News from the Office of Connected Learning
Finding My Place in Research: Lessons from the Bird-Window Collision Project by Katerina Malone
When I was given the opportunity to take part in research conducted by the Biology Club under my mentor Dr. Ursula Valdez, I didn’t think twice about it. Being a freshman and being new to the university system made it a little difficult for me to find opportunities that I was interested in or that...
March 20, 2026
Exploring Housing Inequality and Mental Health: A Psychological Perspective by Verisha Bhatti
This summer, I did research about inequality, specifically focusing on how the psychology field defines, measures, and examines inequality. I focused on social inequality, studying how different social classes have unique beliefs on income inequality, with Dr. Charlie Collins. Finding different studies in psychological journals helped me understand the wide range of inequalities, how this...
March 19, 2026
Applying Ecological Metrics to Market Analysis by Ethan Morris
This summer I spent time working with Professor Balakrishnan working on ecology metrics and its applications on market analysis and conditions. The point of the research was to highlight the application of ecology metrics and how it can easily be applied to market conditions to see whether there is an imbalance between big firms and...
March 3, 2026
Opening the Black Box: My Journey into Machine Learning Explainability by Hakuho Fujiwara
This summer is my first time to have an experience working on machine learning research with my partner under the mentorship of Dr. Roger Stanev. Through this research I also had an honorable opportunity to join the University of Washington Bothell summer research workshops and it taught me hardskills and softskills that I can apply...
March 2, 2026
Exploring the boundless expanse of the universe — and the self
What started as a spontaneous elective choice turned into a full-fledged research career for Liliana Flores, a UW Bothell Physics graduate from the class of 2025. After taking an Introduction to Astronomy course taught by Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, Flores was hooked. Her curiosity and enthusiasm for communicating science earned her a spot in Rodríguez...
February 12, 2026
Wings and Windows: Protecting Birds Through Campus Research by Jahnavi Vibhuthi
The Bird Window Collision Prevention, lead by Dr. Ursula Valdez and Dr. Jeffrey Jensen, project aims to determine whether campus windows are bird-friendly by assessing the frequency and locations of bird-window collisions. I became involved with this project because I always wanted to do something impactful on campus. When I got an opportunity to participate through the Biology club,...
February 11, 2026
Returning from Rwanda: Holding on to the Memories Made and the Knowledge Gained by Mabrey Young
For Mabrey, a UW Bothell student who traveled to Rwanda to study nation-building in the aftermath of genocide, the experience extended far beyond three weeks abroad. Through building connections with fellow students from UW and the African Leadership University, and continuing to engage with course material upon returning home, Mabrey found ways to keep the...
January 27, 2026
Persistence in Practice by Aidan Carey
When I first began my summer research, I had only a small crumb of an idea of what I had gotten myself into. While I did learn a significant amount about my field, the skillset I began developing is what I consider my most valuable takeaway. Fundamentally, the main thing it takes to do research...
January 26, 2026
Asking big questions in a small country
A new UW Bothell study abroad program in Rwanda brought 17 UW students together with 16 students from the African Leadership University to study leadership and nation building through an interdisciplinary, collaborative lens. Over four weeks in Kigali, students learned together, conducted joint research on topics like global health, ecotourism, sports development, and human rights,...
January 23, 2026
Denial of Health Insurance Claims: A Look into American Health Insurance by Branden Williams
This summer I learned a lot about the health insurance industry and healthcare in the United States as a whole. In the beginning of this year we came up with the hypothesis that health insurance companies profit off of claim denials. What was thought to be a straightforward research question turned out to be the...
January 22, 2026
