Microsoft opens doors to Research Labs secrets

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Sunday, 25 May 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! For the last four years, Microsoft has been doing a “show and tell” at its “Research Labs” facility, a part of Microsoft that helps turn “ideas into reality”. Open not only to students and venture capitalists, a stack of Microsoft competitors including Google showed up at the Road Show event, which by all accounts was tremendously useful to all. Microsoft's Research Labs division has wasted no time in powering ahead on the technologies, software products, search techniques, privacy implications and more scenarios of the future. The division, spanning four global campuses, harnesses over 800 minds - less than 1% of Microsoft's workforce - in seeing what dreams may turn into the practical realities of the not-so-distant future. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, over 140 Bay Area students, and 500 venture capitalists, professors and employees of other tech companies turned up on May 22 to see what had emerged from the Microsoft Research Labs. Collaboration and not just competition was the order of the day, sharing findings with the assembled masses even though some came from competitors such as Google, with Microsoft’s Silicon Valley research division – one of four worldwide, with a fifth to be built – located in Mountain View, where Google’s headquarters are located. Microsoft’s own article on the day uncovers a range of interesting developments. Roy Levin, a director of Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, and a “distinguished engineer”, said that “The expertise in the lab spans a quite considerable spectrum, from theory to practice. We have people who write lots of systems and debug them, we have people who prove theorems, and everything in between.” Microsoft notes that “the degree of difficulty in the projects Microsoft Research Silicon Valley pursues is daunting, but Levin expressed full confidence that his researchers are up to the task.” Rich Rashid, founding member of Microsoft Research in 1991 and now its senior vice president, told CNET that the research “unit has been responsible for everything from early code for Microsoft's entertainment products to its Xbox 360 game system.” CNET quoted Rashid telling the assembled audience at the Road Show that: "The reason you do basic research is for survival. You (provide) the agility to change when change is critical. That's true for society and humanity more broadly, like if something really bad happens--war, famine, Google--you can respond." CNET continued quoting Rashid who said the Labs’ raison d’etre was “to expand the state of the art in computer science”, and specifically quoted him saying: “By that I don't mean do something for Microsoft. I mean move the state of the art in computer science. Ultimately, the goal of Microsoft Research is to make sure Microsoft is still here in 10 years." One competitor, Adobe Systems researcher Russell Schmidt, told the Associated Press that, in relation to the event, "There is some cool stuff. It's part of the new Silicon Valley. Sometimes you are collaborators and other times you are competitors." So, what did Microsoft Research specifically unveil? Please read on to page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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