Research & Innovation

The Allen School advances research excellence from the foundations of computing to emerging applications that are shaping the future of not just our field but also our broader society.

We have deep technical expertise that touches every aspect of computing, and we have a long and proud tradition of interdisciplinary collaboration on cross-cutting research with real-world impact. Our researchers continue to build on this tradition while opening up new avenues of exploration, harnessing the transformative power of computing to develop solutions that benefit people, society and the planet while expanding the frontiers of our field.

Explore Allen School Research

Artificial
Intelligence

Our researchers are driving exciting developments in AI while cultivating a deeper understanding of the science and impact of these rapidly evolving technologies on industries, cultures and communities.

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Computing +
Biology

Our researchers are advancing computational methods to help solve biology and medicine’s biggest mysteries while taking inspiration from nature to reimagine what a computer can be.

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Human-Centered
Computing

Our researchers are enhancing the ways in which people and communities engage with technology to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms to individuals, groups and society.

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Interaction with the
Physical World

Our researchers are tapping into the potential of low- and no-power sensing, communication and interaction technologies to transform how we experience the world around us.

EXPLORE Physical World Interaction »

Software & Hardware
Systems

Our researchers are driving innovation across the entire hardware, software and network stack to ensure the computer systems that we depend upon everyday are reliable and secure.

EXPLORE Software & Hardware Systems »

Theory & Models
of Computation

Our researchers are answering fundamental and long-standing questions about the capabilities and limitations of computing, with practical implications in a variety of real-world domains.

EXPLORE Theory & Models of Computation »

Societal Impact

Highlights

Allen School News

Allen School and Ai2 partner on $152M project to advance open AI for science

The Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project will accelerate scientific discovery and advance the science of AI itself, with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure program and NVIDIA.

UW News

People who move to more walkable cities do, in fact, walk significantly more

A study led by Allen School professor Tim Althoff and published in Nature offers the strongest evidence to date of the link between physical activity and the built environment.

Allen School News

Researchers develop new method for decoding communication between brain regions

In a recent paper, a team of researchers led by professor Matt Golub designed a new machine learning technique to understand how different parts of the brain talk to each other even when some parts can’t be directly observed.

Advancing open AI for science

The Allen School is working with Ai2 and other academic partners on Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI), a $152M project to accelerate scientific discover and advance the science of artificial intelligence itself, with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation and NVIDIA.

Campus Collaborations

The Allen School partners with units across the UW on interdisciplinary research and education initiatives to advance knowledge and benefit society.

Click on the map below to explore our campus collaborations.