At the Tech Policy Lab, UW student Andrew Shaw found a home away from home with a community that transcended traditional academic borders.
“My undergrad majors were computer science and philosophy, so at that point I was really looking for these third spaces, interdisciplinary spaces,” he said. “The Tech Policy Lab was the first space I found that was truly interdisciplinary. At the weekly discussions, there were people from a wide variety of backgrounds, the computer science department, law … that was what drew me to it.”
Since those early days, Shaw (M.S. Computer Science ’26, B.S. Computer Science/B.A. Philosophy: Ethics ’25) has become a rising voice in the space, presenting a paper at the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) that also went on to receive the 2025 Outstanding Undergraduate Honors Thesis Award from CSE. He also received the 2025 Kenneth R. Parker Award for Excellence in Community Service from Philosophy for work with the UW Center for Human Rights, and was named to the 2026 Husky 100.
But back in summer 2022, Shaw was a rising sophomore who took an internship with the Lab after participating in the weekly Tech Policy Discussions and looking for ways to get more involved. His internship coincided with UW hosting the annual WeRobot conference, which Shaw said was a game-changer for him.
“Getting to attend the conference was a very big highlight. I met a lot of great people there, some I’m still in contact with. That was a very big influence on me, seeing the amount of interdisciplinary work and opening my eyes to the fact that there is a lot of work going on at this intersection of CS and law and ethics. It sparked my interest in pursuing research in this area.”
That spark has become a full-fledged passion now, as Shaw prepares to enter the PhD program at Cornell in pursuit of a doctorate in computer science, with a plan to use his broad skillset for the public good.
“My research focus is in AI and democracy. With the rapid spread of AI across so many sectors of society today, I’m interested in exploring how we can leverage democratic philosophy to design more pluralistic AI tools that account for social and political disagreement, as well as how AI can be used to strengthen democratic values like freedom and equality,” he said. “One project that I’m doing right now is a qualitative interview study with human rights researchers to figure out how they use data science and AI in their work, because that’s a population that isn’t really designed for when we typically think about AI tools. My time in interdisciplinary space like these has been a strong motivation for why I think it’s important to bring different voices into technological design.”
“I really want to be able to bring the power of emerging technologies to public interest organizations and spaces,” he said. “I’m really inspired by an internship I did with the City of Baltimore following my time with the Lab. I was touched by how much technological skills could make an impact in everyday people’s lives. This focus on service has been and continues to be a big driver in my work.”
And it’s now driving him to a new place where he can explore more ways to make that impact. But even as he moves across the country and forward in his career, the Lab still emerges as a through-line.
“I connected with a professor at (WeRobot 2022), Dr. Peter Asaro. I had read his work before I started college, and I ended up doing an interview with him when he came back to UW as a visiting scholar for the undergraduate philosophy journal. And I met with him just last month, because he’s in New York, and I was visiting (Cornell Tech) for PhD visit days.”
From third space to a familiar face in a new city.