Microsoft Research Blog

Research Blog

  1. MIXing It Up: the Kinect for Windows SDK 

    April 13, 2011

    Back in February at TechForum, Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, and Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB), announced that Microsoft Research and IEB would release a non-commercial Kinect for Windows software development kit this spring. Addressing a growing body…

  2. Windows 7 Phones Home 

    April 5, 2011

    These days, much is made of applications that run in the metaphorical cloud.  Well, here's an example of hardware and software that soared through the clouds, both real and metaphorical.  On March 4, the ASTRA 7, a stratospheric gas balloon carrying a mobile phone running…

  3. WorldWide Telescope Revolutionizes Astronomy 101 

    April 1, 2011

    Recently, when I delivered my presentation, The Revolution in Astronomy Curricula Introduced by WorldWide Telescope (WWT), at INTED2011, I heard frequent comments from the audience that the variety of potential educational uses for WWT is "fascinating." The presentation was made possible by a collaboration between…

  4. Computer Science Research Tools Excite Faculty at SIGCSE 

    March 30, 2011

    From March 9-12, a group of Microsoft researchers had their wares on display at SIGCSE 2011, this year's annual convention of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (ACM SIGCSE). Held in Dallas, SIGCSE 2011 attracted some 1,200 participants from…

  5. Microsoft Research and TWAS-AAS Recognize Outstanding Young African Scientists 

    March 28, 2011

    (from left to right) Fayçal Djeffal, Konrad Scheffler, Moustafa Youssef received the 2010 TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award in a ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya. On February 26, 2011, three African scientists received the 2010 TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award in a ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya. The award, funded by…

  6. Free MBF Workshop at RENCI in North Carolina 

    March 24, 2011

    We recently posted a preview of the Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF) for development evaluation purposes. Now, we're following up with a special, free, two-day MBF workshop from April 19 to 20, 2011, at the Renaissance Computing Institute in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, hosted by the…

  7. Building a Collaborative Research Relationship with the Chinese Academy of Sciences 

    March 23, 2011

    I recently had the great pleasure of visiting with staff at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, China. CAS is China's leading academic institution and comprehensive research and development center in natural science, technological science, and high-tech innovation. The Asia-Pacific Microsoft Research Connections…

  8. Brazilian Research Celebrated 

    March 21, 2011

    On March 17, Microsoft Research Connections and the São Paulo Research Foundation (better known by its Portuguese acronym: FAPESP) held a workshop to mark the ongoing collaborative efforts of the Microsoft Research-FAPESP Institute. The theme of the workshop—revisiting the past and planning for the future—provided…

  9. Universities Partner with Scholarships for Aspirations Award Winners 

    March 16, 2011

    There is a significant dearth of women working in—or even entering—the computer science field. According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), only 18 percent of computer science degrees in 2008 were awarded to women. That was a dramatic drop from 37…

  10. InnerEye: Visual Recognition in the Hospital 

    March 8, 2011

    The neurosurgeon hovers over the patient, preparing to excise a life-threatening brain tumor. In this delicate operation, there is no margin for error: the tumor needs to be cut out with minimal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. By using simple hand gestures, the surgeon…