A culture of Belonging in UW Bioengineering
At the University of Washington, diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to excellence. We value and honor diverse experiences and perspectives, strive to create welcoming and respectful learning environments, and promote access, opportunity, and justice for all.
What Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion means to the UW Bioengineering Community
Towards Justice, we believe that engineers must understand the social justice aspects of technology research and development practices, and are therefore including these topics in our curriculum. Towards Equity, we believe that admissions, hiring and retention practices must utilize best practices shown to overcome institutional and individual biases. Our Department values Diversity as individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations)1. We seek to have our educational and research programs represent the diversity of our country. Towards Inclusion, the Department focuses on intentionally creating a welcoming environment for everyone, absent of negative feelings and experiences such as fear, insecurity, social tensions, and unaddressed microaggressions, as well as fostering active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity (1,2). These efforts are multi-dimensional and include collaborations with numerous UW programs, recruitment efforts, policies, curriculum, practices, faculty/staff promotions, decision making, and mentoring and continuing education for members of our community.
Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee
The UW Bioengineering JEDI committee has been tasked with developing mechanisms and providing guidance to increase our department’s level of expertise on equity and inclusive teaching and mentoring, and to provide similar expertise to our trainees.
JEDI Resources
Race and Ethnicity
- Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE)
- Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D)
- UW Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center
- UW Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (UW NSBE)
- UW Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (UW SHPE)
- UW SACNAS Chapter
- w??b?altx? – Intellectual House
- Undocumented student resources
Gender
LGBTQ
Individuals with disabilities
- D Center
- Disability resources for Students
- Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
International students
- UW International Student Services (ISS) office
- Undocumented student resources
- Career Center @ Engineering
- Counseling Center
INCLUSIVE ADMISSIONS OR HIRING
INCLUSIVE TEACHING
- PR2ISM
- Teaching@UW
- Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction | DO-IT
- UW Well-Being for Life and Learning Guidebook
UW INSTITUTIONAL MISSIONS, POLICIES, AND RESOURCES
- UW 2022-2026 Diversity Blueprint
- Diversity at the University of Washington
- Diversity council
- Diversity statistics & policies
- Office of Inclusive Excellence in COE
- Strategic planning in the College of Engineering
- Disability Services
Feedback & Reporting Mechanisms
It is our goal that all members of the BIOE community feel included and supported. We want to highlight the resources available to you if you would like to provide feedback to improve the program or resolve a situation, or would like support in an incident of bias. We have provided links to different methods of providing feedback or reporting, and some information to help you decide which suits your purpose.
See also
Diversity at the University of Washington
UW Equity Focus, the UW’s hub for stories highlighting diversity and equity
In the News
Concentric wins Second Place Prize at 2020 Health Innovation Challenge
A team from UW Bioengineering took home the second place prize at the 2020 Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC) March 5 on the UW Seattle campus. Concentric, a team of students in the Master’s of Applied Bioengineering program, won for their low-cost, portable screening device for corneal disease.
UW Bioengineering Summer Camp Open to High School Students: Apply Now
The 2020 University of Washington Bioengineering Summer Camp, held July 6-10 in Seattle, features hands-on activities to explore careers in bioengineering. High school students, apply now!
With smartphone camera, researchers can create hyperspectral images to analyze skin changes
Modern smartphone cameras can be harnessed to analyze and track skin changes and blood flow dynamics under the skin, report UW Bioengineering Professor Ruikang Wang and his graduate student Qinghua He, in the February issue of Biomedical Optics Express.
BioE graduate student Alyssa Schul wins Grand Prize at Science and Technology Showcase
UW Bioengineering graduate student Alyssa Schul took home the $1,000 Premera Grand Prize at UW’s 2020 Science and Technology Showcase Jan. 29. A
NESAC/Bio wins 2020 SFB Technology, Innovation and Development Award; Cole DeForest wins 2020 Young Investigator Award
University of Washington bioengineers have won two awards from the Society for Biomaterials and will receive the honors in May 2020. The NESAC/Bio team of Buddy Ratner, David Castner and Lara Gamble have won the 2020 Technology Innovation and Development Award, and Cole DeForest won the 2020 Young Investigators Award.
Engineered capillaries model traffic in tiny blood vessels
University of Washington bioengineers Ying Zheng and Cole DeForest, working with Seattle Children’s infectious disease researchers, have engineered tiny blood vessels and shed light on how severe malaria infection causes red blood cells to get stuck in the bloodstream’s narrowest passageways. Their paper is published in the Jan. 17 issue of Science Advances.