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The latest in a series of posts from the directors of Microsoft Research’s labs worldwide, this one from P. Anandan (opens in new tab) of Microsoft Research India (opens in new tab).
Spotlight: Event
Inclusive Digital Maker Futures for Children via Physical Computing
This workshop will bring together researchers and educators to imagine a future of low-cost, widely available digital making for children, both within the STEAM classroom and beyond.
Another exciting, eventful, and successful year comes to an end. Perhaps the most visible event during the seventh year in Microsoft Research India’s history was our move from our little nest called Scientia in the relatively quiet neighborhood of Sadashivnagar to a nice, new building named Vigyan in the heart of Bangalore. The space is larger and the neighborhood busier. We have managed to preserve the open, studiolike ambience our lab is famous for, thanks to careful design choices. The lovely courtyard on our floor, with its classical Indian wooden pillars, the vertical garden, and the slanted, tiled roofs, is perhaps even an enhancement over our previous digs.
On the work front, it was another year of great research results and publications, but it was also noteworthy for accolades received by some of our team members. Ravi Kannan (opens in new tab) was awarded the prestigious Knuth Prize (opens in new tab). Sriram Rajamani (opens in new tab) was given the Computer Aided Verification Award (opens in new tab), along with Tom Ball (opens in new tab) of Microsoft Research Redmond (opens in new tab), for fundamental contributions to software model checking. Aishwarya Ratan (opens in new tab) was the third person from our lab to receive the MIT TR35 award. Venkat Padmanabhan (opens in new tab) has been named an IEEE Fellow. And Nisheeth Vishnoi (opens in new tab) was awarded the Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists (opens in new tab).
As always, we have published many papers in top research conferences and won best-paper awards. In addition, many researchers have taken adjunct professorships at top Indian universities. Ed Cutrell (opens in new tab) was chosen as the latest member of the advisory board of the International Institute for Software Technology at United Nations University (opens in new tab).
We held another great TechVista (opens in new tab), in January in Pune, with more than 1,500 students and guests attending the talks and demos. And the year also featured a special, Rich Interactive Narratives (opens in new tab) presentation to President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia in May during Microsoft Research Connections (opens in new tab)’ Latin American Faculty Summit (opens in new tab).
As usual, we will begin the new year with TechVista in January, and I am looking forward to a year of even greater success, achievements, and fun.