University of Washington reveals Kindle DX pilot plans

When Amazon.com announced that a group of universities would take part in a pilot project to test the new Kindle DX as a textbook replacement for students, the University of Washington, in Amazon's own back yard, wasn't on the list, though UW computer science professor Ed Lazowska later told TechFlash that UW would, in fact, participate. Now the University of Washington is revealing details of its Kindle DX pilot. About 40 incoming computer science graduate students will receive Amazon's large-screen electronic reader to replace printed textbooks and research papers.

The UW Computer Science & Engineering department says the Kindle DX will lower textbook costs and backpack weight and "should dramatically reduce printing and its environmental impact and cost -- we estimate that the typical first-year UW CSE graduate student prints 1,000 pages of research papers as reading material for courses." UW will conduct "usability assessments" of the Kindle DX under the direction of Professor Charlotte Lee of the UW's Human Centered Design & Engineering department. Here's more on the UW pilot and the courses that will make use of the electronic reader.

It's not clear yet whether Amazon or UW or both are covering the pilot costs (the Kindle DX retails for $489, so 40 of them would add up to nearly $20,000). The UW Foster School of Business will also be doing its own Kindle DX pilot. I'll post more details here as they become available.

Update: Asked about the cost of the Kindle DX pilot, Ed Lazowska wrote via email that some of the readers are being donated by Amazon and some are being purchased by UW "using discretionary funds (private donations to our Annual Fund)." He didn't break down the numbers, however. Lazowska said "all content (Kindle versions of texbooks) is being provided by Amazon."

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About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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