Microsoft Research Blog

Research Blog

  1. New England Postdocs Collect Dissertation Awards 

    May 16, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   Aleksander Madry and David Steurer are both postdoctoral researchers at Microsoft Research New England focused on theoretical computer science. Each of them is intrigued by the challenges posed by graphs, and each has devised new algorithms to address those challenges.And,…

  2. Awards for Young Indian Scientists Adding Up 

    May 15, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   Life consists, in large part, of seeking answers to the questions that perplex us, and Neeraj Kayal is no exception. But for Kayal, a researcher at Microsoft Research India, those questions can take a distinctly singular direction.Such as: What is…

  3. More Research Contributions to Windows Phone Translation 

    May 14, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   Recently, I wrote about Microsoft Research contributions to the new Translator App for Windows Phone, available for free download on Windows Phone Marketplace.Some of them, anyway.As it turns out, the story goes a bit deeper than the earlier post was…

  4. Naiad: Incremental, Iterative Computation for Big Data 

    May 10, 2012

    Posted by Frank McSherry, senior researcher at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Big data is pretty popular at the moment. Systems such as MapReduce, Hadoop, Dryad, and DryadLINQ have made writing and executing ad hoc big-data analyses easy. Still, there are several programming patterns such systems…

  5. A Hybrid Approach to Direct Search Answers 

    May 8, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   You might have noticed in your most recent Bing search that, these days, you often can get an answer to your query without having to click through to one of the search results.For example, I recently wondered about this year’s…

  6. Start Spreading the News … Announcing Microsoft Research New York City! 

    May 2, 2012

    Posted by Jennifer Chayes, Microsoft distinguished scientist and managing director of Microsoft Research New England and the newly announced Microsoft Research New York City One of the wonderful elements of basic research is that you never know where it will take you. In this case,…

  7. Get a Jump on Space Day 

    May 2, 2012

    Looking for a fun, educational, and inexpensive way to observe Space Day? The Museum of Flight in Seattle is throwing an early-bird celebration the evening before, and the Microsoft WorldWide Telescope team will be celebrating with them. On Thursday, May 3, the museum is offering…

  8. From Smartphone to Smart Home: Automating the Modern Home 

    April 26, 2012

    For baby boomers who grew up watching The Jetsons, the idea of the fully automated home was the futuristic stuff of cartoons. Today, the technology is available to make a Jetsonesque home a reality, by using inexpensive network devices that remotely control locks, lights, thermostats,…

  9. ChronoZoom Arrives in Asia 

    April 23, 2012

    With spring in the air, I am excited to be heading to Seoul, South Korea, to attend the Second Congress of the Asian Association of World Historians, which runs from April 27 to 29, 2012. There, I will have the honor of overseeing the Asian…

  10. Great Story Just Out on Bill Buxton 

    April 20, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   Distro, a magazine-like publication from the folks at Engadget, just published its 37th issue, and featured on the cover and in a fascinating Q&A is Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft Research.The publication is available as a .pdf file, which…

  11. Open Data for Open Science—an Eye-Opening Event 

    April 19, 2012

    Punctuating the gray skies and rain that typify spring in the Pacific Northwest, the first week of April brought a sunny gathering of data scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to Microsoft’s Redmond campus, where the second annual Open Data for Open Science workshop, or…

  12. Research Bolsters Windows Phone Translation 

    April 18, 2012

    Posted by Rob Knies   Eager for foreign travel but worried about foreign languages? Fear no more, thanks to the Translator App for Windows Phone, updated April 16 and featuring several contributions from Microsoft Research. The app, powered by the same state-of-the-art technology used in…