Another Day in the Antz Farm

Last Friday (7 Nov 2008), Microsoft Research Asia held its flagship conference – Computing the 21st Century Conference in Singapore for the very first time. There were more than 1100 researchers, academics, students and industry attendees at this event. Leading academics from Singapore took time from their heavy schedule to be at this event.

RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, CEO, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore was the guest of honour at this event. Dr Su Guaning (President, Nanyang Technological University) and Prof Tan Eng Chye (Deputy President & Provost, National University of Singapore) provided the academia opening address.

The University Presidents also witnessed the Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship award ceremony. Huang Yi was the NTU Fellow and is currently undertaking her internship in the Beijing lab. Her supervisor, Assoc Prof Cham Tat-Jen accepted the award on her behalf. NUS Fellowship was awarded to Zheng Yantao.

The conference kicked off with an introduction to MS Research, lead by Rick Rashid, the Senior VP (Research). This is followed by Raj Reddy, Tony Hoare, Hsiao-Wuen Hon and Butler Lampson. It is almost unheard of to have 3 Turing award recipients in 1 stage.

After Butler Lampson’s session, there was a vigorous Q&A session from the floor. 15mins later, Baining Guo, the Conference Chair announced the successful conclusion of the 2008 21st Century Computing Conference in Singapore.

More conference pictures – http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardoh/sets/72157607566885535/