Microsoft Research Podcast

Ideas: Exploring AI frontiers with Rafah Hosn

April 25, 2024 | Rafah Hosn and Gretchen Huizinga
Energized by disruption, partner group product manager Rafah Hosn is helping to drive scientific advancement in AI for Microsoft. She talks about the mindset needed to work at the frontiers of AI and how the research-to-product pipeline is changing in the GenAI era.
  1. a man wearing sunglasses posing for the camera

    AI for Earth with Dr. Lucas Joppa 

    April 17, 2019

    Episode 72, April 17, 2019 - We hear a lot these days about “AI for good” and the efforts of many companies to harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve some of our biggest environmental challenges. It’s rare, however, that you find a company…

  2. Microsoft Research Podcast: Ann Paradiso

    Enabling design with Ann Paradiso 

    April 3, 2019

    Episode 70, April 3, 2019 - On today’s podcast, Ann tells us all about life in the extreme constraint design lane, explains what a PALS is, and tells us some incredibly entertaining stories about how the eye tracking technology behind the Eye Controlled Wheelchair and…

  3. Nikunj Raghuvanshi wearing glasses and smiling at the camera

    Project Triton and the physics of sound with Dr. Nikunj Raghuvanshi 

    March 20, 2019

    Episode 68, March 20, 2019 - Today, Dr. Raghuvanshi talks about the unique challenges of simulating realistic sound on a budget (both money and CPU), explains how classic ideas in concert hall acoustics need a fresh take for complex games like Gears of War, reveals…

  4. a man wearing glasses posing for the camera

    Programming biology with Dr. Andrew Phillips 

    March 13, 2019

    Episode 67, March 13, 2019 - Today, Dr. Phillips talks about the challenges and rewards inherent in reverse engineering biological systems to see how they perform information processing. He also explains what we can learn from stressed out bacteria, and tells us about Station B,…

  5. Josh Benaloh

    Securing the vote with Dr. Josh Benaloh 

    February 27, 2019

    Episode 65, February 27, 2019 - Dr. Josh Benaloh gives us a brief but fascinating history of elections, explains how the trade-offs among privacy, security and verifiability make the relatively easy math of elections such a hard problem for the internet, and tells the story…

  6. a woman looking at the camera

    Talking with machines with Dr. Layla El Asri 

    February 20, 2019

    Episode 64, February 20, 2019 - Dr. Layla El Asri talks about the particular challenges she and other scientists face in building sophisticated dialogue systems that lay the foundation for talking machines. She also explains how reinforcement learning, in the form of a text game…

  7. Researcher Manik Varma

    Competing in the X Games of machine learning with Dr. Manik Varma 

    February 13, 2019

    Episode 63, February 13, 2019 - Dr. Varma tells us all about extreme classification (including where in the world you might actually run into 10 or 100 million options), reveals how his Parabel and Slice algorithms are making high quality recommendations in milliseconds, and proves,…

  8. haiyan zhang standing in front of a wall

    Putting the “human” in human computer interaction with Haiyan Zhang 

    February 6, 2019

    Episode 62, February 6, 2019 - Haiyan talks about her unique “brain hack” approach to the human-centered design process, and discusses a wide range of projects, from the connected play experience of Zanzibar, to Fizzyo, which turns laborious breathing exercises for children with cystic fibrosis…

  9. Rico Malvar, Chief Scientist and Distinguished Engineer standing in front of bushes

    Enable(ing) people to do more with Dr. Rico Malvar 

    January 30, 2019

    Episode 61, January 30, 2019 - Dr. Rico Malvar recalls his early years at a fledgling Microsoft Research, talks about the exciting work he oversees now, explains why designing with the user is as important as designing for the user, and tells us how a…