Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2007
Agenda for Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Technology Theme Key
 

Time

Room

Description

8:00-9:00

Continental Breakfast

Kodiak

Research Momentum: The Latest Technologies from Microsoft Research
Henrique (Rico) Malvar, Distinguished Engineer and Managing Director, Microsoft Research

Presentation: The Latest Technologies from Microsoft Research

Webcast: The Latest Technologies from Microsoft Research

10:00-1:00

Baker/Hood

DemoFest
DemoFest provides an opportunity for leading academic researchers to see a sampling of exciting results from Microsoft Research. This unique three-hour event also gives faculty a chance to talk one-on-one with Microsoft researchers and to see a few of the sponsored research projects from the External Research & Programs group.

11:45–12:00

Box Lunch Pickup

12:00–1:00

Lunch and Brown Bag Sessions

£

Cascade

Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE) - One Year On
Stewart Tansley, Microsoft Research (Chair); Tucker Balch, Georgia Institute of Technology; Deepak Kumar, Bryn Mawr College

Recognizing the potential that robotics holds for improving the appeal and success of teaching introductory computer programming, we established the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE, http://roboteducation.org), hosted at Georgia Tech with Bryn Mawr College, in July 2006. IPRE is initially dedicated to enhancing first and second year undergraduate level computer science instruction through the development of a new purpose-built robotics-based CS education solution set. This interactive session gives a progress update on the first year’s accomplishments, and describes our next steps. It also highlights some of the expected opportunities and challenges that will arise for the wider computer science education community with an interest in addressing attraction and retention challenges through the application of robotics.

Webcast: Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE) - One Year On

µ

Rainier

Microsoft Center for Collaborative Technologies at the University of Washington
Richard Anderson, University of Washington; Paul Oka, Microsoft Research

The Center for Collaborative Technologies focuses on enhancing and supporting the ConferenceXP platform, applying the technologies to a wide range of educational and collaborative scenarios and strengthening the educational and research communities that use these tools. This session will discuss the plans for ConferenceXP over the next 12-24 months and how you can get involved.

Presentation: Center for Collaborative Technologies at the University of Washington

Webcast: Microsoft Center for Collaborative Technologies at the University of Washington

l

St. Helens

F# and .NET for Scientific Software
Don Syme, Microsoft Research; Darren Platt, Joint Genome Institute; Simon Mercer, Microsoft Research (Chair)

Functional programming is appealing for many scientific programming tasks because it gives succinct, efficient, and type-safe code for data manipulation, algorithms, and parallel programs. This session presents applications of F# in bioinformatics and machine learning. F# combines functional programming with .Net, bringing many advantages while still maintaining overall language neutrality. We present uses of F# and .Net at the Joint Genome Institute, and give an overview of our plans to construct a library of reusable bioinformatics algorithms and functions using the .Net platform.

Webcast: F# and .NET for Scientific Software

µ

Sonora

Assessment Challenges in Education
Jamie Cromack, Microsoft Research (Chair); Wilhelmina Savenye, Arizona State University; Jane Prey, Microsoft Research

Increasingly, technological advancement is transforming education. Educational assessment activities can offer feedback to improve teaching and learning, but implementing rigorous assessment can be challenging. This session has the twofold goal of providing an opportunity for faculty to discuss the challenges faced in educational assessment and to gather feedback about a new Assessment Toolkit which is in development. The toolkit resources are designed to aid faculty in assessing the application of computing technologies to improve education.

Presentation: Assessment Challenges in Education

Webcast: Assessment Challenges in Education

p

Lassen

Microsoft Research Intern Showcase
Mark Lewin, Microsoft Research

The Microsoft Research internship program welcomes over 200 students each year to collaborate with Microsoft Research mentors across a wide range of research areas. This session will include current interns presenting their work-in-progress and an overview of the Microsoft Research internship program.

Webcast: Microsoft Research Intern Showcase

1:00-2:15

Break-out Sessions

l

Cascade

Computational Photography
Rick Szeliski, Microsoft Research (Chair); Michael Cohen, Microsoft Research; Fredo Durand, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Alexei Efros, Carnegie Mellon University; Aaron Hertzmann, University of Toronto; Frank Dellaert, Georgia Institute of Technology

Computational photography is a new field of research that lies at the intersection of computer graphics and computer vision. It studies how new and better images can be created using combinations of traditional photographs and novel sensors, using algorithms that combine computer vision analysis with computer graphics synthesis and rendering. Recent advances include techniques for automatically adjusting the dynamic range and contrast of photographs, as well as exploiting the massive amounts of imagery available on the Internet. In this session, the leading researchers in this area will present their latest research ideas.

Presentation: Michael Cohen, Capturing and Viewing Big, Wide, and Deep Imagery

Presentation: Fredo Durand, Motion Magnification and Coded Aperture

Presentation: Alexei Efros, Using Data to "Brute Force" Hard Problems in Computational Photography

Presentation: Frank Dellaert, 4D Cities

Webcast: Computational Photography

Rainier

Call to Action: What Can YOU do to Help Attract and Retain Women in Computing
Jane Prey, Microsoft Research; Andy Bernat, Computing Research Association; Telle Whitney, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology; Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women & Information Technology; Cameron Wilson, Association for Computing Machinery

This session brings together the thought leadership of major computing organizations to engage in a dialogue on ways to attract and retain women in the higher education computing pipeline. The speakers present the strategies and programs of their respective organizations and invite the audience to provide comments and ideas. The expectation is that the faculty attendees will gain a better understanding of these organizations and all of their various activities. It is hope that these faculty will take what they have learned back to their institutions and provide information, guidance, and support for those engaged in gender activities on their campuses.

Presentation: Call to Action: What Can YOU do to Help Attract and Retain Women in Computing

Webcast: Call to Action: What Can YOU do to Help Attract and Retain Women in Computing

l

St. Helens

Computing in the Life Sciences
Simon Mercer, Microsoft Research (Chair)

The Cardiovascular Research Grid (CVRG): A National Infrastructure for Representing, Sharing, Analyzing and Modeling Cardiovascular Data
Stephen Granite, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Presentation: The CardioVascular Research Grid (CVRG): A National Infrastructure for Representing, Sharing, Analyzing, and Modeling Cardiovascular Data

Colonies of Synchronizing Agents: Cells, Tissues, and Molecules
Sean Sedwards, University of Trento

Presentation: Colonies of Synchronizing Agents: Molecules, Cells, and Tissues

eResearch – a Platform for Scientific Collaboration
Jim Karkanias, Microsoft

New technologies and experimental techniques continue to transform the nature of biomedical research, promising new insights but challenging the state of the art in data acquisition, modeling, and analysis to keep pace. The presentations in this session highlight different aspects of these challenges and some potential solutions.

Webcast: eResearch – a Platform for Scientific Collaboration

u

Sonora

Phoenix for Research and Education
Mark Bailey, Hamilton College; Mary Lou Soffa, University of Virginia; Yan Xu, Microsoft Research

Phoenix is the basis for all future Microsoft compiler technologies. It provides a extensible framework for software optimization and analysis. Its flexible plug-in model makes it a powerful tool for software testing and software security analysis. In this session, Mary Lou Soffa of the University of Virginia will present how Phoenix is used and integrated with other Microsoft technologies for research in software testing; and Mark Bailey of Hamilton College will present how Phoenix is used in developing curriculum for teaching software security.

Presentation: Mark Bailey, Defense Against the Dark Arts: Using Computer Security to Teach Core Computer Science Concepts

Webcast: Phoenix for Research and Education

p

Lassen

Computing Research in Latin America
Jaime Puente, Microsoft Research (Chair)

This session will provide an overview of the research agenda in computer science in some countries in Latin America and the overall regional organization, infrastructure and existing cooperation programs. Universities in Latin America are well positioned to become strategic partners in national innovation systems and strongly contribute to economic and social development. Several interesting projects will be discussed as examples of successful research stories in this emerging region. During this session specific research projects from Chile, Brazil, and Mexico will be discussed, in addition to an overall perspective of the computer science research agenda in the whole region.

RedCLARA: The Research Network of Latin America
Florencio Utreras, Latin American Cooperation of Research Networks (CLARA)

This talk gives an overview of the Latin America Research and Academic Network, RedCLARA, as well as the organization behind it (CLARA). The focus is on RedCLARA's present and planned infrastructure as well as current activities in favor of a more collaborative and stronger research in the region. The talk will also include a summary of two important collaboration efforts being carried out in the field of grid computing and instrumentation.

Presentation: RedCLARA: The Research and Education Network of Latin America

The Visualization Brazilian Network
Bruno Feijo, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Brazil is amongst the most influential countries in the broadcast industry and has been producing pioneering results in computer graphics and special effects since early 80's. These results induced the Brazilian government to support the Visualization Brazilian Network
(RBV), which aims to organize the Brazilian intelligence in the sector of visualization, aggregating Digital TV/Cinema, games, defense, and industrial applications. This talk presents the concepts behind RBV and its more important R&D results.

Presentation: The Visualization Brazilian Network

Computer Science Research in Mexico
Jesus Favela, Ensenada Center for Higher Education Scientific Research (CICESE)

The talk includes a brief overview of Computer Science Research activities in Mexico, including main research groups, sources of funding, challenges, and opportunities. To illustrate current research activities, we will describe a couple of ongoing research projects.

Presentation: Computer Science Research In Mexico

Webcast: Computing Research in Latin America

1:00-3:00

Kodiak

Design Expo
The Design Expo is a Microsoft Research forum where the top graduate design institutions showcase their prototype interaction design ideas. Microsoft Research sponsors a semester long class at leading interdisciplinary design schools and invites the top class projects to present their ideas as part of the Faculty Summit.

Webcast: Design Expo

2:15-2:30

Break

2:30-3:45

Break-out Sessions

£

Cascade

Sensornet 2.0 - Panel Discussion
Feng Zhao and Stewart Tansley, Microsoft Research (Co-Chairs); Tarek Abdelzaher, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Karl Aberer, école Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (EPFL); Anish Arora, Ohio State University; Magdalena Balazinska, University of Washington; Prashant Doshi, University of Georgia; Jason Hong, Carnegie Mellon University; Andreas Terzis, John Hopkins University; Lim Hock Beng, Nanyang Technological University

The field of wireless sensor networks (WSN, or sensornets) has grown dramatically over the past decade. New science has been enabled, and new business and service applications are emerging. De facto standard hardware and software technologies have facilitated a burgeoning ecosystem, especially in research. But there remain challenges. For example, sensornets are frequently “islands”, disconnected from the world’s existing networks and IT systems, including the Internet. Current generation platforms tend to be limited in processing, communication and storage capacities, for good reasons due to energy constraints. These challenges and more have led researchers to investigate new platforms, programming technologies, and tools that will be required to expand the field further and help it reach its full potential in practical applications. How will this next generation arise, and what form(s) will it take? These are some of the questions that this panel of experts will seek to address.

Presentation: Feng Zhao, Sensornet 2.0 Discussion

Presentation: Tarek Abdelzaher, Sensornet 2.0 Challenges

Presentation: Karl Aberer, Challenges in Sensor Networks

Presentation: Anish Arora, On Sensornet 2.0: Getting Sensornet 1.0 Right

Presentation: Magdalena Balazinska, Data Management Systems for Sensor Data

Presentation: Prashant Doshi, End-to-End Semantics for Sensor Net 2.0

Presentation: Jason Hong, Applications and Privacy Issues with Sensor Nets

Presentation: Lim Hock Beng, Towards Sensornet 2.0

Webcast: Sensornet 2.0 - Panel Discussion

p

Rainier

Technology for Emerging Markets
Tom Healy, Microsoft Research; Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research

Half of the world – approximately three billion people – live on less than $2 (USD) a day. While most of them have never touched a PC, and only a few have personal access to a telephone, these technologies have some potential to support them in their daily needs and aspirations. This session will cover some of the Microsoft Research efforts to apply technology to problems in international development. Kentaro Toyama will give an overview of the “Technology for Emerging Markets” group, and its research in technology to aid microfinance and agriculture. Tom Healy will discuss the Microsoft Research Digital Inclusion grants which have supported 17 projects around the world in mobile technology and computing for development.

Presentation: Tom Healy, Technology for Emerging Markets: Digital Inclusion

Presentation: Kentaro Toyama, Technology for Emerging Markets

Webcast: Technology for Emerging Markets

l

St. Helens

Biomedical Devices for Monitoring and Mobility
Nuria Oliver, Microsoft Research (Chair)

Presentation: Wearable Physiological Monitoring on a Mobile Phone

Dust to Doctors: Wireless Sensor Networks For Assisted Living
John Stankovic, University of Virginia

Presentation: Dust to Doctors: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted Living

Medical Embedded Systems
Majid Sarrafzadeh, University of California, Los Angeles

Meeting the Challenges to Increase Clinician Utilization: Enabling Mobility and Maintaining Security
Khalid Moidu, Purdue University

Extramural Funding for Biomedical Research
Kristin Tolle, Microsoft Research

Webcast: Biomedical Devices for Monitoring and Mobility

u

Sonora

An IMplicitly PArallel Compiler Technology Based on Phoenix - For Thousand-core Microprocessors
Chuck Mitchell, Microsoft; Wen-mei Hwu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Yan Xu, Microsoft Research

The Phoenix framework provides a extensible foundation for building infrastructure to advance research in compilers. Phoenix architect lead Chuck Mitchell will give an update on the Phoenix architecture. Wen-mei Hwu of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will present how Phoenix is used at the IMPACT lab of UIUC as a basis for their research infrastructure.

Presentation: Chuck Mitchell, Phoenix Compiler and Tools Infrastructure Update

Presentation: Wen-mei Hwu, An IMplicitly PArallel Compiler Technology Based on Phoenix

Webcast: An IMplicitly PArallel Compiler Technology Based on Phoenix - For Thousand-core Microprocessors

°

Lassen

XNA Game Studio Express for Teaching and Research
John Nordlinger, Microsoft Research; Dave Mitchell, Microsoft (XNA); David Weller, Microsoft (XNA)

This session will invigorate, challenge, and inspire those interested in spicing up computer science courses, or looking for a new platform for research.

Webcast: XNA Game Studio Express for Teaching and Research

3:45-4:00

Break

4:00-5:00

Closing Plenary Session

4:00-4:40

Kodiak

Design Thinking
Bill Buxton, (Chair) Microsoft Research; Bill Moggridge, IDEO

How can companies and organizations bring about successful innovation? One way is to look at the thinking processes and working methods behind some of the great innovations that have changed our everyday lives. From BusinessWeek magazine to the Stanford d.school, the role of design in business has taken on new dimensions. From offering new ways for executives to think, to informing corporate strategy, to facilitating organizational and service design, to creating new models of prototyping, design thinking and design-based processes are commanding more attention. Bill Moggridge will investigate these issues, drawing on his pioneering work as co-founder of IDEO and the insights offered in his recently published book 'Designing Interactions' (The MIT Press).

Webcast: Design Thinking

4:40-5:00

Kodiak

Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2007: Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Sailesh Chutani, Tom Healy, Tony Hey, and Harold Javid - Microsoft Research

Presentation: Final Thoughts and Next Steps

5:15-9:00

Summit at the Park Barbeque