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Wisdom about the University of Washington

On github.com, you can view the table of contents (outline) of this file by clicking the menu icon (three lines or dots) in the top corner. It's next to the pencil "edit" icon and below the word "History".

UW (non-CSE-specific)

UW Travel Card rules, from http://www.washington.edu/admin/procsrvcs/ecommerce/cta/travelcardpolicy.html: You may use the UW Travel Card only for expenses related to the following official UW business while on travel status.

  • UW business related travel expenses such as airfare, lodging, meals, registration, car rental, ground transportation and miscellaneous travel expenses.
  • Meals associated with hosting and entertaining, and employee recruitment meals. (Reimbursement is based on department approval and funding source.)
  • UW business related expenses such as photocopying and faxing.

Taxi stands near UW:

  • Hotel Deca, 4507 Brooklyn
  • UW Hospital

Or call Orange Cab, 206-522-8800. For CSE, specify Paul G. Allen Center for CSE -- not Paul Allen Library -- (technical address is 185 Stevens Way, south of the Hub, but the dispatchers seem to have assigned an address plotted within the grid surrounding campus: 3815 Stevens Way.

Career center, for prospective employers who want to hire a student: http://careers.washington.edu/employers

To enter grades online: https://catalyst.uw.edu/gradepage

Final exam times can be predicted from weekly meeting times. See http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/calendar.html

For off-campus access to the ACM digital library and similar UW-licensed collections of content, three options:

  • Go to lib.washington.edu and click the off-campus login button at the top right (or go directly to http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/). Then, restricted links should work.
  • Add offcampus.lib.washington.edu to the end of the hostname.

Getting study approval from IRB (run by HSD, Human Subjects Division):

  • Exempt studies: usually interviews, questionnaires, and use of existing data
  • Non-emempt studies: For the purposes of a grant proposal, you file an "approval in principle". It's an IRB application for expedited review, but without consent forms or other materials. The IRB generates a human subjects application #, but not actual approval to do the study. NSF only needs a box checked by UW OSP, and UW OSP only needs an IRB application #.

Another option is to use Western IRB, in Olympia (contact: Elaine Weakley). UW apparently has an arrangement with Western IRB whereby Western IRB can handle the IRB function for at least some subset of UW studies. As with other for-profit IRB organizations, they tend to be more customer-service-oriented than the UW IRB.

To get to Microsoft Research (MSR) from UW by public transit, it's a 15-minute ride and runs every 10-15 minutes, depending on time of day. Take bus 545 from the 520 freeway station at Montlake (on Google Maps, this is "Montlake Frwy Sta, Seattle, WA"), or bus 542 (during rush hour: 3-4 hours in the morning and afternoon) from the U district, UWMC, or the Montlake station above 520. Exit the bus at the "NE 40th St freeway station" (aka "Overlake TC"?); on Google Maps this is "SR 520 Ramp & NE 40th St". From there, take a Microsoft shuttle, or walk. A relevant Microsoft campus map is: http://members.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/locations/images/west_campus.jpg

To access the ACM digital library (or other content licensed by the UW libraries) from an IP address that is not at washington.edu,

  • bookmark the following JavaScript URL: javascript:void(location.href=%22http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=%22+location.href. To get access, visit the ACM DL, then visit the bookmark.

In UW Hires (https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/eng/hm/default.cfm?szcat=hm):

  • to remove an individual from your main homepage (doesn't remove the applicant from the position's homepage), click "complete evaluation form" and enter "yes".
  • to see the cover letter, select the position (not the specific applicant), then click on the percentage in the "score" column.

Poll Everywhere is free to UW faculty and students. You can create simple polls that students can vote on anonymously via a URL or text message. It also has integrations with Powerpoint and Google Slides.

User guide for UW Telecom handsets/telephones: https://itconnect.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/9608_9611G-SIP_quick-ref.pdf

The "personal Zoom room" is https://washington.zoom.us/my/USERNAME.

To schedule Panopto automated video recordings: https://itconnect.uw.edu/tools-services-support/teaching-learning/panopto/schedule-recordings/auto-sched/

UW cloud intake form (to pay for cloud services): https://uwconnect.uw.edu/sp?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=857ef55287385e906f1997dd3fbb354c

CSE (other than sysadmin)

PLSE (PL/SE) lab is room CSE2 253.

To create press releases about UW/CSE research: Kristin Osborne Communications Manager

In the UW CSE visitor schedule reservation schedule system (mvis):

How to sign up for undergrad research for credit in the UW CSE department:

  1. Go to http://www.cs.washington.edu/students/ugrad/research#registration (Also available via: cs.washington.edu -> Current Students -> Information for Current Undergrads -> MyCSE -> 'Ugrad Research' tab)
  2. Fill out and submit the form on that page
  3. It will send the professor the approval email
  4. When the professor approves, it sends the student an SLN and add code.

Petitions for non-majors to take a UW CSE majors-only class: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/academics/petition.html

To reserve seminar rooms CSE 305 and Gates Commons, maybe use events@cs.washington.edu?

Use the cse-maintenance@cs.washington.edu mailing list for requests about facilities (physical plant) issues with the Allen Center. space@cs.washington.edu is for asking for office space.

UW CSE intustrial affiliates program: key contact is Kay Beck-Benton. Stock reply for people trying to recruit/hire students: Good luck on your project! The best way to get access to UW's excellent students is via the UW CSE industrial affiliates program: http://www.cs.washington.edu/affiliates/

UW CSE technical reports (TRs) are handled by the TR coordinator To create a TR, send the PDF to tr-request@cs.washington.edu and copy a faculty member. The TR coordinator can also provide a TR number in advance of receiving the PDF, if you provide the title, author list, abstract, and a date on which you will provide the PDF.

To add a visitor's talk to the CSE colloquium talk calendar (https://www.cs.washington.edu/events/colloquia), send to either Connie Ivey-Pasche or Kay Beck-Benton: name, affiliation, title and abstract, date, room, time, visitor schedule in MVIS if available

The UW CSE grad student and advising database can be accessed via the Web (if you have proper permissions) https://norfolk.cs.washington.edu/ssl-php/phpPgAdmin/ or from the command line (you need postgres, and you need to be on the CSE network):

  psql --dbname=cse_admin --host=norfolk.cs.washington.edu --username=suciu

If you want to send a message to UW CSE undergrads, send it to ugrad-advising@cs and ask them to post it to the ungergraduates Ed discussion board. If you have a time-sensitive message, you should send that to cs-ugrads-urgent@cs.

Card key access to rooms and labs in CSE buildings (the Allen Center or the Gates Center): To: cardkey@cs.washington.edu

  • For undergrads: Please give these individuals access to the Gates Center upper floors, and Gates 253.
  • For non-undergrads: Please give these individuals access to the Gates Center upper floors, and Gates 253, and the amenity spaces like the kitchens.

For undergraduates, need:

  • student ID
  • rooms to be given access to
  • end date (I always make it December 31)

For visitors, need:

  • name
  • email address
  • end date
  • whether to give access to "amenity" spaces like the kitchens and printer/copier rooms

How to order lunches / snack carts at UW CSE: https://www.cs.washington.edu/internal/food

UW CSE course web template: https://gitlab.cs.washington.edu/lab/simple-courseweb-template To use:

git clone <git@gitlab.cs.washington.edu>:lab/simple-courseweb-template.git

and then copy the clone contents.

Fellowships/scholarships that students can apply for:

  • NSF -- first two years only
  • NDSEG -- first two years only
  • Adobe Research fellowship
  • Facebook fellowship
  • Symantec Fellowship
  • Google Fellowship

gitlab.cs.washington.edu does not support adding collaborators by email address (even though that is an option in the webpage UI, as of August 2019). You need to give each collaborator a CSE research guest account.

At UW CSE, preparation for a general exam proceeds like this:

  • 8 weeks before: committee provides the charge (the instructions to the candidate)
  • 2 weeks before: candidate distributes document
  • committee members read the document and give feedback
  • candidate prepares and practices a talk The general exam itself proceeds like this:
  • Candidate presents a 30-40 minute talk. Questions are common and accepted, so the talk often runs as much as 90 minutes. This is a reason that the candidate should not prepare a longer talk.
  • Open questions from anyone in the room.
  • Everyone except the candidate and the committee leaves the room.
  • The committee may ask more questions. These can sometimes be pointed, such as pressing the candidate on incomplete or unclear presentation or understanding. The goal is never to be malicious, but to identify how to improve the work.
  • The candidate leaves the room. The committee discusses what feedback to give (including whether the work should be expanded, contracted, or changed in other ways) and how to help the candidate successfully complete a high-quality PhD.
  • It is exceptionally rare for a candidate not to pass the general exam. The focus is on improving the work and setting up the candidate for success, not on being a gating function.

The Allen Center bike room is room 030. Click on "basement" here: https://norfolk.cs.washington.edu/public-directory/ . You get to it by going down the driveway from Stevens Way. Go through the man door next to the loading dock door, and it's the first door on your right.

Course scheduling requests: csetimes@cs.washington.edu rather than to Pim Lustig or Maude Lustig.

Research communications (PR): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZfJ42zK7aKgkaMxjVSkKilHFo70HgT1rdX3zwZ3L9QBCbrw/viewform Or, email to news-tips@cs rather than directly to Kristin Osborne.

Examples of successful NSF grant REU supplement requests/proposals: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rzfbCvKYWvImZGsuc7RUaYzvJTlloIaK

For large courses that require grading sessions of 4 hours or more, faculty may purchase food and be reimbursed by UW CSE's discretionary budget. https://www.cs.washington.edu/chair/misc/grading_sessions

UW CSE prospective faculty interview feedback/reviews: https://betterfolio.cs.washington.edu/app/candidates

To pay an undergraduate researcher an hourly wage: https://internal.cs.washington.edu/hrp/about-payroll-contact-us/undergrad-ra-appointment/

To reimburse an expense such as travel or equipment: https://internal.cs.washington.edu/research-admin/research-finance-team/

Allen School event request form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiiC7fMVgkpUwCT-S9IGbU0RHnHlBBkKKuUKnfl-Ebw4itNA/viewform

Purchase request: https://internal.cs.washington.edu/research-admin/research-finance-team/

In CSE2 (Gates Center), the gray electrical outlets in every room turn off 15 minutes after the motion occupancy censor stops recording movement.

Restaurants that are close to UW CSE, quick and convenient to take a visitor to:

  • Agua Verde, along with Kurtis (Mexican, foot of 15th)
  • Off the Rez (Native American, Burke Museum)
  • Jai Thai (Thai, 4214 U Way)
  • Korean Tofu House (Korean, 4142 Brooklyn)
  • Little Duck (Chinese, 4100 Roosevelt)
  • Aladdin Gyro-Cery & Deli (Mediterranean, 4139 U Way)
  • Chili's on the Ave (many vegan options)

UW CSE instructor guide: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0ANtHmFo1cMyQUk9PVA

UW CSE new quarter teaching guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZXClMBw9NUyibzLiCL194oeWOp5NWv9FnGPNZnvNucM/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.f5kaxno85jsp

As of 2026-03-05, in the Gates building (CSE2), the only printers that can scan are the ones in the first and third floor print centers.

CSE sysadmin

UW CSE printers:

  • One-sided (single-sided): ps581/noduplex
  • No header pages: ps581/nobanner

Color printer: psc581 I can't seem to create psc581/noduplex

An undergrad instructional linux server: attu.cs.washington.edu

Printing enscript and cedilla output at CSE: ced2:

  • .pdf: prints portrait (small)
  • .ps: one-sided, otherwise fine
  • .ps --ps2pdf-> .pdf on ps581: prints portrait (small)

ens2f:

  • .ps on ps581: does not work
  • .pdf (converted from .ps with ps2pdf) on ps581: prints portrait (small)
  • .pdf --pdf2ps-> .ps on ps581: blank pages
  • .pdf --pdftops-> .ps on ps581: WORKS!
  • .ps on psc581: one-sided, otherwise fine
  • .pdf (converted from .ps with ps2pdf) on psc581: prints portrait (small), one-sided ens1f:
  • .ps on ps581: sometimes works, sometimes cuts off left margin
  • all other combinations work ens1:
  • directly on ps581: cut off left margin

To apply for a new UW CSE computer account at cs.washington.edu, the sponsor fills out a form at https://password.cs.washington.edu/account/csenetid/. (I think the user gets to choose a preferred username.) A guest account ("research" account type) is only permitted to use 25 MB (!) of space, so:

  • Always log into the same machine.
  • On that machine, create a directory /scratch/${USER} and store your files there.
  • Make symbolic links from your home directory so you don't even notice the disk quota limitation.
  • periodically check whether your jobs have created new files in your home directory -- say, under ${HOME}/.m2/. Move any such files to /scratch/${USER}/ and link from your home directory.

A list of all my sponsored accounts at CSE (e.g., guest accounts), with their expiration dates: <sponsor.cs.washington.edu>.

To apply for a new UW NetID, the sponsor fills out a form at https://itconnect.uw.edu/tools-services-support/networks-connectivity/husky-onnet/husky-onnet-for-sponsored-uw-netids/

What files in the file system contain the content served at webpages/URLs (for instance, for UW CSE classes/courses)?

Via tramp: /tern.cs.washington.edu:/cse/web/courses/cse590n

Support can create a new virtual host, putting data under /cse/web/research/. (For large data that doesn't need to persist for an extended period of time, can use Google Drive instead.)

Remote desktop from Linux workstation to Windows Terminal Server (cannot run in the background; enter CSERESEARCH for the domain):

  xfreerdp -u mernst -g 2560x1440 aqua.cs.washington.edu
  xfreerdp -u mernst -g 1920x1200 aqua.cs.washington.edu
  xfreerdp -u mernst -g 1028x768 aqua.cs.washington.edu
  xfreerdp -u mernst aqua.cs.washington.edu

Once I log in, probably do Control Panel > Ease of Access > Ease of Access Center > Make the computer easier to see > Set the thickness of the blinking cursor : 5 Control Panel > Mouse > Change how the mouse pointer looks > [make it as large as possible

Here are newer commands, but they don't work for me:

  xfreerdp /v:aqua /u:mernst /d:cseresearch /size:2560x1440
  xfreerdp /v:aqua /u:mernst /d:cseresearch /size:1920x1200
  xfreerdp /v:aqua /u:mernst /d:cseresearch /size:1028x768

(xfreerdp replaces rdesktop, but with rdesktop you would need to log in with CSERESEARCH\mernst rather than AQUA\mernst.) VDI (http://vdi.cs.washington.edu/vdi/) is like instructional Windows machines; maybe it doesn't have access to one's research file system like aqua does. Example command:

  xfreerdp /d:CSEPCLAB /size:1280x1024 /u:bob /v:vdilab12.cs.washington.edu /sec:nla &

To create a directory for a new project, such as to store a version control repository, do so under /projects/swlab1 (or swlab2, etc.), such as /projects/swlab1/typlessj/. Please do not create a /projects/swlab1/$USER directory, which is less informative. And don't put this under your home directory, which will get reaped eventually when you graduate or leave UW.

/cse/www is not mounted for attu.cs and other undergrad-accessible servers. An undergrad (such as a TA) who wants to change such files must log in through vole.cs.washington.edu.

Cycle servers for UW CSE are listed at https://uwplse.org/internal/computers.html.

Set UW CSE Unix file permissions and access using the GrpAdmin group management tool (https://intranet.cs.washington.edu/grpadmin).

After a user has been added to a group using the GrpAdmin tool (https://intranet.cs.washington.edu/grpadmin), it is generally necessary for the user to do one of the following:

  • wait an hour
  • log out and log back in
  • use chgrpsh

after which the user will have access to the group. Another potential complication is that each user can have only 20 login groups -- those are the ones that are active at any time. To change login groups permanently, use https://intranet.cs.washington.edu/grpadmin?screen=logingroups. To change effective groups temporarily, use chgrpsh.

Files of the form /cse/www/education/courses/503/11au have become /cse/web/courses/cse503/11au To fix, use:

  (replace-string "/cse/www/education/courses/" "/cse/web/courses/cse")

If I get

  CSE Web Login
  Fatal error: unable to get username and password from the form; contact the administrator

this may be due to a slow or laggy connection. Try going directly to https://weblogin.cs.washington.edu/cgi-bin/wlogin.cgi

A UW CSE lab-supported machine that gets upgraded late (eg, will be last to be updated to CentOS): barb.cs.washington.edu

Anonymous feedback for CSE courses: https://feedback.cs.washington.edu/

A CSE lab-supported Linux machine running CentOS 8 is cremosa.cs.washington.edu. You can only log into it from another CSE machine, not from outside.

BS/MS students do not have access to the CSE gws research computers/servers like bicycle and tricycle. That requires additional account sponsorship.

Email for the UW CSE website: web-content@cs.washington.edu

Coriander GPU Server Usage Rules:

  1. All long-running GPU tasks must be scheduled before execution, and any task running longer than 30 minutes without a reservation may be terminated.
  2. Do not use the /home/username directory; instead, store all files under /m-coriander/coriander/username.
  3. /m-coriander/coriander/hf is used for storing models and datasets, and /m-coriander/coriander/trace is used for storing shared traces.
  4. Always assign meaningful names to Docker containers and label them with the owner's name.

To open a support ticket for UW CSE Support: https://otrs.cs.washington.edu/otrs/customer.pl?Action=CustomerTicketMessage My tickets: https://otrs.cs.washington.edu/otrs/customer.pl?Action=CustomerTicketOverview;Subaction=MyTickets

To invite undergrads to Slack (permissible only for research, not course staff):

  • Choose the Paul G. Allen workspace
  • click the down-caret to its right
  • choose "invite people" from the dropdown
    • can batch multiple people if they should have access to the same channels
  • Must select Guest (not Member)

For course staff communication:

  • A private Ed board, which Bekah can setup (or may already exist)
  • Google Chat within CSE Google
  • Un-officially a free 'retail' Slack workspacesuffices too, as 90 day retention cleans up after itself.

You must be a member of the CSE unix group "smtp-users" to send mail from a script using attumail.cs.washington.edu. To check if you are a member:

  1. Go to https://intranet.cs.washington.edu/grpadmin
  2. Click "Query or change group members"
  3. Click the radio button "user name" next to the Query By button.
  4. Then click the "Query By" button.
  5. You will be presented with a table of all groups you are in. Check if "smtp-users" is in the table.
  6. If it is, you're good to go. If not, submit a ticket to support@cs saying that you need to be added to the group in order to send email.

As of 2025-10-01: "bam" and "boom" run Rocky 10, as a preview for researchers. Other CSE-managed machines run Rocky 9.7.

To use Docker at UW CSE, after Support has installed it on a machine:

  1. Create a folder named docker in an area local to the host - not on a networked file system (like your home directory). /tmp/CSENETID/docker is a reasonable place.
  2. Create the file ~/.config/docker/daemon.json (creating the directories if need be), containing {"data-root":"/tmp/CSENETID/docker"}. The path in that file is the path to the docker folder you created in the previous step.
  3. Run: dockerd-rootless-setuptool.sh install This must be done after every reboot.
  4. Add the things it tells you to your .bashrc file, and then run source .bashrc
  5. To start Docker: systemctl --user start docker
  6. To run Docker, as a proof of concept docker run hello-world

PLSE

If there is trouble with parsing Jekyll webpages (such as those under http://uwplse.org/meet/), you can see logs at http://hooknook.uwplse.org/

Seattle visitors

Options for short-term Seattle housing/rentals/apartments/sublets:

Be sure to check where the apartment or house is in relation to the university. Sites include

  • hotpads.com
  • padmapper.com

I am happy to help with logistics in Seattle (such as visiting an apartment or helping with signing contracts).

Wait lists for preschool or daycare can be very long. If you want that, get on waiting lists as soon as possible, though most places require an in-person visit before you can get on the waiting list.

All children in the US, regardless of nationality, are entitled to free public school. Schools are assigned based on your home address. As a general rule, any school north of the Montlake Cut and the Ship Canal will be good to very good. South of that waterway, there are both good and bad schools.

Seattle

Restaurants near CSE:

  • U Village (18-minute walk)
    • Dough Zone
    • Ba Bar
  • Portage Bay (12-minute walk)
  • Montlake
    • Oxbow Bakery (24-minute walk)
  • The Ave or close by
    • Jai Tai (15-minute walk)
    • Shultzy's
    • Korean Tofu house (15-minute walk)
  • Far
    • Araya's (29 minute walk but quite good)