Posted by Rob Knies Steve Hodges and his colleagues in the Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research Cambridge spend their time pursuing novel sensing technologies and new devices that make it easier for people to interact with computer systems and digital content. The team’s successes...

Posted by Rob Knies The Microsoft Research Machine Learning Summit 2013 concluded with a plenary panel discussion titled Data Challenges and Opportunities in the Next Decade. Chaired by Jeannette Wing , Microsoft vice president and head of Microsoft Research International, the discussion included...

Posted by Rob Knies Over the past year, the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), a New York City-based public-private research center created by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in conjunction with New York University, has advanced from creation to gaining traction in its mission of using...

Posted by Rob Knies What makes you happy? Mary Czerwinski is performing some research on that very topic. Czerwinski, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Redmond and manager of the Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment Research Group , is participating on the committee...

Posted by Rob Knies Many businesses and individuals talk a mean game about how they’re changing the world, catering to customer demands, delivering bold new user experiences. And why not? It’s easy. Such claims rarely are held accountable. They’re easy to twist into whatever direction...

Posted by Rob Knies Among the most engrossed attendees of the first day of TechFest 2013 had to be this year’s class of Microsoft Research Ph.D. fellows , who received an invitation to the event by virtue of their selection to the program. The fellows are recipients of a two-year fellowship...

Posted by Rob Knies For those who have upgraded to Windows 8 , here’s a beguiling project featured during TechFest 2013 . Called Making Smooth Topical Connections on Touch Devices, it offers an alternate, graphical way to mine, browse, and search through a database. The documents within the...

Posted by Rob Knies TechFest 2013 began promptly at 9 a.m. March 5 in the Kodiak Room of the Microsoft Conference Center with a keynote address by Rick Rashid , Microsoft chief research officer and head of Microsoft Research. Rashid discussed the present-day shift toward more intelligent technology...

Posted by Rob Knies Setting an objective is often the first step to achieving it. Case in point: Image Watch . Image Watch is a Visual Studio 2012 plug-in from the Interactive Visual Media (IVM) group at Microsoft Research Redmond . The tool enables anyone building image-processing applications...

Posted by Rob Knies You’ve no doubt experienced that sinking feeling—we all have—after taking a photo and realizing that you pressed the shutter release just a bit too late. The moment is gone, the action elusive, the opportunity squandered. It’s frustrating, but what can...

Posted by Rob Knies The Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) is an annual gathering of thought leaders from around the world to discuss all aspects of programming languages and systems, so it is a given that as the 40th instance of the event gets under way in Rome on Jan. 23...

Posted by Eric Horvitz and Yi-Min Wang, managing co-directors of Microsoft Research Redmond As we look back on the year at Microsoft Research Redmond , a flood of creative efforts and achievements come to mind. These include mission-focused pursuits aimed at solving urgent challenges, the pursuit...

Posted by Roy Levin, managing director of Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Transferring research results into products and services is always a challenging part of Microsoft Research’s job. No two transfers ever happen quite the same way. This year, Microsoft Research Silicon Valley had...

Posted by Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia In China, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, a particularly auspicious year in Chinese culture. I am very glad to see that this also has been a good year both for Microsoft and for Microsoft Research Asia . Thanks to the efforts...

Posted by Rob Knies Four members of Microsoft Research have been named to the inaugural list of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), announced in November. Among the 1,474 inaugural Fellows of the AMS: Jennifer Chayes , a Microsoft distinguished scientist and managing director...

Posted by Rob Knies Over the past year, the use of .NET Gadgeteer in education steadily has gained momentum, and that surge in interest received significant validation a few weeks ago in Hamburg, Germany. That city was the site of the seventh Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education...

Posted by Rob Knies For a man of 29, Vipul Goyal , a researcher at Microsoft Research India , already possesses a gaudy list of academic and professional achievements. He has a Ph.D. from UCLA. As a student there, he won a Microsoft Research graduate fellowship. His cryptographic research has been...

Posted by Rob Knies After years of investigating computer-supported ways to help groups work collaboratively, Jonathan Grudin’s achievements are being recognized by one of computer science’s most esteemed groups. On Dec. 11, Grudin , a principal researcher in the Natural Interaction...

Posted by Rob Knies In this, the 100th anniversary of what is now known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow program, four computer scientists from Microsoft Research have joined the annals of illustrious individuals who have attained the grade of IEEE Fellow....

Posted by Rob Knies Eight sentences. That’s all it took for Rick Rashid , worldwide head of Microsoft Research, to electrify a crowd of 2,000 students and faculty members in Tianjin, China, on Oct. 25 during the 14th annual Computing in the 21st Century Conference . Why did those in attendance...

Posted by Rob Knies If you’re a software developer—or if you follow the work of software developers—you’ve probably heard of TouchDevelop , a Microsoft Research app that enables you to write code for your phone using scripts on your phone. Its ability to bring the excitement...

Posted by Rob Knies Computing in the 21st century increasingly is embracing touch interaction. Whether it be on mobile handhelds, large electronic displays, or something in between, such user interfaces are becoming commonplace. Interestingly, researchers from Microsoft Research Redmond are expanding...

Posted by Rob Knies Imagine that you walk into a store, select an item to purchase, and approach the cash register. A wireless-proximity transmitter within your smartphone detects your presence, and a facial-recognition program determines your identity. The transaction is recorded onto video, and...

Posted by Rob Knies Remember that time, a decade or so ago, when spam was the scourge of the Internet, when the sheer volume of junk email threatened to engulf legitimate correspondence and short-circuit the promise of the digital revolution? Those concerns are a bit distant these days. Spam is...

Posted by Rob Knies A recent study by the Pew Research Center indicates that 80 percent of adults in the United States have searched for medical information online. Such a figure underscores the fundamental importance that humans place on their health and wellbeing—and their reliance on the...