. It could help your next carpentry project get off the…
News | August 5, 2019
‘I’d drink my jacuzzi’: how earthquake scientists prepare for the ‘big one’
Two back-to-back earthquakes, of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1, hit southern California in less than 24 hours last month, and seismologists have warned of an increased chance of more shaking in the near future. We spoke with four earthquake scientists living in high-risk areas to see what the people who think about earthquakes the most plan to do…
News | June 29, 2022
1 year after Surfside collapse, local officials still working to ensure buildings are safe
One year has passed since a condominium tower in Surfside, Florida, collapsed and killed 98 people in the early morning hours of June 24 — but experts, officials, and those who lived through the disaster say there’s still a long way to go to ensure the safety of other buildings in South Florida. The devastation…
News | July 24, 2015
1st International Workshop on Smart Cities & Urban Analytics (UrbanGIS)
Now Taking Submissions! CALL FOR PAPERS: The 1st International Workshop on Smart Cities and Urban Analytics (UrbanGIS) 2015 in conjunction with ACM SIGSPATIAL 2015 Seattle, WA, USA – November 3, 2015 http://engineering.nyu.edu/urbangis2015/ IMPORTANT DATES: Paper Submission: September 1, 2015 (midnight PT) Notification of Acceptance: September 19, 2015 Workshop date: November 3, 2015 Paper Submission Site:…
News | September 7, 2021
2021 Urban@UW Spark Grants awardees announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the second round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The two projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Vehicle Residents: A Case Study of the Seattle Public Utilities’ Recreational Vehicle Wastewater…
News | January 14, 2022
2021: The deadliest and most dangerous year on Washington’s roads since 2006
As Washington went quiet in the early days of the pandemic, Staci Hoff figured at least it would mean fewer deaths on the roads in 2020. She was wrong. Then, as cars began returning in 2021, she hoped maybe the carnage would slow as congestion increased and speeds decreased. She was wrong again. Washington ended…
News | March 6, 2021
2021’s best cities to own an electric car
Originally written for LawnStarter. You likely have seen more electric vehicles on the road, at stoplights, and charging in grocery store lots and parking garages. But some U.S. cities have embraced the electric car faster than others. With huge differences in tax incentives, electricity costs, and charging infrastructure, the convenience of electric vehicle (EV) driving…
News | September 14, 2022
2022 Urban@UW Spark Grants Awardees Announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the third round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The three projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Analysis of a Food Bank Home Delivery Program Food security, defined as access at all times to nutritious food,…
News | October 18, 2018
4 fresh ideas to ease Seattle’s coming traffic nightmare
Seattle is doomed — at least in terms of its traffic for at least the next three years. Already, morning and evening gridlock seems to start earlier and end later. I-5 through downtown is nearly always jammed up. Overloaded buses wait through multiple light cycles attempting to inch through intersections at rush hour. And it’s…
News | June 26, 2024
A Biochar Solution for Urban Runoff
Written by Julia Davis for the University of Washington In cities around the globe, stormwater runoff remains largely untreated, collecting everything from heavy metals to pesticides before flowing into our waterways. This environmental challenge requires innovative solutions, and biochar may just be the key. CEE Assistant Professor Jessica Ray and graduate student Amy Quintanilla are…
News | March 31, 2020
A decade of punishment and heavy traffic catches up to the West Seattle Bridge
Most mornings in the last decade, travelers on the West Seattle Bridge could see a menagerie of box trucks delivering food, 25-ton buses aligned nose to tail, flatbeds of steel rebar and hordes of cars, vans and pickups. It turns out, we may have loved the concrete span to death. The Seattle Department of Transportation…
News | November 1, 2022
A new approach, not currently described by the Clean Air Act, could eliminate air pollution disparities
While air quality has improved dramatically over the past 50 years thanks in part to the Clean Air Act, people of color at every income level in the United States are still exposed to higher-than-average levels of air pollution. A team led by researchers at the University of Washington wanted to know if the Clean…
News | October 29, 2021
A new tool suggests we’re underestimating the environmental cost of new roads
The infrastructure bill being hammered out in D.C. will fund a lot of road projects, including some in Washington State. But it’s difficult to reduce our carbon emissions when we keep building more highways. That’s what inspired a network of environmental groups to build a calculator that shows how much air pollution is caused by…
News | July 7, 2020
A/B Streets game lets you create the Seattle street grid of your dreams
It seems like a lifetime ago when we could just leave the house and go places, whether on foot or bike or (if we must) car. And as much as one might long for a return to normal-times, let’s not forget that normalcy also involved such headaches as congestion, traffic sewers, long waits for buses,…
News | November 18, 2020
Accessible pedestrian routing tools expand to three Washington cities
Whether navigating urban spaces with different abilities, or simply seeking a walking or biking path that prioritizes specifications other than the quickest route and shortest distance, having access to standardized, comprehensive data about pedestrian pathways offers wide-ranging benefits. However, this information is often difficult to find due to local variations in data collection, inconsistencies and…
Scholar
Ahmed Abdel-Aziz
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 18, 2020
Air Pollution Crosses Borders
Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York State’s Adirondack Park, offers breathtaking views to hikers on a clear day. But despite being hundreds of miles from the nearest smokestack, summer air pollution levels here can sometimes be worse than in Times Square in New York City. “Often you’re going to feel lung burn in…
News | February 1, 2022
Air pollution from planes, roads infiltrates schools and can be dramatically reduced with portable air filters
What started as a University of Washington-led project to measure air pollution near Sea-Tac International Airport has led to schools in the area installing portable air filters to improve indoor air quality. First, UW researchers found they were able to parse aircraft pollution from roadway pollution in the communities under Sea-Tac International Airport flight paths and map…
Course | CEWA 557
Air Resources Management
Technical, administrative, and legal aspects of air conservation. Topics include urban and regional scale air quality measurement and modeling systems, receptor modeling based on chemical fingerprinting of sources and current case studies involving engineering analysis, air-quality modeling, and regulatory aspects at local, state, and federal governmental levels.Course | ENVH 461 / CEE 490
Air-Pollution Control
Fundamental concepts of air pollution Control including emission sources, atmospheric dispersion, ambient concentrations, and emission standards, with emphasis on processes and equipment for controlling emissions.Scholar
Alan Borning
Visit scholar websiteCourse | CEE 101
Amazing Infrastructure, its Impacts and the Roles of Civil and Environmental Engineers
This seminar course will cover an overview of world infrastructure and the roles for civil and environmental engineers perform in planning, design and construction.Scholar
Amelia C Regan
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 23, 2019
Americans would rather drive themselves to work than have an autonomous vehicle drive them, study says
Many Americans use a ride-hailing service — like Uber or Lyft — to get to and from work. It provides the privacy of riding in a personal car and the convenience of catching up on emails or social media during traffic jams. In the future, self-driving vehicles could provide the same service, except without a…
News | March 24, 2023
An Empowering Education
Mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate Malia Steward’s work focuses on solar energy – the fastest-growing source of new electricity in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Photovoltaic or solar cells are made of semiconductor material that absorbs the energy of sunlight and converts it to electrical power. Steward aims to understand solar cells’…
Scholar
Anat Caspi
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Anna Karlin
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Anne Goodchild
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Anne Vernez-Moudon
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Barb Ivanov
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Batya Friedman
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 26, 2018
BECU and CoMotion partner to create Seattle fintech hub
UW CoMotion has partnered with BECU, Washington’s largest community credit union, to create a fintech hub in the Seattle region, which includes the launch of the BECU FinTech Incubator at CoMotion Labs. Fintech startups, Noonum and Warren, are the first two members. The collaboration combines BECU’s expertise in broad-based financial services, data analysis, and customer experiences with CoMotion’s…
Scholar
Behçet Açikmeşe
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Bethany Gordon
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Bill Howe
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 11, 2024
Bird Flu Tests Are Hard To Get. So How Will We Know When To Sound The Pandemic Alarm?
Reported by Kaiser Health News for Patch PALO ALTO, CA — Stanford University infectious disease doctor Abraar Karan has seen a lot of patients with runny noses, fevers, and irritated eyes lately. Such symptoms could signal allergies, covid, or a cold. This year, there’s another suspect, bird flu — but there’s no way for most…
Scholar
Brett Maurer
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 20, 2020
Building Codes for ‘The Really Big One’ in Seattle
Earthquake experts say current building codes don’t reflect the riskiest features of the Seattle area’s geology — but the outlook for survivability looks a lot better if the Really Big One can just hold off for a few more years. The Cascadia subduction zone, centered along a submarine fault just off the West Coast, is…
News | January 23, 2024
Building community resilience: A $2 million NSF grant will transform disaster response
Amy Sprague January 16, 2024 “Our advantage of being an interdisciplinary project at the University of Washington is that we are drawing from an excellent corps of researchers with complementary expertise at a University whose mission includes working for the greater good across the state of Washington and has excellent ties into our communities.” Professor…
News | April 21, 2021
Building for sustainability
For civil engineering doctoral student Nathalie Thelemaque, it’s not enough to research how to design a building or a bridge. Thelemaque wants to know the impact of infrastructure systems on the climate and marginalized communities and help create more sustainable ones. It’s an issue so important that it even helped change her mind from considering a career in…
News | May 24, 2021
Built on pudding: Can modern quake engineering prevail?
This is the second of three stories about a little-known geologic fault that could trigger a major earthquake in Snohomish and Island counties. EVERETT — You’re strolling across a flat sandy beach, on the wet part, where the waves roll in and out. You stop to wiggle your toes. You sink. In an earthquake, this can happen…
News | September 17, 2018
Bus battle: Do private shuttles affect the reliability of public transit?
While many Puget Sound residents have to choose between taking public transit or personal vehicles to work, Microsoft and Seattle Children’s Hospital employees have an additional option: private commuter buses. Last year, King County Metro and the Seattle Department of Transportation started a pilot program that allowed these shuttles to pick up employees at a few public bus…
News | July 18, 2019
Bus PASS: Testing pedestrian collision avoidance technology
Already, many cars have sensors on board that help drivers avoid collisions. But not many commercial vehicles do. With pedestrian fatalities due to collisions, on the rise, the Federal Transit Administration is working on a “Pedestrian Avoidance Safety System: ‘PASS’ for short. And it picked Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute to give it a test drive….
News | December 4, 2018
Can an app help avoid bike-car collisions on the Burke-Gilman Trail? UW students are testing it
The possibility of a crash occurs every few minutes at the Burke-Gilman Trail: A bicyclist is cruising past alders and maples that conceal traffic. A motorist has just turned toward Lake Washington, and can’t see trail users approaching the road from either side. In the future, a navigation app might warn them both, if an…
News | September 15, 2022
Can Blockchain Help King County’s Urban Carbon Credits Go Further?
In June, King County made headlines for a huge deal in the fight against climate change: three parcels of land – in King County, Issaquah and Shoreline – got the highest prices ever for carbon credits generated by urban forests. The purchaser is Regen Network Development, a Delaware-based blockchain company that plans to offer the…
News | August 21, 2019
Can Project Sidewalk use crowdsourcing to help Seattleites get around?
Jon Froehlich distinctly remembers the moment when Google first unveiled Street View in 2007. The computer scientist spent hours virtually wandering through distant city streets and immersing himself in parts of the world he had yet to visit in real life. Then Froehlich had a thought: “What else could we use this for?” Within a decade, he’d developed…
News | August 27, 2021
Cargo bikes hold promise for speedier, less polluting package delivery
As online shopping grows, so do the number of double-parked delivery vans blocking traffic in cities and adding carbon emissions into the air. To curb both pollution and street congestion, a new report suggests that logistics companies should be investing more in electric cargo bikes as an alternative. In city centers, the study found that…
Scholar
Cecilia Aragon
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 16, 2020
CEE researchers develop first-ever map that quantifies landslide risk in Seattle
When it comes to safeguarding Seattle from landslide hazards, UW CEE Ph.D. student William Pollock has a plan mapped out – quite literally. He will soon be releasing a first-of-its-kind map that predicts landslide risk throughout the city. “As far as I know, this is the first map in the nation to quantify landslide risk…
News | August 24, 2018
Certified healthy buildings? Bellevue and UW are working on it
Considering that most people spend one-third of their day at work, UW Civil and Environmental Engineering researchers are advocating for healthier buildings. And they aren’t wasting any time. The first government building in Puget Sound, Bellevue City Hall, recently gained Fitwel Certification thanks to their help. “Since the built environment affects human health, the certification symbolizes the city’s commitment…
Scholar
Charles W Roeder
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 31, 2022
Chemical from tyres linked to mass salmon deaths in US found in Australia for first time
A toxic chemical released from tyres as they wear down on roads and implicated in mass deaths of salmon in the United States has been found in an Australian waterway for the first time. Scientists detected the compound – known as 6PPD-quinone – among a cocktail of chemicals and hundreds of kilograms of tyre particles…
Scholar
Chiwei Yan
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 5, 2018
Cities face a surge in online deliveries
By the time veteran UPS driver Thomas “Tommy” Chu leaves work, he will have picked up and delivered hundreds of packages in New York City, making some 16 stops an hour as his company hurries to meet the online shopping rush. But what may be his most impressive feat of the day precedes that scramble:…
News | April 27, 2017
Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
With a major increase in residential deliveries, new urban delivery challenges have also arrived. That’s due in part to the failures of urban planning and the nature of the trucking business. While matters of public policy like public transit, bike lanes, and walkability fall within the purview of planning boards and municipal departments of transportation,…
Degree Program
Civil and Environmental Engineering (PhD)
Students in the UW CEE Ph.D. program work closely with distinguished faculty on research and pursue their own innovative projects, preparing them to make a difference in the world. Students who pursue Ph.D. degrees often obtain high-level jobs in industry or go on to work in academia. Students focus their studies on one of the…
Visit program websiteDegree Program
Civil Engineering (BS, MS)
At the University of Washington, civil engineering students are preparing to take on the challenges presented by aging national infrastructure and the pressing needs of both urban and developing communities around the globe. Civil engineers design, build, operate and maintain urban environments to improve people’s lives. From transportation to water quality to earthquake preparedness, resilient…
Visit program websiteNews | March 16, 2020
Climate Debate Over Washington State Decarbonization
On March 11, KUOW’s That’s Debatable highlighted a goal, based on the state’s own policies and recommendations — “Washington State Can Decarbonize in a Decade” — and featured Schwartz, Simonen, and local youth activists Julia Barnett and Sarah Starman. The event was broadcasted live from the KUOW studios at 7 p.m. The event was originally…
News | May 13, 2024
Cloud Brightening Study in California Is Halted by Local Officials
Researchers had been testing a sprayer that could one day be used to push a salty mist skyward, cooling the Earth. Officials stopped the work, citing health questions. Written by Christopher Flavelle for The New York Times. Officials in Alameda, Calif., have told scientists to stop testing a device that might one day be used…
News | August 10, 2021
Co-designing a technology intervention to support the health and development of children
The King County’s 2018-2019 Community Needs Assessment revealed that infants from racially and economically marginalized groups encounter the highest rates of infant mortality and lowest birth weights compared to any other population. King County has offered developmental screening services and virtual information to help child caregivers address this issue. However, there is growing consensus among…
News | June 5, 2024
Community broadband provides a local solution for a global problem
Written by Esther Jang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Computer Science, University of Washington; Katherine Gillieson, Associate Dean, Master of Design, Emily Carr University; and Michael Lithgow, Associate Professor, Media and Communication Studies, Athabasca University Published in The Conversation. According to a 2023 study by the International Telecommunications Union, approximately 2.6 billion people are unconnected to the internet….
News | March 17, 2022
Commuter study indicates pandemic patterns likely won’t change quickly in the Seattle metro area
In many ways, it feels like pre-pandemic commutes are back. Though the peaks have pretty much returned to normal, the commutes don’t last as long in the Seattle metro area. But between commutes? There’s actually more traffic. Those were some of the findings in an ongoing study of commute patterns. It’s a study that began…
Center & Lab
Computing for Development (C4D)
Research in information and communication technologies for development (ICTD) is a relatively new and important area in computing research. When deploying systems in highly resource-constrained environment (unsophisticated users, lack of reliable power, expensive or non-existent data connectivity, etc.) they must be designed to be much more robust than when designing for the developed world. This…
Visit lab websiteNews | June 26, 2015
CoSSar presented by Scott Miles
Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting
News | November 21, 2019
Could drone deliveries help the environment? Let’s unpack that
In the era of e-commerce, it takes a single click to order anything you’d like. But it takes a lot of energy to bring it to your door. Items are shipped from factories, shuttled between warehouses and finally trucked to your home. This convenience comes at an environmental cost — transportation accounts for 29% of U.S….
News | October 25, 2018
Could parcel lockers in transit stations reduce traffic congestion in Seattle?
UW researchers want to know if parcel lockers that aren’t owned by a specific company could alleviate traffic congestion in Seattle.Matt Hagen Seattle is one of the most congested cities in America. Delivery trucks take up space on already crowded roads and idle in parking spots and loading bays. And if no one is available…
News | November 26, 2024
Creating multi-sector teams to build cities where everyone thrives.
Research-to-Action Teams 2024-25 In April of 2024 two teams were selected for participation in the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory. For 18 months Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicated time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These…
Scholar
Cynthia Chen
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Daniel Kirschen
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Daniel Schwartz
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 7, 2016
Data Science for Social Good 2016
This summer we are thrilled to be supporting the eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program. Modeled after similar programs at the University of Chicago and Georgia Tech, with elements from eScience’s own Data Science Incubator, sixteen DSSG Student Fellows have been working with academic researchers, data scientists, and public stakeholder groups on…
Scholar
Dawn Lehman
Visit scholar websiteNews | December 17, 2019
Delivering the goods: Drones and robots are making their way to your door
The reality today is that delivery is a bigger business than ever. With online shopping, it’s estimated the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS will process, sort and deliver more than two billion packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. Amazon’s own fleet of delivery trucks is expected to handle 275 million holiday season shipments. And Amazon…
News | May 14, 2019
Delivery bots could make cities more accessible for everyone
Last week, Washington’s governor Jay Inslee signed a bill allowing robots to roll through the state, delivering goods and food orders. Washington joins seven other states that have legalized bot deliveries, and other cities and college campuses have allowed companies to pilot their services. Perhaps new tech could be what spurs more accessible city design, creating more navigable public spaces…
News | October 27, 2017
Developing ‘breakaway’ tsunami resistant buildings
The best designs can also be the most surprising. A promising new concept for tsunami resistant buildings features breakaway walls and floors on lower levels that, when removed by forceful waves, strengthen the structure and better protect occupants seeking safety on higher floors. Thanks to a $1 million National Science Foundation Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing…
News | December 24, 2020
Did COVID lockdowns really clear the air?
The early days of the Covid-19 lockdowns were seen as an environmental marvel. With fewer commuters and empty highways, residents of cities from Los Angeles to New Delhi witnessed clear blue skies and mountain views that had long been obscured by smog. The dramatic atmospheric transformation was one of first of the “silver linings” that the coronavirus…
News | November 7, 2019
Does Seattle’s dockless system offer a glimpse of the future of bike-sharing?
In downtown Seattle, if you’re trying to find the nearest shared e-bike, you could check an app. But, typically, all you really need to do is look down the sidewalk six feet in front of you. They’re on every street, standing next to light posts, up against railings on bridges and occasionally in the middle…
Scholar
Don Mackenzie
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Dorothy Reed
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 8, 2017
Drone vs. truck deliveries: Which creates less carbon pollution?
Delivering packages with drones can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in certain circumstances as compared to truck deliveries, a new study from University of Washington transportation engineers finds. In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Transportation Research Part D, researchers found that drones tend to have carbon dioxide emissions advantages over trucks…
News | April 17, 2024
E-bike fires are sparking trouble in Seattle. Here’s how to use them safely.
Written by Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez for KUOW. Seattle’s streets have become home to hundreds of electronic bikes and scooters in recent years, with a growing number of commuters and hobbyists relying on them to get around. As usage of these lithium-ion battery powered devices grows, so has the number of fires in connection with them….
News | May 20, 2020
EarthLab announces Innovation Grant recipients for 2020
Research projects funded for 2020 by EarthLab’s Innovation Grants Program will study how vegetation might reduce pollution, help an Alaskan village achieve safety and resilience amid climate change, organize a California river’s restoration with tribal involvement, compare practices in self-managed indigenous immigrant communities and more. EarthLab is a University of Washington-wide institute connecting scholars with community…
News | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
News | October 10, 2017
Earthquakes are inevitable but catastrophe is not
Written by University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Marc Eberherd, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering associate professor Jeffery Berman, and Department of Human-Centered Design senior scientist Scott Miles. Many older buildings provide vital, low-cost housing. But we must find a way to make these structures safer. It should not be…
Scholar
Ed Lazowska
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Edward McCormack
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Eleftheria Roumeli
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Employees are pressuring Amazon to become a leader on climate. Here’s how that could work.
Amazon is preparing to do something it’s never done before: disclose its companywide greenhouse gas emissions. Amazon, with its diverse portfolio of energy-hungry businesses, faces a challenge in calculating and reducing emissions. Some recent moves, such as its push toward ever-faster delivery speeds for its core Prime customers, raise questions about its ability to do…
News | March 11, 2022
Empty Champlain Towers garage offers rare window into impact of sea rise underground
As sea levels rose from climate change, a new study found, flooding in the underground garage at the beachside Champlain Towers South became more common. Much more common. Whether rising seas played a role in the collapse of the doomed Surfside condominium is unclear — and perhaps, unlikely — but the new research from Florida…
Course | CEE 420
Engineering with Developing Communities
Introduces key technologies, theories, and challenges of infrastructure design for development. Covers technologies for energy, water, sanitation, and disaster response in low-resource contexts. Explores development theory and cross-cultural communication as they pertain to global infrastructure design.Degree Program
Environmental Engineering (BS)
Environmental engineers work to both safeguard and improve the quality of the environment. By utilizing a combination of both scientific and engineering principles, environmental engineers work to protect the world and its people from negative environmental impacts caused by both natural and human activities. The work of environmental engineers is increasingly important, as healthy environments…
Visit program websiteNews | June 17, 2015
eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good Projects Announced
eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good Projects Announced Bringing together data scientists to work on focused, collaborative projects designed to impact public policy. This Summer teams will be looking at: Assessing Community Well-Being Through Open Data and Social Media – providing neighborhood communities with a better understanding of the factors that impact their well-being….
News | August 11, 2022
Expansion of electric vehicle grid hits roadblocks in rural WA
In just the past few years, the number of electric vehicles registered in the state more than tripled as new EV options became available, according to state licensing data. This year so far, one out of every 10 vehicles sold is an EV. Today about 100,000 EVs roam Washington highways and streets, though they still…
Scholar
Faisal Hossain
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 22, 2020
Fighting climate change means fighting racial injustice
“You can’t let one segment of society become a sacrifice.” Michael Méndez, an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, was on the phone talking about the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd beneath a white police officer’s knee. But he was also talking about environmental justice and climate change. And he could…
News | July 6, 2021
Food for thought: Urban lakes contaminated with arsenic pose consumption risk
After analyzing the human health risks of eating aquatic organisms from arsenic-contaminated urban lakes in the Puget Sound lowlands, UW researchers have a menu of concerns. Specifically, they found that consuming certain aquatic organisms in the lakes elevates cancer risk. “The idea was to focus on organisms that people might eat, so we studied snails,…
News | September 28, 2018
Glacier melt likely to impact Pacific Northwest water supply
In light of global warming, more glaciers means more melting. And for the Pacific Northwest, which is home to the most glaciers in the contiguous 48 states, that also means increased vulnerability. For the first time, a team of researchers has evaluated the hydrological impact of receding glaciers in the region, which is expected to…
News | October 22, 2019
Global climate action motivates King County Council push for zero-emissions public transit by 2035
Back when King County first began to test electric buses in 2016, officials hoped to build a “zero-emission fleet” by 2040. But recent activism calling for aggressive measures to cut carbon emissions — especially from Indigenous demonstrators and students — has helped push forward proposed legislation that aims to accelerate that transition to 2035. Cities that truly aim for zero-emissions status…
News | May 20, 2024
Global life expectancy is projected to increase by 5 years by 2050
Reported by Rodielon Putol for Earth A recent study from the prestigious Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 reveals an encouraging trend: global life expectancy is expected to rise by nearly five years by 2050, despite various global challenges. According to the findings published in The Lancet, life expectancy for males is projected to…
Scholar
Greg Miller
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 22, 2024
Has the US finally figured out how to do high-speed rail?
Written by Jeremy Hsu for NewScientist. Construction began today on the first true high-speed rail line in the US, which will connect Los Angeles suburbanites to the bright lights of Las Vegas, Nevada. Not only should the project enable people in the US to finally experience European and Asian standards of speedy passenger trains, it…
Course | CET 567
Health and Sustainable Transportation
Examines how transportation policy is driven by human health impacts. Highlights water and air impacts on health along with the health benefit of human powered transportation. Presents legal and regulatory issues. Case studies provide examples of application of these principles to real world transportation issues.News | June 17, 2024
Here’s what homeowners can do to prevent one of the leading causes of death for birds
Originally reported by for King 5 by Erica Zucco. SEATTLE — U.S. Fish and Wildlife and other agencies say one of the leading causes of death in birds is colliding with buildings. Birds fly at a high rate of speed and don’t recognize glass as a barrier, often ending in mortality. University of Washington researcher…
News | June 11, 2024
Here’s why an Arizona medical examiner is working to track heat-related deaths
Written by Alejandra Borunda for NPR News Greg Hess deals with death day in, day out. Hess is the medical examiner for Pima County, Ariz., a region along the United States-Mexico border. His office handles some 3,000 deaths each year — quiet deaths, overdoses, gruesome deaths, tragic ones. From April through October every year, Hess…
News | May 17, 2015
High speed battery charging for smart grids.
SCL (Michael Pesin) and UW Electrical Engineering (Daniel Kirtchner). Develop new energy storage technologies that facilitate variable energy output, which more closely mirrors how electricity is used in modern grid scenarios.
News | March 8, 2017
Honoring Women Collaborators at Urban@UW
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are highlighting just some of UW’s brilliant female professors, scholars, and and change-makers with whom Urban@UW is proud to collaborate. Click on their names to explore their work. Leadership: Thaisa Way, Executive Director, Urban@UW; Department of Landscape Architecture Executive Committee: Margaret O’Mara, Department of History Susan P….
News | October 15, 2019
How bike sharing in Seattle rose from the ashes of Pronto’s failure
In October 2014, Seattle launched Pronto, a docked bike-share program. But Pronto had problems shifting into a higher gear, and the city ended the program in 2017, making Seattle one of the few cities in the world to shut down a modern public bike sharing system. Then, four months later, Seattle became the first city…
News | March 25, 2024
How e-bikes are helping ease package delivery clogs
Originally reported by Kristin Schwab for Marketplace. It’s a rainy evening in New York City, as in flash flood warning kind of rain. But it’s nothing Michael Singh hasn’t seen. “Yes, rain, snow, high winds, all of it,” said Singh, who’s been a bike messenger for seven years and started with Amazon a few months ago….
News | March 9, 2022
How one of Seattle’s first landmarks was nearly destroyed in Big Snow of 1916
One of the biggest winter storms to strike the Northwest arrived 106 years ago this week. Though it wasn’t as intense as the Big Snow of 1880, the February 1916 storm nearly destroyed one of Seattle’s earliest landmarks. One of the places where that heavy wet snow really took a toll was at St. James…
News | August 29, 2019
How tech keeps Seattle’s transit system running — and why more innovation could be coming
Amid a sea of green rectangles on a computer monitor, one had turned red. A RapidRide bus — the red rectangle — was traveling a bit too rapidly. It was almost 11 a.m. on Friday, August 23 in the King County Metro Transit Control Center (TCC). Coordinators sat in front of large monitors, tracking the…
News | October 22, 2019
How the Urban Freight Lab seeks to fix the last 50 feet of shipping
The very last step of shipping packages in a city — not the end mile but the “final 50 feet” — bedevils delivery drivers. Every day, they face the task of driving and parking safely and legally in urban environments not built for the brick-and-asphalt end journeys of e-commerce. For these workers every hour is rush hour,…
News | July 29, 2024
How Tiny Homes Could Help Solve America’s Homelessness Crisis
Reported by Giulia Carbonaro for Newsweek Shelter villages of tiny homes have popped up across the U.S. in recent years, as the small structures have started to be seen by many advocates as a promising solution to solve homelessness. Perhaps unsurprisingly at a time when mortgage rates are still hovering around the 7-percent mark and…
News | October 18, 2024
How to avoid sharing election misinformation
Reported by Audrey Nguyen for NPR The 2024 election season is upon us. While Election Day is November 5, early voting started in September in some states. As we wait for the final results to be declared, chances are, you’re going to come across false or misleading information. To avoid spreading misinformation this election season,…
News | November 5, 2019
How Washington’s toll lanes help low income communities
A recent study sought to discover how toll lanes like the ones implemented on Washington’s 405 freeway affect low-income communities. And while those communities are the ones who most often can’t afford the toll lanes, one expert argues that they benefit everyone. “(Drivers) are voluntarily choosing to subsidize the operation and the construction and the maintenance of…
Course | CEE 481
Hydraulic Design for Environmental Engineering
Introduction to the theory and the practice of planning and design of urban water supply distribution, pump stations, and sewage and storm-water collection systems. Evaluation of service areas and service requirements and their relationships to urban and regional planning activities. Engineering methods and computer programs for designing basic system elements.News | March 13, 2017
In the smart cities of the future, posters, signs and clothing may talk back
New research from University of Washington has shown for the first time that ambient FM radio signals can be used as a signal source for wireless communication. The technology, developed by engineers in the Networks & Mobile Systems Lab and Sensor Systems Lab, creates backscatter transmissions that can be decoded on any FM receiver, including…
Course | CEE 404
Infrastructure Construction
Basic concepts of large transportation infrastructure construction projects including planning, scheduling, life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), construction cost, logistics, productivity and, where applicable, traffic impacts. Term project is designed around a large-scale I-5 pavement reconstruction project involving construction, traffic, and the interaction between the two. Involves presentations on local transportation infrastructure projects.News | May 13, 2024
Is Seattle a walkable city? Pedestrian death rates show otherwise
Written by Jadenne Radoc Cabahug for Crosscut. Washington was the first state to commit to zero traffic fatalities. But 24 years later, deaths are at an all-time high and officials are reevaluating. Twenty-four years after Washington became the first state to commit to decreasing pedestrian traffic deaths to zero, the numbers continue to move in…
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Jeff Berman
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Jessica Kaminsky
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Jessica Ray
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Joe P. Mahoney
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John Stanton
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Join Urban@UW in creating innovative solutions for city dwellers, today and into the future.
Support Urban@UW Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. Urban@UW works with scholars, policymakers, and community stakeholders to develop cross-disciplinary…
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Jon E. Froehlich
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Joseph Wartman
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Joshua Smith
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Julian Marshall
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Julian Yamaura
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Justin Hamacher
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Kate Starbird
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Laura N. Lowes
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 18, 2019
Lessons from California earthquakes: What Seattle should know about ‘basin effects’
Ridgecrest, California was hit with a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on the morning of July 4, followed by a magnitude 7.1 quake in the same area on July 5. Despite being 125 miles from the epicenter, people in Los Angeles felt long-lasting shaking. This is because of something called “basin effects” — and Seattle should take…
News | June 6, 2023
Lewis County’s Centralia Bets on Clean Energy as Coal Economy Fades
The dense, white cloud of steam coming out of a dark green building in Centralia has been a constant part of the landscape for more than half a century. Now, the Lewis County town of about 19,000 is getting ready to bid farewell to the cloud source: Washington’s last coal-fired power plant, overlooked by Mount…
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Lillian J. Ratliff
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Linda Ng Boyle
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Livable City Year celebrates partnership with City of Bellevue
This year’s Livable City Year partnership with the City of Bellevue mobilized 285 students from a variety of schools and colleges, representing all three UW campuses, to work on 30 projects in the city. The students’ research, findings and recommendations were on display at a celebration at Bellevue City Hall on Monday, June 3. The Bellevue City…
Course | CET 562
Livable Communities and Design
Explores the positives and negatives affecting livability. Covers sprawl and compact cities, energy issues and environmental quality, transit-oriented and traditional neighborhood development, and mixed-use and mixed income developments. Includes context-sensitive solutions to transportation projects.News | December 13, 2019
Mapping jet pollution at Sea-Tac airport
Communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft, according to a new University of Washington study that is the first to identify the unique “signature” of aircraft emissions in Washington state. Researchers at the UW Department of Environmental &…
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Marc Eberhard
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Mari Winkler
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Mark Hallenbeck
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Mark Haselkorn
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Measuring traffic performance during COVID-19
It’s not a surprise that traffic, like many things, has been impacted by COVID-19. But by how much? Researchers in UW CEE’s STAR Lab now have an answer to that question after employing a new scoring algorithm they developed to measure fluctuations in traffic. “We felt a strong need and thus started to develop an…
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Meg Drouhard
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Michael T. Brett
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Microsoft Targets Carbon Removal With Climate Research Effort
Microsoft Corp. has launched a climate research effort in a bid to build a network of participants to tackle some key problems affecting the environment. The Microsoft Climate Research Initiative will at first focus on carbon reduction and removal, carbon accounting and environmental resilience, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a blog post Wednesday. An initial round of nine…
News | August 1, 2016
Midsummer in Full Swing, A July Recap
While we are in the midst of a beautiful summer, things at the University of Washington and at Urban@UW are moving right along. We’ve seen some original writing, research, and even a podcast come out of community covering topics from marine noise pollution to data science and minimum wage to police reforms. The eScience Institute…
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Mike Gomez
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Mike Motley
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Monthly Wrap up January 2016
It’s been a great start to 2016. UW Alumni association and History Department put together a woderful history lecture series: Excavating Seattle’s histories: Peoples, politics, and place check out details and videos here> The CBE also hosted a number of great speakers and events including SUSTAINING JAPAN: 3.11 FIVE YEARS ON lecture and panel discussion…
News | March 28, 2022
More air pollution present in areas with historical redlining
Despite dramatic improvements in air quality over the past 50 years, people of color at every income level in the United States are exposed to higher-than-average levels of air pollution. While this disparity has been widely studied, the links between today’s air pollution disparities and historic patterns of racially segregated planning are still being uncovered. Now…
Degree Program
MS in Civil Engineering: Construction Engineering
Learn to combine the engineering principles and management techniques needed to lead major infrastructure efforts. Prepare for new challenges in the heavy construction industry with a program designed for professionals who have an undergraduate degree in engineering.
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MS in Civil Engineering: Energy Infrastructure
The country’s existing energy systems are transforming at a rapid pace, driven by technological advances and factors such as the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The new online Master of Science in Civil Engineering: Energy Infrastructure program, offered by the University of Washington, prepares you for the growing opportunities in this field. This engineering…
Visit program websiteNews | February 1, 2024
New nonpartisan AI nonprofit TrueMedia, led by Oren Etzioni, is making a political deepfake detector
Published in GeekWire By Todd Bishop A new nonprofit, nonpartisan technology organization called TrueMedia is developing an AI-powered tool to detect deepfake videos, photos, and audio, aiming to combat political disinformation in the leadup to the 2024 elections. Founded and led by Oren Etzioni, University of Washington professor and former CEO of the Allen Institute…
News | February 3, 2017
New route-finding map lets Seattle pedestrians avoid hills, construction, accessibility barriers
Transportation routing services primarily designed for people in cars don’t give pedestrians, parents pushing bulky strollers or people in wheelchairs much information about how to easily navigate a neighborhood using sidewalks. On Wednesday AccessMap – a University of Washington project spearheaded by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology — launched a new online travel planner…
News | October 13, 2016
New Seattle freight lab tackles urban delivery congestion
SEATTLE (AP) — In this city where residents can get practically anything delivered to their doorsteps — often within hours — trucks, bikes, cars and buses regularly jostle for space on Seattle’s streets. The rise in e-commerce and on-demand delivery has put increasing pressure on fast-growing cities like Seattle to rethink how they manage traffic…
News | February 11, 2020
New Study Abroad Program focused on Sustainable Building in Indonesia
It’s possible to learn about sustainable building materials in a classroom setting. But now, it’s also possible to learn about this important topic while immersed in a bamboo “Green Village” in Indonesia, where villas are constructed almost entirely from bamboo. In addition to residing in a Green Village for a week, students in the new Engineering…
News | May 7, 2019
New study finds Seattle is even less prepared for mega quakes than previously thought
Scientists have found that the shaking likely to be generated by a massive earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone is worse than previously thought—and Seattle’s current building codes aren’t equipped to handle it. The study, which was presented at the 2019 Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting last month, is based on the work of…
News | July 14, 2016
New Tech Could Restore Some Quiet To Noisy Oceans
Forty feet below the surface of Puget Sound, a marbled murrelet dives for its catch. The water is cold, dark — and incredibly noisy. A ping-ping-ping emanates from the shore over second-long intervals and continues on for the next several hours, sending a series of pressure waves through the ocean. For the endangered bird, these…
News | January 30, 2020
New Technique Finds 64 New Chemicals in Puget Sound
The waters of Puget Sound support many species, including mussels, salmon and killer whales. But researchers know that runoff from land in the urbanized areas might contain chemicals that could harm these creatures, even if it’s not always clear which chemicals are the most harmful. Existing methods track specific chemicals of known concern. Until recently, however,…
News | August 11, 2021
New UW collaboratory to support equitable and just climate action
An interdisciplinary group of University of Washington researchers has teamed with Front and Centered to create an innovative Collaboratory to promote just and equitable climate action. The Collaboratory aims to respond to climate change impacts with attention to equitable mitigation and adaptation solutions. It will feature three linked platforms to achieve this goal through a…
News | May 2, 2024
New York cities plagued by blackouts due to climate change, study finds
Written by Saul Elbein for The Hill. Climate change is pushing some New York City neighborhoods into dozens of nearly daylong blackouts per year, a new study has found. Large swaths of the state’s principal towns and cities faced repeated, protracted and dangerous weather-driven power outages between 2017 and 2020, according to findings published Wednesday in…
News | June 7, 2022
New, stronger rules for truck pollution still would not meet air quality goals
EPA’s proposal to limit toxic pollution from heavy-duty trucks is stronger than anything that has come before it. But state and local air quality agencies say it’s not aggressive enough to meet the federal regulator’s own clean air standards. The National Association of Clean Air Agencies — which represents 115 local air pollution control agencies…
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Nikita Anderson
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 29, 2019
No minorities, no meat? Gig economy deepens cities’ divides
When an Indian customer of online food delivery service Zomato tweeted that he had canceled his order because it had been assigned to a non-Hindu worker, and his request for a Hindu denied, thousands weighed in. Last month’s incident was among a long series of allegations of discrimination related to religion, race, gender or sexual…
News | January 19, 2024
Northwest innovators chase the dream of greener concrete
From The Seattle Times By Mike Lindblom PULLMAN — From a onetime speakeasy in North Seattle to a modern lab in the Palouse, inventors are testing recipes that make concrete less lethal to Earth’s climate. Most people understand that the world’s 1.4 billion fossil-fueled cars and trucks spew carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere….
News | June 26, 2015
Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing: PNNL & UW presented by Thom Dunning
Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting
News | January 3, 2023
Northwestern tribal transportation program center headquartered at UW
To support tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest with a variety of technical transportation needs, from administering public transit to enhancing safety and infrastructure, a new center will be headquartered in UW Civil & Environmental Engineering. Funded by a $3.7 million U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) grant awarded over the course of five years, the…
News | November 16, 2016
NYC, Chicago mayors join Seattle’s Ed Murray is support of “sanctuary cities” for immigrants
SEATTLE — Democratic mayors of major U.S. cities that have long had cool relationships with federal immigration officials say they’ll do all they can to protect residents from deportation, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they don’t cooperate. New York’s Bill de Blasio, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel…
News | October 28, 2016
October Recap: Urban Transporation, Health, and Justice
October has seen a lot of research and engagement surrounding urban design, health, and transportation from University of Washington’s urban scholars and practitioners. Here at Urban@UW we’ve kicked off our Livable City Year program, reflected on our first full year of work and collaborations, and are planning for our symposium on Urban Environmental Justice in…
News | March 29, 2024
Office-to-residential conversion is a trendy idea for downtown resurgence — but has big challenges
Originally published in Geekwire Written by Chuck Wolfe, longtime affiliate associate professor in College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Office-to-residential conversions are frequent fodder in discussions of the post-pandemic city, downtown regeneration, and hopes to contain rising housing costs. Remote work is here to stay, especially in hybrid form in the tech-centric…
News | September 30, 2019
On the ground in disaster’s wake
From flood-damaged Houston to fire-ravaged Paradise, CA, Nicole Errett’s research takes her into the heart of communities trying to recover after catastrophe strikes. As a disaster researcher and lecturer in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Errett works with communities struck by hurricanes, floods and other disasters to gather data on how disasters…
News | August 21, 2017
One-third of Seattle drivers ‘cruising’ for parking, rides, study finds
More than one-third of drivers in Seattle are either searching for parking or are ridesharing drivers waiting for ride assignments. That’s according to a study by a group of University of Washington students looking at traffic sensor data. The four students involved called this practice of searching for parking or rides “cruising.” The project used…
News | August 10, 2017
Opportunity abounds as Washington builds the modern electricity grid
The Horn Rapids Solar, Storage, and Training Project—which would be the largest solar installation in Washington, and one of a relative few anywhere with a significant amount of energy storage incorporated—embodies a long chain of public and private sector efforts that have positioned the state, and the broader Pacific Northwest, as a leader in the…
News | January 7, 2020
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UW creating app to make package delivery easier for drivers
The holidays may be over, but that means shipping and returns season has begun. Right now the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing a project that could potentially help us send and receive our packages sooner. The $1.5 million project is funded by the D.O.E’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies and…
News | March 2, 2023
PacTrans Receives USDOT $15M Renewal Award
To continue and expand its important work to improve the movement of people and goods throughout the region, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) has received another green light: a $15 million renewal grant over the course of five years from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). “We are grateful for receiving this new grant to…
Scholar
Paolo Calvi
Visit scholar websiteNews | December 10, 2019
Park it, trucks: Here come New York’s cargo bikes
Delivery trucks and vans laden with online packages are putting a stranglehold on New York City streets and filling its air with pollutants. Now a new city program aims to replace some of these delivery vehicles with a transportation mode that is more environmentally friendly and does not commandeer street space: electric cargo bikes. It…
News | June 27, 2017
Partnership with CMMB launches new center on smart, connected communities
China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting – Vision (CMMB) has awarded the University of Washington Department of Electrical Engineering (UW EE) a $1.5 million gift to establish a new research center. The CMMB Vision-UW Center on Satellite Multimedia and Connected Vehicles will focus on the development of the next generation of smart cars and ubiquitous connectivity. “UW…
Course | URBDP 576 / CET 586
Pedestrian Travel, Land Use, and Urban Form
Seminar concentrating on walking as a mode of transportation in cities and city-regions, including social, cognitive, and perceptual dimensions of pedestrian movement and behavior theory.Scholar
Pedro Arduino
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 20, 2024
Permeable pavement could help cities be more resilient to flooding
Reported by Stéphane Blais for La Presse Canadienne and the Toronto Sun. Pilot projects are being developed across Quebec to make parking lots, bike paths or portions of streets more resilient to climate change. To make cities more resilient to flooding caused by climate change, researchers are developing more permeable pavements to allow water to…
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Peter Mackenzie-Helnwein
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 21, 2020
Pioneering study uses traffic cameras and AI to predict future, promising to save lives and money
In an effort to prevent deaths and injuries caused by crashes between vehicles, bikes and pedestrians, the city of Bellevue, Wash., set out more than five years ago to foresee the future. The idea was to use machine learning to analyze thousands of hours of video collected by 360-degree traffic cameras already installed citywide to…
Course | CET 511
Planning for People and Freight
Introduces transportation planning as a process integrating and balancing the needs of diverse users, including automobile drivers, freight carriers, public and private mobility service providers, cyclists, and pedestrians. Addresses the purpose and goals of the transportation system, the planning process and governance, use of road and curb space, land use - transportation interactions, and tools for analyzing impacts.News | April 16, 2021
Planning the best route with multiple destinations is hard even for supercomputers – a new approach breaks a barrier that’s stood for nearly half a century
Originally written by Nathan Klein, PhD Student in Computer Science at the University of Washington. Computers are good at answering questions. What’s the shortest route from my house to Area 51? Is 8,675,309 a prime number? How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? For questions like these, they’ve got you covered. There are certain innocent-sounding questions,…
Course | CET 569
Policy Development, Finance, and Sustainable Transportation
Covers the development and implementation of transportation policies to support sustainable transportation systems. Reviews regulations and finance opportunities at the local, state, and federal level highlighting those that promote sustainable transportation.News | October 11, 2024
Pollinator Village Built by Future Designers
Reported by the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Photo by Alex Blair. This past summer, the College of Built Environments (CBE) partnered with Sawhorse Revolution, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to fostering confident, community-driven youth through the power of carpentry and craft, to host a transformative three-week intensive program on campus. Fifteen…
News | February 27, 2021
Post-pandemic cities: Fighting congestion in the e-commerce age
Congested city streets. Trucks fighting for curb space. Bottlenecks on beltways and bridge approaches as freight-laden semis rumble toward crowded urban centers. Pedestrians, cyclists, commuters, rideshare vehicles, and parcel-crammed vans—all contending with one another. This was the picture in many cities before the pandemic hit, fueled in part by the on-demand economy. An October 2019 New…
News | August 12, 2021
Project aims to better use of municipal open data, boost equity
In this month’s installment of the Innovation of the Month series, we highlight EquiTensors, a project that is reflecting on and raising awareness of applications, opportunities and potential misuses of data science and AI applied to mobility and transportation, specifically as it refers to race, equity and diversity. MetroLab’s Josh Schacht spoke with the leader of the…
News | April 25, 2019
Project Sidewalk helps users map accessibility around Seattle, other cities
About 3.6 million adults in the United States use a wheelchair to get around, according to census data. But unless you’re one of those people, you might not know how hard it is to get around your city. Now people can help map out accessibility here in Seattle. University of Washington researchers have led the development…
News | October 20, 2022
Q&A: UnlockedMaps provides real-time accessibility information for urban rail transit in six metro areas
While many people use Google Maps and other navigation tools to plan their rail transit trips across a city, these apps and websites often lack important information about how accessible a specific station is. That’s a problem for people who use the elevators, including those with mobility disabilities, pregnant people and commuters with heavy equipment…
News | March 21, 2023
Quieting a Bridge
Like many bridges around the world, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (SR 520 bridge) has expansion joints that allow it to expand or contract to adapt to environmental changes, such as changes in water level, without causing structural damage. However, expansion joints can create noise problems. When the new SR 520 bridge opened in 2016,…
Scholar
Radha Poovendran
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 19, 2022
Recently completed Spark Grants foster research on mobile home wastewater management, and estimating unhoused populations
Over the past year, two teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Spark Grants. In September 2021 grants of up to $20,000 were awarded to amplify collaborative research-to-practice with a focus on today’s urban issues. The two UW teams of…
News | February 28, 2018
Reducing failed deliveries, truck parking time could improve downtown Seattle congestion
In Amazon’s hometown, people turn to their computers to order everything from groceries to last-minute birthday presents to the odd toothbrush or medication forgotten from the store. If online shopping continues to grow at its current rate, there may be twice as many trucks delivering packages in Seattle’s city center within five years, a new…
News | June 5, 2021
Regional survey reveals work, leisure habits during the pandemic
No commute, fewer interruptions from co-workers, and the ability to work longer hours — all were factors that boosted feelings of productivity among people who worked from home during the first several months of the pandemic. At the same time, according to new data from the University of Washington, those who felt less productive while…
News | September 16, 2024
Register Today for Urban@UW’s presentation at Climate Week NYC
Urban@UW is heading to the big apple for Climate Week NYC, the largest international conference of business leaders, political change makers, scientists, and civil society representatives working for climate action. Rachel Berney, Faculty Director, and Kate Landis, Program Manager, will present “Call Me, Maybe? University-Community Partnerships for a Greener Tomorrow” on Monday, 9/23, from 5-7PM….
News | June 17, 2024
Rekindling Our Relationship with Wildfire
Written for the Climate One podcast, hosted by Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious. Summer is just around the corner, and in addition to travel and vacation, that also means peak wildfire season. Recently we’ve seen some of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. The images on the news of orange skies and opaque haze…
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Santosh Devasia
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Seana Davidson
Visit scholar websiteNews | December 24, 2020
Seattle scales back earthquake work on city bridges as costs soar
After promising Seattle voters that the city would reinforce 16 bridges to better withstand earthquakes, the Seattle Department of Transportation now says that work would cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than once expected. Instead of 16 bridges, the city plans to complete seismic retrofits on 11, leaving notable and costly locations like the…
News | May 7, 2024
Seattle-area housing market picks up, but buyers feel the squeeze
Written by Heidi Grover for The Seattle Times The Seattle area’s spring housing market continued to heat up in April, with more activity and higher home prices across the region, particularly in King County. The number of new listings and home sales climbed throughout the Puget Sound region in April, a typical seasonal uptick. But…
News | June 25, 2021
Seattle’s new zero-emissions delivery hub is an experiment in slashing e-commerce emissions
As companies and governments strategize to make our exploding e-commerce economy more environmentally friendly, the “last mile” of a product’s journey—that is, the very last stage, from the transportation hub to the customer, currently appears the easiest to target. That’s especially true in cities, where higher population densities and shorter distances allow for the use…
News | November 7, 2019
Seattle’s next traffic challenge: Thousands of tunnel drivers will switch to city streets when tolls start Nov. 9
Whether you drive Highway 99 or not, the tunnel tolls starting Nov. 9 will disrupt your travel in downtown Seattle through higher costs, slower trips or more aggravation. That’s because thousands of toll-dodging motorists will crowd city streets, rather than pay for a 2-mile tunnel drive between Sodo and South Lake Union. State officials warn as…
Scholar
Seema Clifasefi
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 21, 2016
Seismic Neglect: Buildings and Earthquakes
Seismic Neglect | In the first part of a continuing series, The Seattle Times examined officials’ neglect of the most vulnerable kind of building: old, brick structures called unreinforced masonry. Here are answers to some common questions about those buildings. The Northwest is threatened by earthquakes far more destructive than anything Washington state has experienced…
News | May 28, 2019
Self-driving cars: Heaven or hell?
Self-driving vehicles are expected to significantly change the way people move between cities and suburban neighborhoods in Washington state, but it is yet to be seen whether those will be positive changes for congestion and the environment. Fully-automated vehicles could allow large fleets of company vehicles to whisk people around city centers where space for…
Scholar
Shayan Oveis Gharan
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 13, 2024
Shhh! The orcas can’t hear their dinner
Reported by John Ryan for KUOW/NPR When an orca hunts salmon, it clicks and buzzes. It sends a beam of sounds from its nasal passages into the murky depths in hopes that the sound waves will bounce back and reveal the location of its next nutritious meal. Those hopes are often dashed when noise from…
News | January 25, 2018
Shocker: It’s mostly men moving to Seattle for tech jobs
For every four men who moved to Seattle for a tech job in the last decade, only one woman did, too, according to a recent analysis that looked at the trend of tech transplants nationwide.To industry experts and academics, the findings from the careers website Paysa.com came as no surprise. The data is more of…
News | February 1, 2024
Should social media pay for addicting kids? Seattle schools lawsuit gains steam
Reported by KUOW Written by Sami West A year into Seattle Public Schools’ lawsuit against social media companies, the case is gaining traction. More than 50 school districts in Washington state — and dozens more across the country — have joined Seattle’s lawsuit. Seattle became the first district to sue social media platforms last January,…
Scholar
Shyam Gollakota
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 27, 2023
Signature Biden Program Won’t Fix Racial Gap in Air Quality, Study Suggests
A new analysis has found that the White House’s signature environmental justice program may not shrink racial disparities in who breathes the most polluted air, in part because of efforts to ensure that it could withstand legal challenges. The program, called Justice40, aims to address inequalities by directing 40 percent of the benefits from certain…
News | April 22, 2024
Skip the Traffic: Commuters Turn to Ferries to Get Around
Written by Linda Baker for The New York Times. As remote work reshapes the way people live and travel around cities, Americans are taking to the waterways not only as part of their commute but also as part of their daily lives. Some coastal cities are seeing ferry ridership bounce back after a decline during…
News | November 25, 2019
Some communities feel the effects of air pollution more than others
Power plants are prolific particulate producers. To generate energy, power plants burn fossil fuels, and the combustion spews gases and fine specks of pollution into the air. Air pollution affects everyone, but experts are now warning that exposure levels can weigh heavier on certain racial and ethnic communities, independent of their income levels. And even…
News | December 8, 2022
Some freeways may be useable following ‘the Big One’ per new modeling by University of Washington
New modeling by the University of Washington of the impacts of a major Cascadia earthquake offers a less dire picture of the aftermath of the so-called “Big One” — specifically when it comes to highway bridges. Previous earthquake preparedness exercises have assumed that Interstate 5 and the highways to the Pacific Northwest coast would be…
News | October 16, 2018
Something’s killing coho salmon in Seattle, and car tires are a prime suspect
When autumn rains return to western Washington, so do coho salmon. But in many of the creeks they swim up, something in the water leaves fishes gasping for air. They die quickly, before they manage to spawn. A new study points at chemicals from tiny bits of car tires as a prime suspect in the…
News | July 16, 2024
SPARK Grant Recipients Win Big with a Social Justice Jacket
Reported by Kate Landis for Urban@UW What if a denim jacket could tell the stories of people impacted by housing inequality across the country? Resistive Threads, a project that was awarded a Urban@UW SPARK grant in 2023, was recently awarded a Honorable Mention at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference,…
News | November 7, 2023
Spark Grants Complete Collaborative Research on Artificial Turf, Food Bank Home Delivery, and Urban Streetwear
An electronic denim jacket, an artistic collaboration to depict Black residents’ urban experiences. (credit: Bret Halperin) Over the past year, three teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Spark Grants. In September 2022, Urban@UW awarded $20,000 to each team in…
News | November 16, 2021
Spark Grants foster research on community-centered environmental infrastructure, supporting collaborations amidst pandemic
Over the past year, two teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Research Spark Grants. In August 2020 grants of up to $20,000 were awarded to amplify collaborative research-to-practice with a focus on today’s urban issues. Two UW teams of…
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Stephen J. Burges
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Steve Muench
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Steve Tanimoto
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Steven Kramer
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Street smarts: University of Washington researchers develop new roadside device to improve traffic safety, mobility and infrastructure management
“Mobile Unit for Sensing Traffic” is a next generation Internet of Things device The rise in connected and autonomous vehicles and other transportation innovations have transformed municipalities into smart cities and improved the communication of roadway conditions to drivers. These cutting-edge technologies are part of a growing movement toward intelligent transportation systems (ITS), a transportation…
News | September 8, 2020
Study provides way to more accurately measure impact of COVID-19 response on air pollution
Stay-at-home orders issued in Seattle in response to COVID-19 led to a significant drop in some of the most harmful air pollutants to human health, according to a novel method used by the University of Washington School of Public Health. The researchers developed a new method to account for any differences in weather conditions –…
Course | ENVIR 415 / CEE 495 / ME 415
Sustainability and Design for Environment
Analysis and design of technology systems within the context of the environment, economy, and society. Applies the concepts of resource conservation, pollution prevention, life cycle assessment, and extended product responsibility. Examines the practice, opportunities, and role of engineering, management, and public policy.Course | CEE 429
Sustainability in Building Infrastructure
Provides an overview of how to plan, design, construct, and manage high performance building infrastructures. Topics include integrated project delivery, green building rating systems, green building design codes and energy standards, measurement and verification of building performance, and retrofitting existing building through building energy audit.Course | CET 564
Sustainable Transportation from a Systems Perspective
Covers tools to evaluate and develop sustainable transportation systems. Emphasizes design approaches that support sustainable transportation, methods to evaluate the full life cycle impacts of transportation systems, and tools to assess transportation networks as resilient systems.Degree Program
Sustainable Transportation: Planning and Livable Communities (Cert)
Examine the important issues involved in sustainable transportation planning. Review policies and programs that encourage mixed use development and higher density levels in order to promote modes of transportation other than the single occupancy vehicle. Study the impact different transportation options have on the environment and sustainability. Explore the movement of goods as well as…
Visit program websiteScholar
Tadayoshi Kohno
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 7, 2021
Taskar Center researchers offer a roadmap for more robust modeling of pedestrian mobility on a city-wide scale
Many approaches to measuring and supporting city-wide mobility lack the level of detail required to truly understand how pedestrians navigate the urban landscape, not to mention the quality of their journey. Transit apps can direct someone to the nearest bus stop, but they may not account for obstacles or terrain on the way to their…
News | April 13, 2023
Ten Story Wooden Building to Be Put to High-magnitude Seismic Test
For nearly two decades, the University of California San Diego has been home to a key instrument for understanding earthquakes: a 40-by-25-foot steel platform that uses a hydraulic system to mimic seismic movements. This “shake table,” which can literally shake whatever is on top of it, is one of the largest in the world. It…
News | May 14, 2020
The cost of fast and free shipping
Would deliveries dropped off to everyone pollute less than all of us driving to stores? Yes, in principle, but probably not in practice. Anne Goodchild, founding director of the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center at the University of Washington, has found that consolidating deliveries in one area produces fewer climate-harming emissions than the same people driving back…
News | August 22, 2019
The future of the global shipping industry is… bikes
In the rush to get packages to your doorstep faster, delivery companies are experimenting with far-out technologies like drones and robots that can circumvent traffic—and that, most importantly, don’t need a conventional place to park while they deliver. But companies like UPS and the U.K.-based company DPD are considering a low-tech option, too: bikes. DPD is rolling out a pilot program…
News | September 16, 2022
The Power of Pedaling
A class project quickly became a passion project for civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student Dan McCabe. A cycling enthusiast, McCabe is working to optimize the delivery of groceries from food banks to people experiencing food insecurity — by bicycle. To help streamline delivery operations for the Pedaling Relief Project (PRP), McCabe is developing technology…
News | July 15, 2024
The Quinault Nation and the Rising Pacific
Written by Hallie Golden for the Associated Press TAHOLAH, Wash. (AP) — Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving…
News | February 17, 2022
These scientists are fighting the pandemic with sewage
Sewage stinks, and it’s often laden with disease. But it can also be of tremendous value to public health. Cutting-edge biomedical research sometimes begins with prying a heavy steel lid off a sewer hole, to gain access to the data gushing below. Studies of wastewater have helped scientists pinpoint where Covid-19 variants have popped up,…
News | August 7, 2019
This startup wants to tame the chaos of city street parking
From the summer haze, and the cars and Ubers and bicycles and scooters and cement trucks and delivery vans and city buses that operate within it, emerges a white truck, the words “Belair Foods” and the image of a carrot plastered on its side. As a small crowd watches, the truck pulls into a parking spot….
Scholar
Timothy V. Larson
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 12, 2021
Tiny air pollutants may come from different sources, but they all show a similar biased trend
Air pollution from fine particulate matter—extremely small bits of material like soot that can enter the nose and throat while breathing—can have deadly health consequences. One 2019 study of 4.5 million U.S. veterans estimated that nearly 200,000 people, of whom a disproportionate number were Black, died of causes associated with fine particulate matter (also known as…
News | December 8, 2020
Tire dust killing coho salmon returning to Puget Sound, new research shows
First they circle. Then they gasp at the surface of the water. Soon they can’t swim. Then they die. For decades now, scientists have known something was killing beautiful, adult coho salmon as soon as they hit Seattle’s urban waters, ready to spawn. They had escaped the orcas, the fishermen, traveled thousands of miles, only…
News | November 21, 2016
To Californians: The Hours You Spend in Traffic May Soon Be Used to Generate Electricity
LOS ANGELES, CA – If you’re a Los Angeles native, resident or even visitor, you will probably cringe at the combination of “LA” and “rush hour.” Sitting in LA traffic is an excruciatingly painful task, and not just because of the hours you spend putting pressure on your lower back. If your brakes aren’t screeching…
News | August 1, 2019
To help the environment, should you shop in-store or online?
Is cyber-shopping terrible for the environment? Some say yes, with all those trucks heading out into suburbia to deliver your latest gadget, fashion garment or book. But online retailers insist theirs is the greener delivery route — much better than you driving to the store. So, who is right? And are there even better ways? This…
News | November 3, 2020
To save the planet, get more electric vehicles into used car lots
Electric vehicles are getting more popular. Now they’re getting flashy too: new electric pickup trucks, new electric semis, new electric sports cars, a new electric G-Wagen. But all that zippy sexiness only matters to a small slice of the US. Seventy percent of the vehicles sold in the country last year were used, according to data from Edmunds. So when…
News | April 24, 2017
Toward greener construction: UW professor collab sets markers for carbon across life of buildings
A University of Washington-led research group has taken an important step toward measuring — and ultimately reducing — the global carbon footprint of building construction and long-term maintenance. The Carbon Leadership Forum is a collaborative effort among academics and industry professionals based in the UW’s College of Built Environments that studies reducing carbon emissions over…
News | December 15, 2020
Tracking the seasons of pandemic response in Seattle
Just before 7:00 on a cool, misty Seattle morning, Jacqueline Peltier stands alone on the University of Washington campus. Nearby, squirrels and rabbits frolic in the morning dew. Peltier, part of a National Science Foundation-funded research team, will spend the next hour securing a 360-degree camera to the roof of a rental Toyota Prius Prime,…
Course | CEE 589
Transit Systems Planning
Planning, operational methods for urban public transportation. Review of technological, operating characteristics of vehicles and systems; financing, management, institutional aspects. Paratransit. Short-range planning, operational strategies, revenue-fare structures. Service monitoring. Mode choice, transit demand relating to service. Computer-aided methods for planning, design of transit systems.Course | CET 589
Transit Systems Planning
Planning, operational methods for urban public transportation. Review of technological, operating characteristics of vehicles and systems; financing, management, institutional aspects. Paratransit. Short-range planning, operational strategies, revenue-fare structures. Service monitoring. Mode choice, transit demand relating to service. Computer-aided methods for planning, design of transit systems.Course | CET 563
Transportation Choices and Technology
Explores the range of sustainable transportation choices for both people and goods. Studies passenger modes of transportation including bicycles, single-occupancy vehicles, care and van pools, shared autos, bus, rail, ferries, trolleys, and foot travel in the context of sustainability.Course | CET 583
Transportation Energy and Sustainability
Addresses technical and policy options for making transportation more sustainable, considering economic, environmental, and equity impacts. Topics include transportation demand management; vehicle technologies; alternative fuels; dynamics of technology change; and roles of state, federal, and international policy. Prepares students to think broadly, analyze systematically, and communicate effectively in this area.Course | CEE 327
Transportation Engineering
Studies vehicular transportation fundamentals including vehicle dynamics, geometric design, pavement design, traffic flow concepts, level of service analysis, intelligent transportation systems, travel demand prediction methods, freight logistics, and management of transportation systems. Includes a review of relevant vehicle operating characteristics.Course | CET 587
Transportation Logistics
Physical and information flows in supply chains. Economic drivers of supply chain choices as well as applications of technology, policy, and infrastructure to improve freight transportation systems. Focus on fundamental supply chain transportation and logistics concepts that can be mathematically demonstrated, and that underpin more complex analyses or tools used.Course | CEE 581
Travel Demand Forecasting
Application of mathematical models to forecast urban travel behavior. Introduces emerging methods, land use models, travel demand models, including trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and network assignment. Discusses validation and ethics.Course | CET 581
Travel Demand Forecasting
Application of mathematical models to forecast urban travel behavior. Introduces emerging methods, land use models, travel demand models, including trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and network assignment. Discusses validation and ethics.Scholar
Travis Thonstad
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 25, 2022
U.S. cities are backing off banning facial recognition as crime rises
Facial recognition is making a comeback in the United States as bans to thwart the technology and curb racial bias in policing come under threat amid a surge in crime and increased lobbying from developers. Virginia in July will eliminate its prohibition on local police use of facial recognition a year after approving it, and…
News | January 15, 2021
Uber and Lyft operating in US cities linked to rises in car ownership
The introduction of ride-sharing companies, including Uber and Lyft, has been associated with a 0.7 percent increase in car ownership on average in US urban areas. “In a lot of respects, this is not surprising,” says Os Keyes, PhD student at the Department of Human-Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. “If…
News | October 7, 2020
University of Washington studies future of urban package delivery with lockers and street sensors
Fed up with porch pirates snatching your packages? Missed yet another delivery that requires a signature because you couldn’t hear the delivery person knock over your umpteenth video meeting of the day? Property manager at your apartment or condo building sending yet another nagging note to pick up packages because the mailroom is full? The…
News | January 16, 2021
University of Washington tests wastewater to track COVID-19 outbreaks in Seattle neighborhoods
The University of Washington is studying a new way to track COVID-19 outbreaks in Seattle neighborhoods, and let’s just say they are not letting anything go to waste. The College of Engineering is investigating a new large-scale testing method to detect COVID-19 in wastewater by pulling sewage samples from Seattle pump stations. The goal is to quantify how many…
News | June 26, 2015
Urban Data Science @ UW presented by Bill Howe
Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting
News | November 21, 2018
Urban Freight Lab will help UPS evaluate its new e-bike delivery service in Seattle
Seattle is one of the most congested cities in America, in part due to delivery trucks taking up space on crowded streets. One solution could be for companies to make deliveries using bicycles instead. UPS announced today that it will be pilot-testing deliveries with cargo e-bikes in downtown Seattle. This test is expected to last a…
News | February 22, 2022
Urban stormwater presents pollution challenge
Wastewater and industrial effluent generally come from specific locations. But runoff, which is primarily carried by stormwater, is what environmental engineers call nonpoint source pollution—in other words, it flows in from all over the place. “It’s pollution coming from a whole bunch of small sources that individually create maybe a larger-than-expected issue because none of…
Course | CEE 416
Urban Transportation Planning and Design
Brief review of major issues in urban transportation planning. Planning process discussed and transportation models introduced. Uses a systems framework, including goals and objectives, evaluation, implementation, and monitoring. A design term project, individual or small groups, utilizes material presented on a contemporary problem.News | April 3, 2024
Urban@UW announces second cycle of Research to Action Collaboratory projects
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the second Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) cohort. Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicate time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These two project…
News | March 1, 2022
Urban@UW anti-displacement workshop generates connections, ideas, and opportunities for further partnership.
On January 25th and 26th, Urban@UW hosted a virtual workshop that brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community partners to elevate key perspectives and facilitate cross-boundary discussions and action around the capacity for people to stay in place and stay in the community in the face of displacement. The workshop built on discussions initiated by…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW is working toward a future where cities are hubs of innovation, inclusivity, & sustainability.
Research-to-Action Teams 2023-2024 In April of 2023 the teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) were announced. These groups combine the research capabilities of University of Washington scholars with frontline leaders embedded in their communities and government officials who can codify change. The Research-to-Action Collaboratory provides the teams with…
News | September 5, 2024
Urban@UW Presenting at New York Climate Week
Urban@UW Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis will present on the Research-to Action Collaboratory later this month at New York Climate Week, as part of the New York Climate Exchange. “We are thrilled to be one of the very few university centers invited to participate in New York Climate Week. This well- publicized…
News | October 2, 2024
Urban@UW Presents at Climate Week NYC
Last week Urban@UW’s Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis presented on the Research to Action Collaboratory at Climate Week NYC, as a guest of the New York Climate Exchange. Leaders from all sectors met on Governors Island, just south of Manhattan, to discuss climate adaptations, potential partnerships, and new technology in carbon reduction….
News | August 18, 2020
Urban@UW Research Spark Grants awardees announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce the awardees for our Research Spark Grants program. The two proposals selected address urgent urban challenges in our region, with a strong focus on community engagement and vulnerable populations. Co-creating an Adaptive Community-Science Network: Supporting Tribal and Grassroots Action through the Puget Creek Watershed Assessment Urban communities in the…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW unites research, community insight, and policy to drive innovation for resilient and equitable cities.
Inclusive Data-Driven Innovation for the Future of Cities Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. In partnership with the College…
News | November 1, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Teams Gather for a Fall Workshop
What do Microforests, the historic University of Tacoma campus, refugee resettlement, greenwater recycling, everything bagels and tasty Thai food have in common? They all played a part in October’s Research to Action teams retreat, led by Urban@UW. Urban@UW brings together multidisciplinary academics and embedded community leaders to solve complex urban challenges through the Research to…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory provides funding, facilitation, & tools to empower cross-disciplinary teams to solve urban problems
About the RAC The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The RAC combines financial support, thought partnership, and skill-building to increase the capacity of scholars, community stakeholders, and the UW for impactful, collaborative research. Today’s most pressing problems—from…
News | October 24, 2019
US transit ridership is down: Can San Diego’s speedy commuter rail plan buck the trend?
Elected officials are preparing to ask San Diegans to approve not one but two tax increases to fund billions of dollars in bus and rail investments, including a San Diego Grand Central Station to connect riders to the airport. The ask comes at a time when many cities around the country — from Atlanta to Houston to…
News | October 25, 2016
UW EE Faculty to Tackle Urban Mobility
For urban roadways, traffic-choked streets have become synonymous with the weekday commute. Over the decades, strategic conversations between city officials, engineers and policy makers have sought to lessen congestion and provide increased transportation options. However, as cities continue to develop and populations increase, the results of years of conversation cannot materialize fast enough. On the…
News | June 24, 2015
UW Professor Outlines Key Factors in Puget Sound’s Transportation Future
Mark Hallenbeck, director of the University of Washington’s Washington State Transportation Center and a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has been studying Northwest transit for years. Looking to the future he has identified the following key considerations that will play important roles in shaping the regions transportation: Growth will be inward,…
News | November 2, 2021
UW receives $2M from National Science Foundation to design an ‘adaptable society’
A team led by the University of Washington has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further research into how urban societal systems can be organized to be both efficient and resilient. The Leading Engineering for America’s Prosperity, Health and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) project, based in the UW College of Engineering, supports fundamental research to…
News | May 26, 2020
UW research team seeks campus input with survey on coronavirus mobility impacts
Three professors are teaming up for a study of the mobility impacts of the coronavirus — and they are inviting UW faculty, staff and students to complete a short online survey to assist the research. The research is being conducted by Anne Vernez Moudon, professor emerita of urban design and planning in the College of Built Environments, with Jeff…
News | October 20, 2020
UW researchers drive around Seattle to document pandemic impact
So much has changed since the start of the pandemic, and University of Washington researchers are hoping to keep track of all of those changes by driving around and capturing snapshots of Seattle. “It’s a really unique dataset that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” said Joe Wartman, co-researcher and UW professor of civil…
News | October 6, 2020
UW researchers driving around Seattle to track COVID-19 response over time
As the city of Seattle shut down in March 2020 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, a group of University of Washington researchers got to work. The team developed a project that scans the streets every few weeks to document what’s happening around the city — answering questions such as: Are people outside?…
News | October 26, 2021
UW students designed a rover to inspect culvert conditions to help fish
Now that the rainy season is here, culverts across the city are giving stormwater and streams a clear path away from streets and roads. Before the rains come, the Washington Department of Transportation inspects these concrete or metal tunnels for any damage that could prevent fish from using them during migration. But there are a lot…
News | June 17, 2015
UW team “Hackcessible” wins Hack The Commute Competition
UW team wins City of Seattle sponsored Hack the Commute with a web-based map that helps those Hackcessible Access Map (in beta) >
News | March 15, 2024
UW’s College of Built Environments Professor Faces an Electrifying Challenge
Reported by Jen Moss for the University of Washington’ College of Built Environments King County Metro (Metro), which serves a daily average of over 250,000 riders across more than 203 square miles of the county, has an emissions challenge. Their zero-carbon emissions target, set by the King County Council, must be met by 2035. This…
News | December 18, 2015
UW/Seattle MetroLab Partnership
Have you been wondering what exactly is going to happen with the Seattle / UW partnership under the MetroLab initiative? The three “named” projects from Seattle will be the Array of Things partnership with Chicago, Private data sharing with the Tech Policy Lab, and a smart grid study of the relationship between temperature and power…
News | October 4, 2022
WA Faces an Epidemic of Inaccessible Sidewalks
Across Washington lies a glut of impassable sidewalks for people with disabilities. At thousands of intersections, sidewalks end without a ramp to the street. Where there are ramps, a Seattle Times review of more than 30 cities’ and counties’ assessments of their roads and sidewalks found no jurisdiction where even 50% comply with the Americans with…
News | April 9, 2020
Watch videos of UW students’ ideas for public toilets, road safety and job matches in India
A UW study abroad program empowers students from all disciplines to apply their skills to real-life problems — such as food insecurity, water scarcity, and a lack of adequate housing and education. At the end of the program the students create videos to share their projects. Participants in the Grand Challenges Impact Lab, directed by UW…
News | June 4, 2020
West Seattle Bridge is a surprise crisis, but plenty of other aging Seattle bridges are also vulnerable
In January, if West Seattle commuters caught in a bottleneck had gazed out the window at their high bridge and wondered about its safety, a look at federal bridge ratings may have calmed their nerves. The bridge was labeled sufficient. In a catchall rating out of 100, it had a respectable 69. By the spring,…
News | July 20, 2020
West Seattle’s low swing bridge is cracked, too, and needs repairs
Like its taller neighbor, the low-rise West Seattle swing bridge has developed shear cracks in its concrete girder, which will need repairs. But this time, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) officials say they identified the risks soon enough to contain the damage and keep the swing bridge open for travelers. The lower bridge is the…
News | May 13, 2020
What cracked the West Seattle Bridge? Hidden design problem may have doomed it all along
The West Seattle Bridge, closed in March because of excessive cracking, might have been doomed since the day it opened in 1984. City officials have listed several factors that could have contributed to the damage, including more and heavier buses and trucks, a seventh lane added years ago, a jammed rubber bearing that thwarts thermal expansion,…
News | May 12, 2020
What do the Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber layoffs mean for Seattle engineering outposts?
Silicon Valley engineering outposts have added an interesting dynamic to Seattle’s burgeoning tech community over the past 15 years. More than 125 of these centers now operate from Bellevue to Belltown, representing thousands of tech workers at companies such as Apple, eBay, HBO, Oracle and Sonos, according to GeekWire data. But in the era of COVID-19…
News | January 23, 2024
What Happened to Seattle’s Relationship with Boeing?
The aftermath of the Alaska blowout reveals that the connection is slowly unraveling. From Seattle Met Written by Benjamin Cassidy IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the fuselage blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this month, Margaret O’Mara noticed something that would’ve once been unthinkable in Seattle. The University of Washington history professor observed that locals…
News | March 23, 2020
What is Causing Late Buses in Seattle?
Under typical conditions, Seattle has some of the most congested traffic in the nation. To prepare for when things return to normal, University of Washington researchers are carrying out a research project to investigate reasons for these delays. While a bus could be late for many reasons, one holdup is that it has to compete…
News | January 6, 2016
What motivates people to walk and bike? It varies by income
Lower- and middle-income King County residents who live in denser neighborhoods — with stores, libraries and other destinations within easy reach — are more likely to walk or bike, according to new University of Washington research. But neighborhood density didn’t motivate higher-income residents to leave their cars at home, the transportation engineers found. Of the…
News | February 21, 2018
What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?
To David Meere, a visually impaired man from Melbourne, among the various obstacles to life in cities is another that is less frequently discussed: fear. “The fear of not being able to navigate busy, cluttered and visually oriented environments is a major barrier to participation in normal life,” says Meere, 52, “be that going to…
News | November 9, 2018
What would happen in Seattle during a large-magnitude earthquake?
If a large-magnitude earthquake were to hit Seattle, what percentage of buildings would be safe? This listener question was posed to Jeff Berman, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UW. Continue to listen to the Radio broadcast
News | June 17, 2019
When roads ‘blow up’: How heat could play a role in pavement durability
Seattle hit a record 95 degrees on Wednesday, the hottest June 12 on record and the hottest day of 2019 so far. The record heat is what likely caused a part of 4th Avenue S. to buckle in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood. We’ve seen it before. The rays from the sun heat up pavement hotter than the surrounding air….
News | August 2, 2024
Wildfire Smoke Exposure Linked With Higher Dementia Risk
Reported by Dennis Thompson for HealthDay THURSDAY, Aug. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The wildfires thats are increasing with climate change could harm the future brain health of humanity, a new study suggests. Wildfire smoke appears to increase people’s risk of a dementia diagnosis even more than other types of air pollution, researchers reported this…
News | May 7, 2020
Will coronavirus kill the electric scooter?
The electric scooter is, depending on your point of view, a dangerous blight of the sidewalk or a marvelous new species of transit that is perfect for the zero-emissions future city. So it’s a cause for celebration — or mourning — that the novel coronavirus is dealing the world’s networks of shared scooters a heavy…
News | July 14, 2020
Will the pandemic create a move back to the suburbs?
We’re starting to get an understanding of just how much tax revenue the state is losing because of the pandemic. The latest numbers from the state Department of Transportation are staggering. The pandemic has seen a cratering of traffic, not only on the roads, but on the ferries, at the Department of Licensing, and at…
News | July 26, 2024
With $50M infusion, UW to launch security center to fight research theft
Reported by Emerson Drewes for the Seattle Times The University of Washington will receive a $50 million investment over five years from the United States National Science Foundation to establish a national center for research security. Universities, including those in Washington, have been victims of cyberattacks and hacks in attempts to access, download, alter or…
News | July 26, 2022
With extreme heat, we can’t build roads and railways as we used to
Roads and airport runways buckling. Train tracks warping. Bridges swelling. These are just some of the damaging effects extreme heat has had on critical infrastructure in recent years, as heat waves have become more frequent and intense — a stark reminder, experts say, of the need to adjust quickly to a warming planet. For roadways…
News | April 28, 2023
Working with Vulnerable Populations for Greater Community Resilience
Urban@UW is excited to invite you to attend Working with Vulnerable Populations for Greater Community Resilience, a workshop organized by Urban@UW, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Put on as part of the NSF-funded MOHERE: Mobility, Health, and Resilience: Building Capacities and Expanding Impact, this workshop will focus…
Scholar
Xu Chen
Visit scholar websiteScholar
Xuegang (Jeff) Ban
Visit scholar websiteScholar
Yinhai Wang
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