Stewart Tansley is responsible for academic partnerships in Robotics research and Sensor Networks research in External Research & Programs in Microsoft Research. Before joining Microsoft in 2001, he spent 13 years in the telecommunications industry in software research and development, focusing on technology transfer. Stewart has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence applied to Engineering from Loughborough University, UK. He has published a variety of papers on robotics for education, artificial intelligence and network management, several patents, and has co-authored a book on software engineering for artificial intelligence applications (so long ago that he should really write a new one).