July 28, 2008 - July 29, 2008

Faculty Summit 2008

Location: Redmond, WA, U.S.

Past events:
Faculty Summit 2016
Faculty Summit 2015
Faculty Summit 2014
Faculty Summit 2013
Faculty Summit 2011
Faculty Summit 2010
Faculty Summit 2009

Held July 28-29 in Redmond, Washington, the summit united more than 400 leaders from academia, government, and Microsoft to share ideas, discuss innovation opportunities, and collectively define the research agenda in the academic community.

Summit Focus

The range of problems that today’s rapidly advancing computational methods address is increasing dramatically. Computing researchers are investigating new and promising approaches in such diverse disciplines as biology, astronomy, physics, economics, medicine, healthcare, film, photography, information storage and access, teaching, commerce, and social improvement. We have come a long way. It is an exciting time to work in the field of computing.

The 2008 agenda focused on the following questions:

  • How are advances in program analysis, verification, and compiler technologies measuring up to the challenges of the next generation of computing architectures (e.g., multicore computing, virtualization, etc.)?
  • What are the technological and societal drivers to enable an “intelligent Web”? What is required to transform the current Web of data into an “Information Highway” that goes beyond Search to include tasks, accounts for the shift from consumers to producers of information, and supports information integration and reasoning?
  • Where are we with the status, goals, and promise of artificial intelligence?
    In which new directions is the quest for scientific discovery taking the field of computing research?
  • Technology impacts education in both positive and negative ways. In this era of globalization and technological advancement, how can technology be leveraged to improve education?