Posted by Rob Knies You might have heard of Drew Purves before. As head of the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge , he has gained attention for a number of his projects, from modeling forest dynamics to FetchClimate , that use big data and build...

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 Perhaps you’re engrossed in the ongoing enthusiasm and enlightenment that is TechFest 2013 , but, for whatever reason, you aren’t able to participate in person. Never fear—we are delighted to offer you the next best thing to being here. Presenting the TechFest...

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 Welcome to TechFest 2013 , Microsoft Research’s annual tech showcase featuring many new, fascinating projects that point toward the future of computing. Over the next couple of days, we’ll be shining a light on some of the high-profile projects being shown during...