Through our collaborations with academic researchers around the world, Microsoft Research strives to harness the power and potential of computer science. We are constantly looking for new, creative uses of computing to help solve both theoretical and practical problems and engender economic and social benefits. This blog focuses on one such research project.
Collaboration leads to quick and easy fabrication of circuit boards
Yoshihiro Kawahara (opens in new tab), an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, is devoted to solving real-world problems through the fusion of information science, hardware, and electromagnetics. Small wonder, then, that he received the 2014 Microsoft Research Japan New Faculty Award (opens in new tab), which recognizes outstanding new faculty and encourages them to realize their potential in pursuing computer science research. Kawahara was honored for his work on building smart environments by using low-cost, intelligent sensors. To make such sensors more readily available, he has developed, in collaboration with Steve Hodges (opens in new tab) of Microsoft Research Cambridge, a technology that enables people to inexpensively prototype electrical circuits and sensors by using inkjet printers.
Spotlight: Event Series
Microsoft Research Forum
Join us for a continuous exchange of ideas about research in the era of general AI. Watch the first four episodes on demand.
Professor Yoshihiro Kawahara (left) and Dr. Sadaoki Furui, president of Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and chair of the award committee (right), display Kawahara’s Japan New Faculty Award plaque on June 4, 2014, at Microsoft Japan.
Have you ever made your own electronic circuits? Unfortunately, the usual approach, which entails soldering components to a copper circuit board, poses a barrier for many beginners. Together with colleagues from Georgia Tech, Kawahara and Hodges proposed a much easier and more accessible technology by using a common inkjet printer.
Their technology enables the creation of various electric circuits, touch sensors, and antennas by using common devices and materials. With the synergy of 3D printing and open-source hardware, this technology allows even inexperienced experimenters and hobbyists to make their own circuits quickly, easily, and inexpensively.
The circuit pictured on the left was printed on an inkjet printer, using the technique developed by Kawahara and Hodges. This innovative process is not only inexpensive, it also eliminates the tedious work of hand soldering the components.
With the support of Microsoft Research’s CORE program (opens in new tab) and Masaaki Fukumoto of Microsoft Research, Kawahara and Hodges are expanding their work in hopes of creating fundamental tools and techniques to make double-sided and multilayer circuit boards, including mechanisms to fabricate through-hole vias, and they are implementing applications for .NET Gadgeteer (opens in new tab).
Turning research ideas into real business
Beyond receiving accolades from the academic community, Kawahara and Hodges’ instant inkjet circuits are also opening up new business opportunities. Entrepreneur Shinya Shimizu was one of the first to see the technology’s potential to enable almost anyone to make their own circuit boards. He left his job at the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., lined up an investor, and founded a startup called AgIC (opens in new tab) to develop and sell a toolkit based on the instant inkjet circuit technology. Shimizu demonstrated a prototype at the renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in the United States last March, and he launched an experimental project (opens in new tab) in Kickstarter a month later, which received almost US$80,000 through crowdfunding. AgIC was selected as the Best Company as part of the Microsoft Innovation Award 2014, sponsored by Microsoft Ventures (opens in new tab) Tokyo, which will provide AgIC with further marketing and business alliance support.
Shinya Shimizu, CEO of AgIC (left), and Shunichi Kajisa, CTO of Microsoft Japan (right), at presentation of AgIC’s Microsoft Innovation Award on May 30, 2014, in Tokyo
This work is just one example of how Microsoft is collaborating with talented individuals around the world on innovative academic research. We are very happy to see our academic collaborations resulting in practical applications that advance technology and will, we hope, help spark new ideas.
—Noboru Kuno, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia
Learn more