As Microsoft’s “point person” for increasing women’s participation in computing, I am passionate about attracting talented young women to careers in computer science. Perhaps you’ve seen these statistics, which underscore the need: The percentage of computer science graduates who are women has declined from 37…
Today, research in software engineering encompasses a wide range of computer science and engineering disciplines. These include systems and networking technologies, hardware design, programming languages, security, and privacy, to name a few. Microsoft Research actively engages with researchers across these disciplines to advance the state…
What do residents of rural Arkansas and researchers in Trento, Italy, have in common, aside, perhaps, from a love of good food? Well, in the case of an ongoing major research program, food is the common link. Well, not exactly food—the good folks in Arkansas…
Posted by Rob Knies As “news” increasingly has morphed into “conversation” over the past decade, the blog has become one of the pre-eminent platforms fostering that discussion. It’s undeniably true, whether you’re examining political dynamics in Syria, college basketball tournaments in the United States, or…
Today, March 14—Einstein’s birthday no less—marks the release of the beta version of an incredible new tool for the study of history: ChronoZoom. This powerful open-source tool, a joint effort of the University of California, Berkeley; Moscow State University; the Outercurve Foundation; and Microsoft Research…
Posted by Kevin Schofield There is much discussion these days of the role of touch-based systems in interface design. But this week at Techfest, Helena Mentis and her teammates in the Socio-Digital Systems group in Microsoft Research Cambridge were showing two projects exploring interfaces where the intent…
Posted by Kevin Schofield Perhaps it’s just me, but I wince whenever my American phone or GPS tries to pronounce a French restaurant name or a Spanish street name, or the name of one of my non-American friends. While we’ve made much progress in creating…
Posted by Steve Clayton There are a lot of really cool projects at TechFest this year - if you pushed me to pick a personal favorite, I'd choose FetchClimate!. With amazing demonstrations such as Holoflector and Illumishare, this is one that you may notexpect...allow me to explain why I'm so…
Posted by Kevin Schofield One of the perennial challenges for teachers is to find new ways to keep students engaged and interacting in class. Some have embraced a new generation of in-classroom technology where each student has a pocket-sized wireless keypad. The teacher can “poll”…
Posted by Steve Clayton We talk about Bing as a “decision engine” that anticipates your intent and surfaces search results to help you quickly make an informed decision. Built into this concept is the assumption that productivity is your chief goal. The Socio-Digital Systems group…
Posted by Kevin Schofield Of the 6800 “living” languages in use around the world, close to half are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. The historical and cultural heritage represented by those languages is in danger of being lost forever – in fact, some experts predict that…
Posted by Steve Clayton With most digital cameras these days, you can shoot still photos or video. The critical question, then, is which one to use when you’re at your child’s soccer game or out with a group of friends: a picture often won’t do…
