{"id":3751,"date":"2015-07-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/2015\/07\/09\/exploring-the-frontiers-of-computing\/"},"modified":"2016-07-20T07:29:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:29:07","slug":"exploring-the-frontiers-of-computing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/exploring-the-frontiers-of-computing\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the frontiers of computing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun shone brightly in Redmond yesterday, matching the intensity of 600 experts—<\/span>each anticipating the sharing and acquisition of computing research knowledge<\/span>—gathered in the Microsoft Conference Center for day one of the 2015 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit. These days, it is common for most audiences to half listen, heads down, focused on their tablets and smartphones—the very devices that have emanated from their collective labors. I was comforted to see that this was not the case during the keynotes, panel discussions, and topic breakout sessions that filled the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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P. Anandan, managing director of Microsoft Research, kicked off the 2015 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diversity<\/em> is the word that comes to mind as I look back over the first day of the event. Diversity in that the participants represent the full breadth of computing disciplines, coming from more than 120 institutions and 20 countries, and that they discussed a wide range of topics: from Internet governance to application design, the past and future of AI and the role of open source in research.<\/span><\/p>\n

More importantly to me, diversity in the human sense received full attention in the session, “How to Attract More Diverse Researchers”. The panel initiated a candid discussion on disabilities, ethnic and gender diversity in computer science and computer engineering departments. The panel presented some sobering numbers on how far we are from addressing this issue. The challenges are clear, as industry and academia have a distinct role in promoting greater diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jeannette Wing, corporate VP of Microsoft Research, presented the opening keynote, “Microsoft’s Unique Role in the Computing Research Ecosystem”<\/span><\/p>\n

Diversity was complimented by breadth, as we reached out to the entire world of computer scientists and enthusiasts with live streaming of some of the day’s key events. The live webcast kicked off with the opening keynote, in which Jeanette Wing (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, corporate VP of Microsoft Research, echoed a theme that has been central to every Microsoft Research Faculty Summit (this is our sixteenth annual summit, by the way): the importance of research collaboration with academia to Microsoft.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was supported by new opportunities for academia, which Jeannette announced:<\/span><\/p>\n