Research.Microsoft.Com Refreshed

Over the weekend, the Microsoft Research website was given a new coat of paint. The new home page features a cleaner information layout and two Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) researchers interviews with Drs. Guo Baining and Zhang Dongmei.

• Dr Guo Baining (Interview: Microsoft Research Asia’s Guo Discusses the Future of Graphics) is a computer graphics researcher and also the Assistant Managing Director of the Beijing lab. In his interview, he shared about his passion for geometrical modeling which led him into computer graphics, his Microsoft Research experience and also discussed Internet Graphics group future research directions.

• Dr Zhang Dongmei (Interivew: Chinese Researcher Leaps into Prominence) is a research manager from the User Interface Group. In her interview, she drew similiarities  in the necessary traits that led to her professional success from a long jump child athletic  and what fuels her passion for research today.

Congratulations to the 2008 Singapore and Australia Microsoft Research Asia Fellows

Zheng Yantao (NUS) received the 2008 Fellowship Award from Hon Hsiao-Wuen (MD, MSRA) during the Singapore 21st Century Computing Conference. Dr Su Guaning (NTU) and Prof Tan Eng Chye (NUS) witnessed the ceremony.

This years 4 winners from Singapore and Australia top universities received the Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship award after undergone a highly competitive and stringent process. These students received an open internship invitation to Microsoft Research Asia, a cash award and a commemorative plaque.

Australia

• Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller (Melbourne University)
  Floyd’s invention “Remote Impact” was recently short-listed amongst the top 11 most innovative games at the 2008 European Innovative Games Award 2008.
• Dong Yifei (University of New South Wales)

Singapore

• Huang Yi (Nanyang Technological University)
  Huang Yi is currently undertaking her internship under Steve Lin in MSRA.
• Zheng Yantao (National University of Singapore)
  Yantao is a member of NUS SoC’s Lab for Media Search.

Congratulation to ALL our 2008 MSRA Fellowship winners across Asia Pacific.

Using Computer Science Theories to Fight HIV: Rick Rashid

Last week in Singapore, Rick Rashid, Microsoft Senior Vice-President (Research) highlighted how computer science theories (and not just computers) are increasing scientists’ arsenal to fight the HIV virus. Below is an extract from the interview “Microsoft takes computer science into fight against HIV“.

Computer science is giving scientists new ways to look at the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), perspectives that may help efforts to develop an effective vaccine and other medicines, according to the head of Microsoft’s research arm.

“It’s really focused on new ways of thinking about how to describe and analyze systemic activities within a cell,” said Rick Rashid, “Computer science theory, especially computer science languages, can actually be used to describe cell processes, and then the mathematics that we use to analyse programs can also be applied to analyse cell activities because there’s an underlying mathematical relationship,” Rashid said.

“It’s opening up peoples minds to how computers can help them, not just to do their work better, but how the underlying theory and underlying computer science changes the way they look at their problems,” he said.

Since 2005, Microsoft has sought to apply machine-learning techniques, including technology used in spam and antivirus filters, to AIDS research. The goal is to find genetic patterns in HIV that can be used to “train” the human immune system to fight the virus. In particular, Microsoft has looked for ways to track how HIV mutates to evade the human immune system.

“The idea is that because the genome is basically digital, it can be described as a string and analyzed as a string. It opens up an opportunity to think about a lot of problems in that space as data mining or machine-learning problems,” Rashid said.

My signed copy of the Singapore 21CCC conference book

Organising the 21st Century Computing Conference is the largest event I have ever been personally involved. It is a honour to be part of the team that brought the Asia lab’s flagship conference to Singapore. To commemorate this special event, I asked all the speakers to autograph my conference book.

Pictures from Computing in the 21st Century Conference (21CCC) in Singapore, 7 Nov 2008

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/

7 Nov 2008: Computing in the 21st Century Conference, Hall 601, Suntec City Convention Centre, Singapore

11 Nov 2008: Click here for the 2008 Singapore 21st Century Computing Conference summary and pictures.

This week, Microsoft Research Asia celebrates our 10th Anniversary with two major celebrations in Beijing and Singapore. The celebration kicks off with the Microsoft Research Asia Faculty Summit, Beijing Computing in the 21st Century (held in Peking University) and Innovation Day in Beijing. This coming Friday, 7 Nov 2008, Singapore will host the second leg of the Computing in the 21st Century Conference (21CCC) at Hall 601, Suntec City Convention Centre.

The Singapore event speakers line-up consist of:

• Raj Reddy (1994 Turing Award recipient),
• Butler Lampson (1992 Turing Award recipient),
• Tony Hoare (1980 Turing Award recipient),
• Rick Rashid (Microsoft Senior Vice-President, Research) and
• Hsiao-Wuen Hon (Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia)

Computing in the 21st Century is an academic conference held by Microsoft Research Asia supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore. This event is targeted at researchers, academics, students and ICT trends/ research/ education policy decision makers.

For close to ten years, the conference has welcomed Turing Award recipients, famous Microsoft scientists and well-known scholars from all over the world to share their vision on the future of computing and exchange ideas with the innovative minds of China and Asia.

The conference Guest of Honour is RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay (CEO, Infocomm Development Authority, Singapore) and the event will also be opened by Dr Su Guaning (President, Nanyang Technological University) and Prof Tan Eng Chye (Deputy President & Provost, National University of Singapore)

Download Event Flyer. To register for the conference, please visit this link.

To find out more about this conference, please visit http://research.microsoft.com/asia/21stcomputing/2008/ENindex1_1.html

Microsoft Research Asia Academic Collaboration 10 Year Anniversary Commemoration Book

Microsoft Research Asia released a book (“Innovation Together” ISBN 978-0-387-87860-7) which contained papers previously published in respected journals to coincide with its 10 Year Anniversary celebration. These papers compiled by the University Relation team is a testimony of Microsoft Research Asia’s collaboration with the Asia Pacific academic community.

Click on the images for expanded view.

 
(I got a mention in the Editor’s forward!)

The Opening of Microsoft Research New England

Last week, Microsoft Research celebrated the opening of it’s newest lab – Microsoft Research New England with a day-long symposium at MIT on the intersection of computer science and the social sciences. You can now review the symposium individual sessions online.

There were some excellent content presented at the event including:

• Computer Science Is Everywhere
  - Erik Demaine, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
• Understanding Socio-Technical Phenomena in a Web 2.0 Era
  - Danah Boyd, Fellow, Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Designing Experience/The Experience of Design
  - Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
• The Changing Role of Research Universities and Industrial and National Laboratories in the 21st Century
  - Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Related links:

• Microsoft Research Lab Opens Quietly Next to MIT, Director Says Area’s Intellectual Climate Like “Dry Timber” Ready to Ignite (Xconomy) (With a list of its founding members)
• Doors Open at Microsoft Research New England (Xconomy)

A week in the life of a Microsoft Research Asia University Relations Manager

John Warren (my manager) wrote an article about the life as a University Relations (UR) manager on Microsoft Research Asia web site. In the article, he describes about various UR programs, the multi-facets engagements and the challenges this role entails.

Inside the article he discussed about:

• MSRA “theme projects”
• Internal (Public Sector, Legal and Corporate Affairs) and external customers (from research institutions and sometimes government agencies)
• The amount of legal agreement negotiation and review we undertake for each joint research projects (it’s not funny, trust me)
• The reasons why he enjoys his role as a UR manager

If you are interested to get a snap shot of what I do, check out John’s article “A week in the life of a University Relations Manager“

Microsoft Research Asia’s Role in China’s High Tech Human Capital Development

Last week, Zhou Minliang, a Research Fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wrote an complimentary article about Microsoft Research Asia’s role in the development of China’s R&D capabilities. The article (微软亚洲研究院带给我们什么 – literally What has Microsoft Research Asia brought us) appeared in China’s Scientific Times (科学时报).

In the article, Mingliang applauded lab’s advancement computing and Bill Gate’s decision to open the lab in China. The lab’s creation has developed deep inroads to the Chinese’s psyche and brought upon great sense of pride and self-belief. He also described the lab’s dynamic and open environment as the key that foster creativity among its researchers in the midst of China’s transformation to a knowledge based economy.

周民良：微软亚洲研究院带给我们什么

在观看奥运会的人群中，有比尔•盖茨的身影。作为开启新办公时代的领航者，盖茨对全球的贡献非常大。作为一名成功商人，盖茨多次来过北京。不知是否有人想过这个问题：盖茨带给我们什么？
 
在笔者看来，作为微软前总裁，盖茨以往到北京的最大成就，就是创立了微软亚洲研究院，这是一个类似于“鸟巢”和“水立方”、具有地标意义的外资研发机构，但也由此可见盖茨的远见卓识。微软亚洲研究院成立以来，诞生了大量研究成果，尤其是近两年来，微软亚洲研究院的成果更加丰富。据介绍，微软亚洲研究院的最新技术，在微软全球五大研究院中占据近1/3。在多媒体检索计算机系统和存储、数字娱乐及计算机图形、分布式系统研发、大规模数据分析等领域，微软亚洲研究院都有创造性的贡献，有多项技术成功转移到微软公司的核心产品中。不仅如此，微软亚洲研究院在各类国际一流刊物和会议上发表论文超过1500篇。微软亚洲研究院是盖茨成功的一部分，就如同他创立微软一样。
 
但是，微软亚洲研究院带给我们的意义应该是不一样的。首先，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，高科技企业的成长十分依赖技术创新，要做世界顶端的企业，就要依赖世界顶端的技术。技术创新，是企业生存与发展的核心价值所在，也为企业的进一步发展提供了独特的竞争力。对我国企业来说，在一段时期引进技术和模仿技术是必要的，但从长期来看，企业要在市场上生存和发展下去，必须建立自己的技术创新体系，开发出具有自主知识产权的技术产品，在这方面，微软亚洲研究院为我们提供了很好的镜鉴。
 
其次，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，中国人在技术创新方面的才智并不弱于欧美国家。妄自菲薄、认为中国是发展中国家，其技术水平就只能都停留在发展中国家的思维是不合乎发展实际的。中国的经济发展水平尽管不算发达，但在技术人才的培育上具有规模优势，如果能合理组织，实现技术与资本的良好结合，中国人完全可以在技术密集型产业领域取得成功。
 
再次，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，技术创新除了与人才供应有关外，还与人才的激励与约束机制、人才的合作机制与团队精神、研究项目的设置等因素有关。在科研机构内部设置许多不正当竞争手段、任人唯亲地进行反向激励约束、黑箱操作地进行不公正的绩效评价，都无助于人才的脱颖而出和技术创新成果的不断涌现。在技术创新方面，微软亚洲研究院给我们提出一个颇具现实意义的问题：如何建立创新型的现代科研院所？