Blog archive for 2017

Our newest Garage project just might be your favorite lock screen
Favorites Lock Screen, a Microsoft Garage project, is now available for Android in India. Favorites Lock Screen is a lock screen app built around fans and the celebrities and interests they care about. It’s also our fourth lock screen project in as many years. Here’s why we’re fans of the overlap. Curious…Another Lock Screen? Since releasing its first batch of....

Sports Performance Platform crunches data to optimize training for the Seattle Seahawks
DeShawn Shead, a 28-old Seattle Seahawks cornerback, hasn’t been able to play for a year due to a torn ACL and meniscus injury suffered during Seattle’s 36-20 divisional round playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons in January, but he’s just about ready to head back onto the field. In fact, he’s returned to practice. Technology and science – sports science....

2017 Hackathon team connects with non-profit Yuwa to create mobile app
Devika Mittal, a corporate strategy manager at Microsoft who grew up in New Delhi and now lives in Washington, DC, knew that child trafficking and violence against women in rural areas in India was a growing human-rights crisis. But for a long time, the fate of at-risk Indian girls far away from her, while distressing, was something she felt helpless....

Explore interesting places near and far with Outings, a Microsoft Garage project
Outings, a Microsoft Garage project, helps explorers discover and search for interesting places near and far in a new app for iOS and Android. Whether you’re looking for a fun hike near town or planning your next vacation destination, often the hardest part of travel is just figuring out where to go. Outings makes it easier by presenting inspiration for....

12 Weeks at the Microsoft Garage
What happens when you bring together 45 college students into a space that encourages big ideas, inspires creativity, and provides delicious (free!) snacks? As I walked into the Microsoft Garage at the New England Research and Development Center (NERD) 12 weeks ago, I had no idea I would leave with a boatload of new skills, work on a team to....

Mixed Reality gives neuroanatomy lessons a boost
With its unique hemispheres and intricate connections, the brain is one of the most exceptional, yet complex organs in the human body. The intricate structure has posed a unique challenge for generations of students looking to understand and ultimately master how its many parts fit, and work, together. But this fall — thanks to Microsoft HoloLens and mixed reality technology—....

Seven hackathon lessons learned from my battle with lymphoma
Last week, I received some of the best news of my life. And the news came at a pretty exciting time. I received the phone call half an hour before the closing ceremony of Microsoft’s 2017 Hackathon, an event that my team puts on. For the Microsoft Garage, a team helping change the way the company works 52 weeks of....

Artificial intelligence eclipses cloud and mobile projects to win the day at Microsoft 2017 Hackathon
What started in 2014 as an experiment to engage employees has turned into a strategic tradition to help Microsoft establish itself at the leading edge of innovation. And this year, the hottest player at the Microsoft Hackathon was artificial intelligence. Organizers say the four-day event, which has become the world’s biggest private hackathon with more than 18,000 employee participants, provides....

New Garage project brings predictive analytics to sports performance data
Sports Performance Platform, a Microsoft Garage project, announces an invitation-only experiment for teams and athletes. Sign up to express interest in participating. Meet the newest project to join the Garage portfolio: Sports Performance Platform. A project built on Power BI, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Surface technology, Sports Performance Platform has an ambitious mission to drive the shift in the sports industry....

Personal Shopping Assistant expands to new platforms in its anniversary update
Almost a year after its initial launch, Personal Shopping Assistant, a Microsoft Garage project, is adding features and expanding its smart shopping technology to new platforms with an Anniversary Update. Since June 2016, thousands of people around the world have used the assistant to shop smarter, leading the team to expand, iterate, and further invest in the project. The Anniversary....

Transform Data by Example, a Microsoft Garage project for Excel
Many Excel users can relate to the problem of data wrangling. You start with an input data set that you wish to transform into a new format so that you can perform further analysis using the transformed data. Not surprisingly, these problems arise for common types of data such as date and time, addresses, phone numbers, URLs. For example, consider....

Fast design
You’re too slow! Come on Designers — keep up! With new books out on Design Sprints and Lean UX, the dozens of rapid prototyping tools now available, and thousands of Designers who can code up their own ideas, you’d think that the Design community was moving faster than it ever has. But, that’s just not true. “Design is doing some stellar work....