The United Kingdom has faced some tough economic times in the past 10 years, but the technology industry has remained strong throughout. The tech sector has played a key role in helping the economy bounce back from the recessions of 2008–2009 and 2011–2012. Nationwide, IT industry employment grew 5.5 percent between 2009 and 2012 (opens in new tab) and rose 20 percent in London (opens in new tab) (more than three times faster than the sector average) since the recession. Today, more than 1.3 million people work in the UK technology sector, and the industry is expected to grow more quickly in London than in the Silicon Valley (opens in new tab) in the next decade.
Participants of the workshop, Tips and Tools for Scientific Research Success, at the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab
The tech industry has traditionally been a male-dominated field. The huge growth in the field would seem to be a natural incentive for young women to join their peers in the computer science classroom—especially since female students now account for 55 percent of the enrollments in higher education in the UK (HESA 2013 (opens in new tab)). Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. Fewer than 3 percent of the UK’s 403,000 higher education graduates in 2013 received computer science degrees. Women accounted for a meager 17 percent of that number (HESA 2013 (opens in new tab)).
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In an effort to encourage more women to stay in computer-related PhD programs and understand the opportunities in this field, Microsoft Research offered a workshop on Tips and Tools for Scientific Research Success (opens in new tab) at its Cambridge lab, June 16–18, 2014.
Following the example of successful programs created by CRA-W Graduate Cohort (opens in new tab) and Future Science Leaders (opens in new tab) at Oxford University and the British Royal Society, the course aimed to educate attendees about Microsoft research tools, equip them with advice from experienced researchers about the opportunities of being an early-career researcher, and inspire them with examples from Microsoft Research that show the potential of computer science to change the world.
The event started with a day devoted to cloud computing and its potential for research. Participants could get hands-on experience (opens in new tab) with Microsoft Azure (opens in new tab) and create WordPress blogs and data-driven websites in no time. They experienced the power of Microsoft Azure for big data processing, sharing research data, deploying cloud services, and using Excel with Power BI to slice, dice, and visualize data. They learned how the Microsoft Azure for Research (opens in new tab) program could help researchers with their work, even if they decide to start their own business.
Rane Johnson-Stempson, Kenji Takeda, and Clare Morgan of Microsoft Research greeted participants at the Microsoft Azure for Research training that kicked off the workshop.
Attendees gained a better understanding of the tools Microsoft Research provides to help researchers (including Sand Dance (opens in new tab), GeoS (opens in new tab), CodaLab (opens in new tab), ChronoZoom (opens in new tab), and WorldWide Telescope (opens in new tab)) and of the opportunities available in working in an industry research lab. For example, Principal Researcher Don Syme (Microsoft Research Cambridge) told the story of how F# (opens in new tab), the cutting-edge functional programming language, jumped from being a project in the lab to part of Microsoft’s mainstream language portfolio.
To help assure their ongoing success, workshop participants have been paired up with Microsoft Researchers in Cambridge, who will serve as informal coaches to provide guidance and advice in their first and second years of PhD study.
“A hands-on workshop to experience firsthand the mighty power of Microsoft Azure; an exciting lineup of talks discussing cutting-edge research; an inspiring induction to being skilful researchers; most importantly, an ever so valuable one-to-one interaction session with a mentor from Microsoft Research Cambridge. A truly interesting and thoroughly engaging event—a genuine inspiration to becoming champion researchers in Industry Research Labs.”
—Kavin Narasimhan, PhD student at Queen Mary, University at London
We look forward to helping these talented researchers grow throughout their careers. We’ll be running another workshop in the fall, so please let us know if you’re interested by emailing us at MSRWIC@microsoft.com.
—Rane Johnson-Stempson (opens in new tab), Principal Research Director, Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research
—Kenji Takeda (opens in new tab), Solutions Architect and Technical Manager, Microsoft Research
—Simon Mercer (opens in new tab), Director of Health and Wellbeing, Microsoft Research
Learn more
- Tips and Tools for Scientific Research Success (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Research Cambridge (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Azure for Research (opens in new tab)
- Visiting Microsoft Research, Cambridge (opens in new tab) (Marta Elizabeth Cecchinato’s blog)
- Join the Microsoft Azure for Research LinkedIn Group (opens in new tab)