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To get involved in research with our clinic follow the directions below:

Create a Github account
Create an issue in this repository.
Title the issue with a description of the project you want to work on (see below for specific projects we need help with). Then describe the following:
Why you are interested in this research project (e.g. Do you have experience with this topic? Does it sound cool and you just want to find out more? etc.)
What are three questions you want answered about this research project before you join?
What is your availability for working on this research? (e.g. I can devote 5-10 hours per week for the next two quarters)
Suggest a time to meet with me in the next seven days to discuss, and leave an email where we contact you.

We'll follow up with you to schedule a time to meet.

Areas of Research

This research area is led by Eva Maxfield Brown and Nic Weber

Council Data Project - for the last five years we have been building infrastructure that makes it easier to interact with local government officials. We are currently looking for students interested in data engineering, machine-learning, visualization, or front-end development to work on research projects related to CDP.
Wifi Hacking as Cybersecurity Education - With a generous grant from the IMLS we are working on out-reach and instruction through hardware. This project help people understand security through building and developing their own micro-controller for hacking wifi connectivity (see a nice write up in Verge about this recently). This is a good project if you are interested in hardware, and participatory research, education, or community development.

This reasearch area is led by Nic Weber

The Economy of Open Source Software and Hardware: In collaboration with UW partners we are conducting a "census" of open-source software developed at UW. With the results of this work we plan to build ecnomic models that can effectively account for the impact of open-sourcing (as opposed to privately licensing) UW research. This is a very good grant if you want experience doing survey research, or if you have a background and interest in economics.
The Invisible Labor of Computational Research: Building on previous work we are interested in developing a comprehensive study of "acknowledgment" in scientific research papers. We will use Natural Language Processing (in particular named entity recognition) to describe gendered effects in authorship, cultures of acknowledgment and thanks, and quantify the impact of software development and data curation in contemporary research.

This research area is led by Lindsey Schwartz and Nic Weber

Deactivation Data: In collaboration with a local labor union we are working to understand how Transportation Network Companies (e.g. Uber and Lyft) communicate with drivers that have been deactivated. We are working now on a mobile application that will allow drivers to submit their deactivation notices to unions for fair representation. If you are interested in data curation, labor policy, UX/UI work, or participatory research this is a perfect first project.
Gig Work and Precarity: Over the last three years we have been collecting data about the experience of WA state gig workers. Every six months we recruit, interview, and analyze data from new participants. If you are looking for experience doing qualitative research and can commit to a six-month period of work this is a high-impact, and extremely fun research project to join.

This research area is led by Richard Huang and Nic Weber

How much of the early Chinese Web is archived?: Richard is working to develop both qualitative and quantitative explanations about how the early Chinese web was saved, and what these archives tell us about early information retrieval experiences. This is a good project if you are interested in databases, archiving, web culture, or digital history.
Accessibility Compliance in Campaign Websites: This project looks at websites developed by candidates running for political office in the USA. We have developed a semi-automated compliance checker that will report how well (or not well) the candidate's site meets web accessibility standards. This is a good project if you are interested in politics, communications, or data analytics (we have lots of data to analyze!).