News and Updates

The University of Washington is ranked No. 7 on Kiplinger’s 300 Best College Values for 2018 among public universities, released Friday. Last year, the UW was ranked. No. 12. Read more from UW News.

In all corners of the University of Washington, staff, faculty and students are working hard to improve the lives of people around the world. This year undoubtedly embodied that passion and drive to serve the public good. Read more and watch the video here.

The University of Washington celebrated two major fundraising and construction milestones on Wednesday for the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering.

The UW Board of Regents voted in October to name the building for the Gateses, after Microsoft and a group of longtime friends and colleagues joined together to contribute more than $30 million in the couple’s honor. On Wednesday, the university announced an additional $15 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates that completes fundraising for the $110 million building. Also on Wednesday, the university hosted a “topping out” ceremony, which celebrated the placement of the final steel beam at the top of the structure. The additional investment will allow the UW to double its annual computer science and engineering degree production, offer an unparalleled education to more of Washington’s students and grow its high impact research programs. Read more about the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Compute Science & Engineering from UW News.

The Brotman Baty Institute for Personalized Medicine has launched in Seattle with a goal of pursuing one of the most sought-after and elusive goals in science: Treatments tailored to individual patients. Named for Costco co-founder Jeff Brotman and his lifelong friend, Dan Baty, whose families made a combined $50 million gift to create the BBI, the institute will be a collaboration between UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Seattle Children’s. Researchers with the institute will work to discover personalized treatments based on patients’ individual genetic and molecular profiles. Dr. Jay Shendure, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, will direct the BBI Institute. Read more from UW Medicine.

The University of Washington has launched a new institute aimed at accelerating research at the nanoscale: the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, or NanoES. The institute will pursue impactful advancements in a variety of disciplines — including energy, materials science, computation and medicine. Yet these advancements will be at a technological scale a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Read more from UW News.