Allen School researchers have coalesced around a set of grand challenges that we and our partners are uniquely positioned to address while expanding the frontiers of computing.
Universities such as ours are particularly suited to tackling these grand challenges due to our ability to pursue ambitious, cross-cutting research motivated by the public good. And the Allen School is positioned to lead the way by leveraging our core values of excellence, innovation and collaboration across our school, the UW campus, and beyond to tackle complex research problems with proven impact.
While we pursue significant and varied research beyond the priorities highlighted below, the grand challenges offer an opportunity to leverage our world-leading expertise and multidisciplinary collaborations — mobilizing a variety of perspectives to advance innovation in service to society.
Learn more about the grand challenges below and explore the people, partners and projects that are moving us toward scalable solutions that will benefit individuals and communities here in Washington and around the globe./p>
AI has the potential to increase productivity, enhance creativity, and accelerate discovery. It also has the potential to generate unintended consequences for individuals and communities who don’t fit a default user profile. AI is already transforming the way many organizations and people work in Washington state owing to the concentration of companies at the forefront of AI development, and the trend is expected to spread. Allen School researchers are advancing the state of the art in AI research with an emphasis on open source, open data, and open processes, to enable both deeper, broader scientific understanding and broader participation in designing AI for the needs and preferences of different populations — while mitigating potential harms.
In 2023, more than one million people in Washington state — nearly 14% of the population — had a disability. While disability is part of so many individuals’ lived experiences, the majority of technology design addresses accessibility as an afterthought, if it addresses it at all. For example, many AI systems generate code and media that is inaccessible or biased, yet data about disability and accessibility is lacking; most mobile apps and websites are inaccessible, yet accessibility verification and repair is neither well understood nor supported by modern tools; and repairing this puts a high legal and cost burden on all of the organizations adopting such technologies. Allen School researchers are pursuing “accessibility first” to ensure all technologies and related educational experiences reflect the vast array of human experiences and preferences — which ultimately benefits everyone.
From elections to energy grids, society depends on computers that must be safe, secure, and reliable: not just 90% or even 99% of the time, but every time. That’s where verification comes in: using math to prove software always behaves as intended. In the lab, verification has been shown to produce applications that are dramatically safer and more reliable. But real-world code is so complex, most of it can’t be fully verified today, and the rise of unpredictable AI and “vibe coding” only raises the stakes. Allen School researchers are working to make verification practical across the stack — from chips and compilers, to cryptographic protocols and ML-powered apps.
Advances in AI, remote sensing and other technologies offer new ways to anticipate and mitigate environmental concerns, from dwindling biodiversity to intensifying wildfires. But these same technologies can present concerns of their own in the form of electronic waste, pollution and energy consumption. Allen School researchers are developing new materials and techniques to maximize technology’s potential while minimizing its environmental footprint.
Over a billion people worldwide live with a mental health condition and/or cognitive disability, but only a fraction receive the care and support that they need to fully participate in daily life. Cost and a shortage of behavioral health and other providers are two of the biggest factors that prevent people from accessing a diagnosis and treatment, and that access can vary widely based on someone’s location. Meanwhile, a shortage of data hinders society’s ability to adequately address these challenges. Allen School researchers are working with clinicians and community partners to explore how technology could be used to help overcome these barriers and massively improve access to high-quality cognitive and mental health support — which will increase the well-being of individuals and communities here in Washington and around the world.
As technology permeates every aspect of our lives, it has the potential to fundamentally change many things for the better — but realizing the potential benefits also requires sustained, thoughtful focus on the security, privacy, and safety risks that may and do arise from new technologies and their applications in new contexts. Anticipating, uncovering, documenting, mitigating, and avoiding such risks is an inter-disciplinary endeavor, requiring advances in technology, theory, design, law and policy — as well as in our understanding of how individuals and communities relate to technology. We bring together researchers and educators across the Allen School and the University of Washington whose work aims to lead us towards a safer, more secure, and more privacy-preserving future through technologies that ultimately better serve people and society.
If you are a researcher interested in collaborating with us on one or more grand challenges, contact Professor Katharina Reinecke at reinecke@cs.washington.edu.
If you are a company or organization interested in supporting this work, contact Lillian Martin, associate director of corporate and foundation relations, at lillian6@uw.edu.
BLURB: At the Allen School’s 2025 Research Showcase and Open House, school leaders celebrated the work of faculty and student researchers — and offered a blueprint for collaboratively tackling a set of human-centered problems for even greater impact.
