Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer for Microsoft. (Microsoft Photo) There are lots of sources for global data on economic indicators, population sizes, infectious diseases, sustainability — the list goes on. But missing in the lineup has been a comprehensive, publicly available, worldwide clearinghouse of information on disabilities. Microsoft is teaming up with the World Bank…
Category Archives: Impact Series
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STARS executive director Sonya Cunningham (left) and faculty director Eve Riskin. (UW Photo) A University of Washington program to support STEM students from low-income and underserved backgrounds is now nine years old. And it aims to spread the model to other institutions. The Washington State Academic RedShirt program (STARS) takes a cue from college sports,…
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Detail from a new study predicting the potential impacts of an earthquake in the Seattle Fault zone and resulting tsunami. (Washington DNR Image) If a really big earthquake hits offshore from Seattle, the city’s shorelines could be struck with massive tsunami waves within a matter of three minutes. In a worst-case scenario, the waves hitting…
We visited the world’s biggest carbon capture plant, which just signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft
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Climeworks, a leader in direct air capture of carbon dioxide, has facilities alongside a large geothermal power plant outside of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik. The Orca facility is on the far right, and the new Mammoth facility will be to the left, across the road. The pipes are carrying geothermal hot water. Climeworks relies on clean,…
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Students present their projects at MisinfoDay at Ballard High School. (Photo courtesy of Mike Caulfield) The world is overwhelmed with contradictory data and claims. High school students in Seattle want to help. Last month Ballard High School hosted MisinfoNight, an event inspired by MisinfoDay, an annual event at the University of Washington that started in…
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Hannah Baldwin, an electrical engineer for the high-power stationary group at Plug Power, inspects a fuel cell in the generator built in New York in partnership with Microsoft. (Microsoft Photo / John Brecher) Data centers packed with millions of servers provide the backbone of the internet, dishing up everything from cat videos to financial transactions…
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Deena Pierott, founder of iUrban Teen. From Boeing to Blue Origin, the Seattle region is a bustling aerospace hub. Now a Seattle-based nonprofit wants to help expose underrepresented youth to the industry and potential careers. iUrban Teen is hosting its first iSpace Summit on July 30 featuring leading space industry partners such as Virgin Galactic,…
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Rendering of the UW’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building by KieranTimberlake. The University of Washington is breaking ground next month on its Interdisciplinary Engineering Building. The new facility should help the UW’s College of Engineering better serve its growing enrollment: since 2009, the annual number undergraduates earning degrees from the college has doubled to 1,300 while the…
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As part of its Move Care Forward campaign, Pivotal Ventures is releasing new data on U.S. caregivers and highlighting some of their stories, including Dana Jones, 39, a single mother of two born with sickle cell disease. (Pivotal Ventures Photo) Caregivers who provide for children, elderly people, and those who are sick or disabled are…
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The Anchor Community Initiative team with A Way Home Washington captured their reaction to Spokane’s significant decline in youth and young adult homelessness, as revealed through their data analysis. (A Way Home Washington Photo) A Washington state organization is using data and analytics to help solve a crisis that is both unconscionable and has seemed…