There are many urgent problems facing the planet: a degrading environment, a healthcare system in crisis, and educational systems that are inadequately training innovative thinkers to solve the problems of tomorrow. A balanced approach is required to solve these problems: a balance between design and technology, a balance between human-centered and technology-centered approaches, and a balance between different world cultures and ways of thinking. The World Lab is a new research and educational institution that is ideally suited to tackle these grand challenges. The World Lab is sited jointly between two of the world’s leading computing and human-centered design institutions, the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The World Lab Summer Institute at the University of Washington brings together students from technology, design, social science and business backgrounds, and challenges them to create prototypes for products and services that solve pressing social problems.
Institute Calendar: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/landay/teaching/world%20lab%20summer/
If interested, send a note to James Landay describing your background and your interest. This Institute is open to undergraduate and graduate students.
An HCDE alum is helping put on World IA Day in Vancouver, B.C. and is looking for folks interested in speaking at their event. It will be on Saturday, February 11th at the Media Cafe at W2. The overall theme is Designing Structures for Understanding. The website is at 
We write to share an extraordinary opportunity for travel, discovery, and challenge. The 2012 Bonderman Travel Fellowship application is now available and we encourage you to consider applying. Graduate and professional students, undergraduate students (of junior and senior credit standing) in the University Honors Program, and undergraduate students (of junior and senior credit standing) in UW Tacoma’s Global Honors Program in good standing are eligible for this opportunity.
NSF’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students (EAPSI) are seeking applications from interested students to conduct research at host laboratories in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan. An estimated 200 awards will be made for institutes lasting 8-10 weeks. Awardees receive a $5,000 stipend and airfare, while living expenses are provided by foreign co-sponsoring organizations. According to the notice, “applicants must be enrolled in a research-oriented master’s or PhD program and be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents by the application deadline date” of November 9, 2011.
CDC and HSS are sponsoring a challenge for the development of a Flu app. Details are in the link and below.
The UW Department of Chemical Engineering is partnering with American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) local sections and the Institute for Sustainability to offer the Pacific Northwest Regional Conference on Sustainability. The conference will offer an excellent program of sustainability experts from Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, CH2MHill, REC Solar, Idaho National Laboratory, Dow, University of Washington, Seattle University, Oregon State University, Washington State University, and other local and national organizations.
April 29, 2011
