Data Sciences are fundamentally transforming nearly every area of engineering, science, and society. The University of Washington’s Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty are making fundamental contributions to many different areas of data sciences, including machine learning, AI, optimization, information theory, computer vision, and speech and natural language processing. Many of our data sciences faculty hold secondary appointments in applied mathematics, computer science and engineering, bioengineering, and other departments, and are active participants in cross-disciplinary institutes such as UW’s eScience Institute, the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and the Bloedel Hearing Research Center.
Artificial intelligence (AI), mathematical optimization and information theory.
Faculty: Lillian Ratliff, Jeffrey A. Bilmes, Maryam Fazel, Mari Ostendorf, Eli Shlizerman, Jenq-Neng Hwang, Linda Shapiro, Shwetak Patel, Radha Poovendran
Theory, algorithms, signal processing systems and signal processing applications (i.e. biomedical, geophysical signals and synthetic signals).
Faculty: Mari Ostendorf, Jenq-Neng Hwang
Speech recognition, natural language understanding, computational linguistics and web-based language techniques.
Faculty: Mari Ostendorf, Jeffrey A. Bilmes
Video analysis, surveillance, object recognition, activity recognition, medical image analysis and video compression
Faculty: Jenq-Neng Hwang, Linda Shapiro, Jeffrey A. Bilmes, Radha Poovendran
Quantum information systems, quantum algorithms for complex systems, quantum hardware
UW ECE doctoral student Mingfei Chen has been awarded a 2025 Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Perception. This award is one of the most competitive honors for doctoral students in artificial intelligence research today.
UW ECE Professor Maryam Fazel received the award for her foundational work in the field of optimization and for pioneering contributions to data science and artificial intelligence.
The Institute for Foundations of Data Science brought AI and machine learning experts together from across the nation to explore the mathematical, statistical, and algorithmic underpinnings of modern AI systems — advancing theory to better understand and improve AI technology.
On July 5, 2025, UW ECE Professor Les Atlas officially retired and was appointed professor emeritus. Atlas has been a UW ECE professor for 41 years, making important contributions to the Department while producing groundbreaking research in machine learning and digital signal processing.
UW ECE assistant professor Yiyue Luo is developing smart clothing that can sense where a person is, know what movement is needed to perform a task, and provide physical cues to guide performance.
UW ECE undergraduate Kyshawn Warren part of NSF-funded team of researchers using eye-tracking technology to help create autonomous systems that can adjust to individual comfort levels.
