Microsoft Research Community

Three hundred fifty computers. Two hundred twenty-five monitors, Almost a mile of computer cable. More than 6,500 attendees. Almost seven months of preparation. Three days of technical setup. Four hours of tear-down. About 500 researchers, most of them sporting forest-green, short-sleeved polo shirts...

OK, consider me dazzled. This afternoon, I got to spend a few minutes with Yuval Peres , principal researcher within Microsoft Research Redmond's Theory Group . In viewing the Theory Group's TechFest demos over the past few years, it has occurred to me that computational theory occupies a space...

I mentioned the other day that I had run into Feng Zhao , principal researcher in the Networked Embedded Computing group, who was looking particularly happy at the moment. Well, Feng has been demonstrating the reason for his delight over the past three days: a set of small, wireless sensor devices, branded...

Andrew Herbert , managing director of Microsoft Research Cambridge , was busily reading e-mail when I passed him in the hall a few minutes ago, so I doubled back and asked him to provide a brief statement about the value of TechFest for his lab and for the larger organization. His response: "The...

I just ran into Phil Fawcett, who had an idea seven years ago that became the original TechFest, which has since become Microsoft Research's signature event. The fact that I could barely manage to squeeze through the throngs to get to Phil speaks volumes about his foresight--and the power a simple...

Data abounds in the digital age. Bits by the billions are collected on a daily basis from a variety of sources: Web services, financial programs, governmental agencies. Those who specialize in data mining and analysis could spend a hundred lifetimes sifting through such data, looking for patterns and...

A cool video that captures the energy of TechFest has been posted externally . Enjoy!

Some people look for controversy in the strangest places. As hundreds of computer-science researchers congregated for TechFest on Tuesday, one Web site interpreted a cross-disciplinary but topical demo from a team of Microsoft Research Redmond folks as evidence of a forthcoming news site to "rate...

Next, I wandered over to a mega-booth from Microsoft Research Cambridge called Science for the 21st Century, featuring no fewer than six demos. There was a lot to absorb, so before diving in, I found Stephen Emmott , director of the lab's European Science Initiative , to get a quick overview. In...

Now here's technology I could use right now, and I'll bet you could, too. Ranjita Bhagwan is a researcher at Microsoft Research India who found herself getting frustrated with her home network. And that got her to thinking about her family. "I am a home-network user," Bhagwan says,...