Chris White is Managing Director, Microsoft Research Special Projects. He leads mission-oriented research and software development teams focusing on high risk problems.
Specialized work at Microsoft has included software and system development for data analysis in nascent industry areas:
Datacenter Energy Intelligence (with Azure) Monetizing backup battery capacity in datacenters by participating in ancillary energy markets, supported by real-time prediction models and online control interfaces. With power producers and grid operators, exploring intelligent controllers to predict renewables production. Working paper: Using Azure access to stabilize the power grid
Organizational Science (with Office, Workplace Analytics & University of Washington) Managing cultural transformation within organizations using collaboration logs,
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Chris White is Managing Director, Microsoft Research Special Projects. He leads mission-oriented research and software development teams focusing on high risk problems.
Specialized work at Microsoft has included software and system development for data analysis in nascent industry areas:
Datacenter Energy Intelligence (with Azure) Monetizing backup battery capacity in datacenters by participating in ancillary energy markets, supported by real-time prediction models and online control interfaces. With power producers and grid operators, exploring intelligent controllers to predict renewables production. Working paper: Using Azure access to stabilize the power grid
Organizational Science (with Office, Workplace Analytics & University of Washington) Managing cultural transformation within organizations using collaboration logs, network analytics, and rich visualizations of workgroup structure and dynamics. Leading 100+ Customer engagements. Core analytics infrastructure with Office. Working paper: Workgroup Analytics: A Design Study on Advancing the Network Analysis and Narrative Visualization of Organizational Activity
User Search Intelligence (with Bing & Johns Hopkins University) Creating a contextual recommendation engine with query navigation logs and knowledge graphs, graph embedding, and interfaces for model inspection, exploration, comparison, and evaluation. Shipping as Similar Product Recommendations Answer Box and Subintent Tabs. Making Sense of Search: Using Graph Embedding and Visualization to Transform Query Understanding
Privacy & Human Trafficking (with UN Migration & Tech Against Trafficking) Generating synthetic data, reportable statistics, and user interfaces that allow privacy-preserving analysis of sensitive datasets, facilitating evidence-based action against human trafficking. Privacy preserving data platform design (draft paper), Tech Against Trafficking blog post
Before joining Microsoft, Chris was a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he created and managed DARPA’s leading programs XDATA, Memex, and the Open Catalog. His work has been applied to countering human trafficking, financial fraud, and terrorism. In recognition of this work, Chris received the 2016 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons (see more here). He also received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, and a Department of Treasury Intelligence and Analysis medallion for combatting terrorism financing.
Chris also served DARPA as the Agency’s country lead in Afghanistan, where he oversaw DARPA’s portfolio of programs and led data science and analytics efforts. His work was cited in President Obama’s Big Data Report as helping commanders solve operational challenges during the most violent years of the war in Afghanistan. In recognition of this work, he received the Department of Defense Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
Chris’s work has been featured in media outlets including Popular Science, CBS’s 60 Minutes, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone Magazine, TEDx, and Google’s Solve for X. Chris was profiled in a cover feature for the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Popular Science.
Prior to DARPA, Chris was a fellow at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He was a Department of Homeland Security Graduate Fellow and earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in electrical engineering, where his research focused on machine learning, statistical methods for large data sets, and human language technology. He earned a BS from Oklahoma State University.
Episode 27, June 6, 2018 - When we think of medals, we usually picture them over the pocket of a military hero, not over the pocket protector of a computer scientist. That may be because not many academics end up working with the Department of Defense. But Dr. Chris White, now a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, has, and he’s received several awards for his efforts in fighting terrorism and crime with big data, statistics and machine learning.
Today, Dr. White talks about his “problem-first” approach to research, explains the vital importance of making data understandable for everyone, and shares the story of how a one-week detour from academia turned into an extended tour in Afghanistan, a stint at DARPA, and, eventually, a career at Microsoft Research.
