February 2009
Microsoft Research India, formally inaugurated Jan. 12, 2005, is Microsoft Corp.’s third basic research facility to be established outside the United States. The India lab, located in Bangalore, joins Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; Cambridge, England; and Beijing labs in bringing together great minds to build a world-class global research organization with more than 850 scientists on staff. The mission of Microsoft Research India spans several objectives: to conduct long-term research in both basic and applied areas; collaborate with Indian research institutions and universities as part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to accelerating innovation in computer science and software engineering; and engage with partners in industry, academia and government to open new opportunities for economic growth and consumer choice. Microsoft Research India also seeks to attract the most talented researchers in the field of computing and become one of the best computer science laboratories in the world.
Microsoft Research Lab India Private Ltd. will continue to expand its research team and operations. The group will pursue an ambitious research agenda built around seven core areas that are central to Microsoft’s long-term vision and strategy:
- The Algorithms Research Group focuses on 21st century algorithms, which seek to address the new demands in today’s environment of computing with massive data. Besides the traditional topics in algorithms, areas such as streaming algorithms, directed data sampling, machine learning, approximation algorithms, and integration of numerical and combinatorial methods are expected to play an important role in the years to come. The goal of this new group is to be at the forefront of conceptual breakthroughs in these areas.
- The Cryptography, Security and Applied Mathematics Research Group focuses on research in the areas of cryptography, security, applied mathematics and multimedia security. Some of the key problem areas the group addresses include cryptanalysis, cryptographic protocol and cryptographic primitives. The group also studies various aspects of security related to computer systems as well as mobile devices.
- The Mobility, Networks and Systems Group conducts research in networking and systems across areas such as Internet-scale systems, distributed systems, network protocols, wireless networking, mobile computing and sensor systems. It seeks to advance the state of the art in these areas through measurement, design and prototyping of real-world and experimental networked systems.
- The Multilingual Systems Group focuses on research that develops true natural-language-neutral approaches in all aspects of linguistic computing and on fostering and participating in a healthy research ecosystem in Indian languages and computational linguistics.
- The Rigorous Software Engineering Group studies software engineering issues in developing large-scale software systems to come up with new tools, languages and methodologies that dramatically increase the productivity of software development. The group focuses on code understanding, configuration tools and design tools.
- The Technology for Emerging Markets Group combines technical and social science research to address the needs of the people of emerging economies. This group seeks to address those who are increasingly using more technology services and products and those for whom computing technology remains out of reach.
- The Vision, Graphics, and Visualization Group focuses on research in the areas of computer vision, graphics and visualization. The group investigates a wide variety of research problems in these areas, including object recognition and classification from images, video analysis, 3-D reconstruction of large environments from images and video, visualization of 3-D environments, techniques for information visualization, abstraction and effective use of color.
TechVista
TechVista, Microsoft Research India’s flagship symposium, brings together the best minds from the scientific and academic worlds. TechVista features some of the people whose work has defined new directions in computing, and provides an opportunity for the research community, government and students to interact and exchange ideas on research and its future directions. The symposium has already featured some world-renowned scientists and academicians, including Turing Award winners.
Microsoft Research External Research and Programs in India
Through External Research and Programs in India, which Microsoft initiated in 1991, Microsoft Research India is committed to partnering with academics in the region to advance the state of the art in computer science education and research. A number of programs are already under way to support basic research of local academia and foster alliances with universities in India and the international academic community. Programs include the following:
- MSR India Summer Schools provide participants with intense and in-depth exposure to the latest developments in specific areas of computer science research. Held yearly, the summer schools consist of workshops and lectures conducted by leading global experts in the field. Participants in the summer schools are usually a mix of students, faculty members and government and industry representatives.
- Microsoft Research India Internship Program gives undergraduate and graduate students from India and abroad the opportunity to work alongside renowned researchers at Microsoft Research India.
- The MSR India Ph.D. Fellowship Program provides funding to support students who are pursuing doctorates in a technology-related field at one of India’s science and technology institutes. The fellowships are administered and dispersed by each university over a four-year period. In addition, recipients of the fellowships receive a travel grant to attend international conferences and seminars, as well as a laptop computer.
Microsoft Research India Leadership Team
Microsoft Research India’s managing director, P. Anandan, is internationally renowned for his research in computer vision and video analysis. Now in his 11th year with Microsoft, Anandan previously held the position of senior researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond and has served as an ambassador for External Research and Programs in India for several years. His assistant managing director is Kentaro Toyama, a widely respected researcher in computer vision, multimedia and geographic information systems. Toyama, who joined Microsoft Research in 1997, also leads the Emerging Markets Group within Microsoft Research India.
For more information, press only:
Sridhar Vedantham, Microsoft, +91 (80) 6658-6000, sriv@microsoft.com
For more information about Microsoft Research:
http://www.research.microsoft.com
For more information about Microsoft Research India:
http://www.research.microsoft.com/india
