larch lab
The Language Accessibility Research (LARCH) Lab is a team of faculty and students working on designing, building, and evaluating language technologies that make information more accessible and understandable for everyone. Our goal is to empower people to discover information and collaborate effectively with AI systems on complex decision-making tasks. We are especially motivated by problems in high-expertise domains such as healthcare and science communication.
Interested in joining our group? Please read the FAQ before messaging.
Prospective students: I receive many email requests and cannot respond to them all. To increase your chances of receiving a response, please be as specific in your message and request as possible.
What is a larch tree? They are conifers that turn yellow and lose their needles in the winter. Larches are native to the high alpine forests of the Eastern Cascades in Washington and are a special sight to behold 
lab members
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alumni
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2022-2024, PhD, BIME → Assistant Professor, UIUC Information School2022-2024, Masters, CSE → Software Engineer, Meta2023-2024, Masters, Northeastern University → PhD student, Virginia Tech2023-2024, Undergraduate, Informatics → Software Engineer, Microsoft2023-2024, Undergraduate, Informatics → ML Engineer, TrueMedia.org2022-2023, Masters, CSE → ML Engineer, Netflix
funding
Our work is generously supported by the following grants and gifts:
- Google Academic Research Award for "AI-Driven Accessibility Solutions for STEM Educational Materials: Bridging Accessibility Gaps for Blind and Visually Impaired Students." PI. 2024-10-01.
- National Institutes of Health (RFA-HD-24-007) for "R01: Determining the relationships between provider bias, experiences of ableism, and health outcomes for people with mobility disabilities." Co-I. Collaborative Proposal with Heather Feldner and Lynn Worobey. 2024-09-01 through 2029-08-31 (expected).
- Microsoft AI and the New Future of Work gift for "Accelerating Research Translation into Design Practice Using Generative AI." Co-PI. Collaborative Proposal with Gary Hsieh. 2024-07-01.
- UW eScience Azure Cloud Credits for Research and Teaching for "Improving STEM Document Accessibility for Blind and Low Vision Readers Through Human-AI Collaboration." PI. 2023-10-01 through 2024-11-30.
- Microsoft Accelerate Foundation Models Research Program for "Using generative AI to accelerate the translation of research insights into design practice." Co-PI. Collaborative Proposal with Gary Hsieh. 2023-09-01 through 2024-08-31.
- UW Center for an Informed Public Innovation Fund for "Designing for credibility: improving the use of generative AI for science communication." Co-PI. Collaborative Proposal with Gary Hsieh. 2023-09-01 through 2024-08-31.
- UW Institute of Medical Data Science Pilot Award for "Using machine learning to optimize prediction of extubation failure and clinical action." MPI. Collaborative Proposal with Mark Wurfel and Neha Sathe. 2023-07-01 through 2024-12-31.
- UW iSchool Strategic Research Fund for "AI-assisted clinical trial risk of bias assessment." PI. 2023-01-01 through 2024-12-31.
- Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) gift for "Synthesizing evidence for personalized biomedical information seeking." PI. 2022-09-01.
Ai2 mentorship
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PhD student, MIT, 2024PhD student, University of British Columbia, 2024PhD student, University of Chicago, 2023PhD student, MIT, 2023PhD student, University of Toronto, 2023PhD student, University of Washington, 2023PhD student, University of Toronto, 2022Masters student, University of Washington, 2022PhD student, Stanford, 2022Undergraduate student, University of Washington, 2021PhD student, University of Washington, 2021PhD student, University of Copenhagen, 2021PhD student, Carnegie Mellon University, 2021Masters student, University of Toronto, 2021Predoctoral Young Investigator, 2020Predoctoral Young Investigator, 2020PhD student, Northeastern University, 2020PhD student, University of Washington, 2020Predoctoral Young Investigator, 2020Postdoc intern, 2019