(iii) Founding Vision
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“Our research efforts have created a large portfolio of innovative technologies that have extended the reach of personal computing.” — Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research | |
When Microsoft opened its first research lab on the company’s Redmond, WA, campus in 1991, it became the first software company to create its own computer science research organization. Microsoft recognized then, and still does today, that to create the foundation for future technology breakthroughs, it must support long-term computer science research that is not bound by product cycles. Unlike other companies, where research projects must be funded by individual product groups, Microsoft funds research and development at the corporate level, investing $6 billion in fiscal year 2006 — several times more than any other software company.
In less than two decades, Microsoft Research has developed into a unique entity among corporate research labs. The more than 700 scientists at Microsoft Research’s five labs and other facilities work in an open research environment similar to that found on university campuses, where ideas and technical prowess are exchanged among colleagues to advance the state of the art.
Microsoft researchers work across more than 55 disciplines within the following 20 areas:
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Within each of these areas, Microsoft researchers look five to 10 years beyond current product-development cycles to identify and invent key technologies that will shape how people will use computers in the future. They collaborate with the entire research community to advance the state of the art and build relationships with key universities worldwide to enhance teaching and learning experiences, inspire technological innovation, and strengthen computer science and engineering education.
Microsoft researchers help to improve people’s lives by enabling them to use technology to do more things in more places throughout their lives. Microsoft Researchers are making the breakthroughs, large and small, that will bring computing devices into every room in the house, enable these devices to speak our languages and enabling people to interact with these devices as naturally as we interact with one another.
Put simply, Microsoft Research is building the future.
Contents
- Advancing the Frontiers of Computing
- Microsoft Research: Making the Impossible Possible
- Creating a Foundation for Technology Breakthroughs
- Assembling an All-Star Team of Research Talent
- Imagining What Comes Next
- Putting Innovation to Work in Microsoft Products
- Advancing the State of the Art
- Planting the Seeds of Future Innovation
- Building a Global Think Tank
