Posted by Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia

As 2012 approaches, the directors of Microsoft Research facilities worldwide were offered an opportunity to discuss their labs’ 2011 accomplishments. This contribution, by Hsiao-Wuen Hon of Microsoft Research Asia, is the first of a series that will continue through New Year’s Eve.

Reflecting on Microsoft Research Asia’s accomplishments in 2011, many highlights come to mind.

First of all, I’m excited to see the success of Kinect and our lab’s continuing collaboration with product teams in advancing natural user interfaces through Kinect. In addition to the product’s use of the user-identification system we worked on, it was great to play with Avatar Kinect and object digitization in Kinect Fun Labs, knowing that the technology resulted from our strong partnership with the product team.

Posted by Rob Knies

A couple of weeks ago, Ed Cutrell, research manager of the Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research India, was announced as the latest member of the advisory board of the International Institute for Software Technology (IIST) at United Nations University (UNU).

The mission of the institute, headed by Peter Haddawy, senior scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is to further the development and application of information and communication technology to address the pressing global challenges of sustainable development though education, research, capacity development, and policy support.

Having been unaware of the institute—and, indeed, of the existence of United Nations University, the academic arm of the United Nations—I was intrigued, so I contacted Cutrell to learn more. How, for example, did he get involved with the institute?

Posted by Rob Knies

The world is awash in scientific data these days, but all that information is not being harnessed to its potential to help steer the planet to a more sustainable future.

That’s the message Stephen Emmott, head of the Computational Science Laboratory at Microsoft Research Cambridge, will deliver Dec. 14 during the Eye on Earth Summit, being held Dec. 12-15 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

Emmott and colleague Lucas Joppa, a scientist in the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science team within the Computational Science group, will be previewing prototype models and related tools, which they hope in the future will enable people to find, generate, contribute, and share environmental data, information, understanding, and predictions.

Posted by Rob Knies

Each year, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recognizes several of its members for their contributions to computing by naming them as Fellows. Today, 46 ACM members have been named as Fellows—and six of them are from Microsoft Research, representing four different labs worldwide.

The press release for the announcement states that Microsoft Research’s new ACM Fellows have been recognized for achievements in software analysis, computer graphics, reasoning and decision-making, network control, and distributed computing.