Microsoft Research Asia
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft
’s fundamental research arm in the Asia Pacific region, was founded on November 5, 1998. In 2004, Technology Review
named Microsoft Research Asia “the hottest computer lab in the world”.
Over its ten-year history, Microsoft Research Asia has grown into an organization that employs over 350 researchers and engineers, has used more than 2,500 interns, has awarded over 230 Microsoft fellowships, has published over 1,500 papers for top international journals and conferences, and has achieved many technological breakthroughs.
Technologies from Microsoft Research Asia have had an influence not only within Microsoft but also on the broader community. Over 200 innovations from the lab have been transferred to Microsoft products, including Office XP, Office System 2003, Windows XP
, Windows Server 2003
, Windows XP Media Center Edition
, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Xbox
, MSN
, Windows Live
, Windows Vista
and Office 2007. In addition, technologies from the lab have been adopted by international standards bodies such as MPEG4 (error-resilient video transmission), IETF (TCP/IP header compression), and ITU/ISO (video-compression technology).
Many of these successes are the result of an ambitious research agenda that boils down to five areas central to Microsoft’s long-term vision and strategy:
The UR team has forged strong relations with universities and institutions to organize various programs and events, including theme-based research projects, joint labs, international conferences, faculty summits, visiting researcher programs, and on-campus lectures and courses. We also offer an internship program and a fellowship program. Since 1998, UR has sponsored more than 600 events in some 10 countries and regions that have attracted 300,000 participants. UR has partnered with nearly 100 universities and institutes.
In recent years, UR has launched a series of initiatives to develop strategic relations with governments and academia across the region. An important component of these new initiatives is an emphasis on regional programs that extends collaboration with universities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. With a greater focus on local research interests and education, Microsoft Research Asia is looking ahead to making the University Relations program as extensive and diverse as the academic community.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
’s fundamental research arm in the Asia Pacific region, was founded on November 5, 1998. In 2004, Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
named Microsoft Research Asia “the hottest computer lab in the world”.
Over its ten-year history, Microsoft Research Asia has grown into an organization that employs over 350 researchers and engineers, has used more than 2,500 interns, has awarded over 230 Microsoft fellowships, has published over 1,500 papers for top international journals and conferences, and has achieved many technological breakthroughs.
Technologies from Microsoft Research Asia have had an influence not only within Microsoft but also on the broader community. Over 200 innovations from the lab have been transferred to Microsoft products, including Office XP, Office System 2003, Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
, Windows XP Media Center Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition is a version of the Windows XP operating system designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. The last version, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, was released in October 2004.-Versions:...
, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
, Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Office 2007. In addition, technologies from the lab have been adopted by international standards bodies such as MPEG4 (error-resilient video transmission), IETF (TCP/IP header compression), and ITU/ISO (video-compression technology).
Many of these successes are the result of an ambitious research agenda that boils down to five areas central to Microsoft’s long-term vision and strategy:
- Natural User Interfaces enable users to interact with a computer using speech, gestures, and expressions.
- Next-generation multimedia allows people to search for and to be immersed in interactive online shopping, education, meeting, and entertainment activities.
- Data-Intensive Computing explores the new infrastructures, algorithms. Tools, and applications to collect, analyze, and mine results for data-intensive business in both the consumer and enterprise sectors.
- Search and Online Ads take Web search and online advertising to the next level by applying data-mining, machine-learning, and knowledge-discovery techniques to information analysis, organization, retrieval, and visualization.
- Computer Science Fundamental includes areas such as theoretical computer science (theory), systems, networking, and machine learning that will have an impact on multiple applications and products.
University Relations
MRA holds strong corporation with many universities in Asia countries, mainly through founding Joint Laboratories. The University Relations (UR) program at Microsoft Research Asia seeks broad engagement with the academic community and governments across the Asia-Pacific region to foster innovative research, advanced education, and to promote academic collaboration.The UR team has forged strong relations with universities and institutions to organize various programs and events, including theme-based research projects, joint labs, international conferences, faculty summits, visiting researcher programs, and on-campus lectures and courses. We also offer an internship program and a fellowship program. Since 1998, UR has sponsored more than 600 events in some 10 countries and regions that have attracted 300,000 participants. UR has partnered with nearly 100 universities and institutes.
In recent years, UR has launched a series of initiatives to develop strategic relations with governments and academia across the region. An important component of these new initiatives is an emphasis on regional programs that extends collaboration with universities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. With a greater focus on local research interests and education, Microsoft Research Asia is looking ahead to making the University Relations program as extensive and diverse as the academic community.