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Microsoft Research Asia
Overview
January 2008
The Beijing lab, now called Microsoft
Research Asia, was founded Nov. 5, 1998, and is Microsoft Corp.’s basic
research facility in the Asia-Pacific region. The goal of Microsoft Research
Asia is to attract the most talented researchers in the field of computing
and become one of the best computer science laboratories in the world.
To date, researchers from the lab have published more than 1,500
scientific papers for top international journals and conferences. Many
research results have been transferred to Microsoft products, including
Office 2003, Office XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows XP Tablet
PC Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft
Office system and Windows Live. Some technologies from the lab have been
adopted by international standards bodies: the MPEG-4 Industry Forum
reviewed error-resilient video transmission; the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) reviewed TCP/IP header compression; and the International
Telecommunications Union/International Standards Organization (ITU/ISO)
reviewed video compression technology.
Since its founding, Microsoft Research Asia
has grown to more than 300 research scientists and engineers. Every year it
hosts more than 400 visiting scientists and students from China and around
the world. Microsoft Research Asia has set an ambitious research agenda
highlighting six areas that are central to Microsoft’s long-term vision and
strategy:
- A next-generation user interface that will
enable users to interact with a computer using speech, gestures and
expressions
- Next-generation multimedia technologies
that will enable people to search for and to be immersed in interactive,
realistic online shopping, education, meeting and entertainment
activities
- Digital entertainment that will enable
users to have a more networked, interactive and realistic entertainment
experience
- Wireless and networking technologies that
will empower people to access information in any place, at any time, on
any device
- Web search and data mining that will take
Web search to the next level by applying data-mining, machine-learning
and knowledge-discovery techniques to information analysis,
organization, retrieval and visualization
- Theory studies that focus on fundamental
research in theoretical computer science and helping other research
groups address challenging research problems
Microsoft Research Asia is committed to working closely with academics in
the region to advance the state of the art in computer science research.
Over the past eight years, the lab has sought broad engagement with the
academic community and governments across the Asia-Pacific region to foster
innovative research and advanced education, and to promote academic
collaborations. Major programs include the following:
- Joint research. The initiatives range from
joint research labs and joint research projects to innovative research
partnerships. Currently the lab has nine joint labs in mainland China
and Hong Kong. In 2005, Microsoft established the Microsoft Institute
for Japanese Academic Research Collaboration (IJARC) in Tokyo. IJARC is
a new type of collaborative framework for fostering fundamental research
and promoting partnerships with Japanese academia. The IJARC serves as
an umbrella guiding Microsoft Research’s programs in Japan.
- Internship. The lab has welcomed more than
2,500 interns, including computer science and electrical engineering
Ph.D. candidates from 165 universities in China, the United States,
Canada, Japan, Korea and Europe.
- Fellowship. The fellowship program supports
Ph.D. students in the region who demonstrate great potential as future
research leaders. The program is well-known for its rigorous selection
process and fierce competition among top universities. Nearly 200
students have been awarded fellowships.
- Postdoctoral program. A Chinese
government-accredited postdoctoral center in computer science helps
train the best minds for China’s academia and IT industry. Microsoft is
the first foreign company granted such status.
- Faculty summit. Each year over 200 deans
and professors from across the Asia-Pacific region attend the annual
faculty summit to listen to Microsoft Research about the state of the
art in computer science and exchange ideas on research and education.
Research workshops and faculty trainings are held regularly to
facilitate community activities and experience sharing.
- Computing in the 21st Century Conference.
This annual Microsoft Research Asia event has attracted more than 30,000
students and professors since 1999. The conference has invited a dozen
recipients of the prestigious Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize
in computing, to share their vision on the future of computing. The
event has become the largest conference of its kind in the Asia-Pacific
region and builds a bridge between China and the world in the field of
computer science.
For more information, press only:
Julie Woodbury, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7000, juliew@waggeneredstrom.com
Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
For more information about Microsoft Research:
http://www.research.microsoft.com
For more information about Microsoft Research Asia:
English Web site: http://research.microsoft.com/labs/beij.asp
Chinese Web site: http://www.research.microsoft.com/asia
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