Makeability Lab Awards
Student Awards
CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award — Honorable Mention
Computing Research Association
High Schooler Aditya Sengupta WA State Delegate to American Junior Academy of Science
Washington State Academy of Sciences
High schooler Aditya Sengupta who worked with PhD student Arnavi Chedda-Kothary on ArtInsight is one of 11 students selected to serve as 2025 WA State delegates at the American Junior Academy of Science.
Paul G. Allen School First-Year PhD Fellowship.
UW Allen School of Computer Science
ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award
ACM SIGCHI
This award recognizes the most outstanding research contributions from recently graduated PhD students within the HCI community.
William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award
UW Allen School of Computer Science
Recognized for "Sound Sensing and Feedback Techniques for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People"
Microsoft Research Dissertation Fellowship
Microsoft Research
Dhruv Jain selected for the prestigious Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant for his work on “Sound Sensing and Feedback Techniques for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users.”
Bob Bandes Memorial Teaching Award — Honorable Mention
UW Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Naomi Bashkansky Selected as Coolidge Scholarship Senator
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Fund
Over 3,400 students from across America submitted high-quality applications to this year’s competition. We are writing to let you know that you have earned the distinction of “Coolidge Senator.” This is a high honor. Only 100 candidates to this year’s scholarship competition have been named Coolidge Senators.
Manaswi Saha Earns Google PhD Fellowship
We are delighted to inform you that we have chosen to award Manaswi Saha the 2020 Google Fellowship in Human Computer Interaction and secondary areas in Assistive Technologies and AI for Social Good for her work on Project Sidewalk. The student nominations we received were exemplary in their quality, but Manaswi especially stood out and was endorsed by the research scientists and distinguished engineers within Google who participated in the review
Kotaro Hara Awarded Google PhD Fellowship in Accessibility
"We are delighted to inform you that we have chosen to award Kotaro Hara the 2014 Google PhD Fellowship in Accessibility. The student nominations we received were exemplary in their quality, but you especially stood out and were endorsed by the research scientists and distinguished engineers within Google who participated in the reviews." Ultimately, Kotaro had to decline this Fellowship because he had already received the IBM PhD Fellowship
Kotaro Hara Receives IBM Fellowship
IBM
The IBM PhD Fellowship Program recognizes and supports exceptional PhD students.
William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award
UW Allen School of Computer Science
Awarded for "Sensing and Feedback of Everyday Activities to Promote Pro-environmental Behaviors"
CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award — Honorable Mention
Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest
In Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.
College of Engineering Student Innovator Resarch Award
UW College of Engineering
Each year the University of Washington College of Engineering bestows “Community of Innovators Awards”
Faculty Honors
ACM SIGCHI Societal Impact Award
ACM SIGCHI
Awarded to individuals whose research in HCI addresses pressing societal needs. See Award Talk on YouTube and the official announcement here.
Google Faculty Research Award
Jon E. Froehlich, Jacob Wobbrock, Arnavi Chheda-Kothary
Society-Centered AI Research Award for “Exploring AI-Enhanced Mixed-Ability Social Interactions.”
PacTrans Outstanding Researcher Award
USDOT PacTrans
Awarded for “outstanding research with significant outcomes, incorporating meaningful student contributions, and robust community service/leadership involvement.”
College of Engineering Outstanding Faculty Member Award
UW College of Engineering
Awarded for “making outstanding contributions during the extraordinary challenges of 2020" and for "for his innovative and creative approaches to supporting remote learning and research during the pandemic — and for going above and beyond, in big and small ways, to support his community during this time."
Google Faculty Research Award
Jennifer Mankoff, Jon E. Froehlich
For “Transforming How Blind and Low Vision Developers Design and Implement User Interfaces.”
Google Faculty Research Award
Jon E. Froehlich, Leah Findlater
For “Wearable Sound Awareness Support for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing”
NSF CAREER Award
National Science Foundation
A Tangible-Graphical Approach to Engage Young Children in Wearable Design.
Sloan Research Fellowship
Sloan
It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as a 2017 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Computer Science. As you know, the Sloan Research Fellowships are extraordinarily competitive awards involving nominations for most of the very best scientists of your generation from the United States and Canada. I hope your selection from this remarkable group of nominees will give you particular personal satisfaction and convey a clear indication of the high esteem in which your past work and future potential are held by your fellow scholars.
Inventors in our Midst
1st DC-area Maker Faire
One of four recognized at the inaugural DC-area Maker Faire.
Google Faculty Research Award
Jon E. Froehlich, David Jacobs, Project Sidewalk
For “Combining Crowdsourcing and Computer Vision for Street-level Accessibility.”
3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award
3M
Using Machine Learning and Intelligent Sensing to Promote Activity Awareness and Modification.
Project Awards
McDevitt Middle School Earns State Recognition for Urban Accessibility Effort with Project Sidewalk
Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
Project Sidewalk, Project Sidewalk + Community Science
McDevitt Middle School students have received recognition from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for their work on a student-led civics project addressing sidewalk accessibility in the city using Project Sidewalk.
Smart City Hub Switzerland Award
Smart City Hub Switzerland
Awarded to ZüriACT, which builds on Project Sidewalk.
Facilitators' Choice Award, NSF Video Showcase
NSF Video Showcase
Awarded to 21 of 242 video submissions (8.7%)
Facilitators’ Choice Award, NSF STEM Video Showcase
NSF STEM for All Video Showcase
Awarded to 13 of 156 video submissions (8.3%).
Madrona Prize for Research Excellence and Commercial Appeal
Madrona Venture Group
1st Place, UW Environmental Innovation Challenge
University of Washington
HydroSense won first place and $10,000 in the inaugural UW Environmental Innovation Challenge on April 1, 2009. The team won "for their practical solution of tracking water usage in the home. When attached to a faucet, the HydroSense product can calculate real-time water flow, infer the specific source of use such as the toilet, shower, etc., and, detect leaks."
Best Paper Awards (16)
How Much Future Helps? A Controlled Study of Future-Privileged Supervision for Causal Egocentric Gaze Estimation
GAZE 2026 | Best Paper Award
GeoVisA11y: An AI-based Geovisualization Question-Answering System for Screen-Reader Users
Proceedings of CHI 2026 | Acceptance Rate: 25.3% (1705 / 6730) | Best Paper Award
Engaging with Children’s Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families
Proceedings of ASSETS 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 30.0% (67 / 223) | Best Paper Award
Towards AI-Powered AR for Enhancing Sports Playability for People with Low Vision: An Exploration of ARSports
Workshop Proceedings of IDEATExR 2024 | Best Paper Award
CookAR: Affordance Augmentations in Wearable AR to Support Kitchen Tool Interactions for People with Low Vision
Proceedings of UIST 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 24.0% (146 / 608) | Best Paper Award
A Taxonomy of Sounds in Virtual Reality
Proceedings of Proceeedings of DIS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 26.8% (153 / 571) | Best Paper Award
SoundWatch: Exploring Smartwatch-based Deep Learning Approaches to Support Sound Awareness for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users
Proceedings of ASSETS 2020 | Acceptance Rate: 27.5% (46 / 167) | Best Artifact Award
Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery
Proceedings of ASSETS 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 25.9% (41 / 158) | Best Paper Award
PDF doi Cite Code Project Sidewalk Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment
Project Sidewalk: A Web-based Crowdsourcing Tool for Collecting Sidewalk Accessibility Data at Scale
Proceedings of CHI 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 23.8% (705 / 2960) | Best Paper Award
Anchored Audio Sampling: A Seamless Method for Exploring Children's Thoughts During Deployment Studies
Proceedings of CHI 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 23.8% (705 / 2960) | Best Paper Award
MakerWear: A Tangible Approach to Interactive Wearable Creation for Children
Proceedings of CHI 2017 | Best Paper Award
Improving Public Transit Accessibility for Blind Riders by Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmark Locations with Google Street View
Proceedings of ASSETS 2013 | Best Paper Award
Mind the Theoretical Gap: Interpreting, Using, and Developing Behavioral Theory in HCI Research
Proceedings of CHI 2013 | Best Paper Award
Flowers or a robot army?: encouraging awareness and activity with personal, mobile displays
Proceedings of UbiComp 2008 | 10-Year Impact Award
Other Paper Awards (12)
Sidewalk Gallery: An Interactive, Filterable Image Gallery of Over 500,000 Sidewalk Accessibility Problems
Demo Proceedings of ASSETS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 61.8% (55 / 89) | Best Artifact Runner-up Award
Pedagogical Strategies for Reflection in Project-based HCI Education with End Users
Proceedings of DIS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 26.8% (153 / 571) | Honorable Mention
What Do We Mean by “Accessibility Research”? A Literature Survey of Accessibility Papers in CHI and ASSETS from 1994 to 2019
Proceedings of CHI 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 26.3% (749 / 2844) | Honorable Mention
Navigating Graduate School with a Disability: A Trio-Ethnography
Proceedings of ASSETS 2020 | Acceptance Rate: 27.5% (46 / 167) | Best Paper Nominee
Opportunities and Challenges in Involving Users in Project-Based HCI Education
Proceedings of CHI 2020 | Acceptance Rate: 24.3% (760 / 3126) | Honorable Mention
Autoethnography of a Hard of Hearing Traveler
Proceedings of ASSETS 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 25.9% (41 / 158) | Best Paper Nominee
Understanding the Role of Thermography in Energy Auditing: Current Practices and the Potential for Automated Solutions
Proceedings of CHI 2015 | Honorable Mention
BodyVis: A New Approach to Body Learning Through Wearable Sensing and Visualization
Proceedings of CHI 2015 | Honorable Mention
Age-Related Differences in Performance with Touchscreens Compared to Traditional Mouse Input
Proceedings of CHI 2013 | Honorable Mention
The Design and Evaluation of Prototype Eco-Feedback Displays for Fixture-Level Water Usage Data
Proceedings of CHI 2012 | Honorable Mention
HydroSense: infrastructure-mediated single-point sensing of whole-home water activity
Proceedings of Ubicomp 2009 | Best Paper Nominee