Posted by George Thomas Jr. Microsoft researcher Vasilis Syrgkanis and two colleagues this week unveiled a new approach to understanding and optimizing online bidding and auctions, with implications far beyond the online advertising marketplace in which their study was based. Working with Denis Nekipelov of…
The annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) is always a highlight for those who follow the latest developments in applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communication. SIGCOMM 2014, to be held in Chicago from August…
Can you tell the difference between the two breeds of corgis? If you’re like many, you probably are barely even aware that such dogs exist, let alone the fact that there are two—and only two—kinds of corgis. Add the detail that those two breeds are…
Posted by Rob Knies When the world starts watching, it’s time for David Rothschild to shift into overdrive. Readers of this blog need little introduction to the work on prediction models from Rothschild, a Microsoft researcher and economist. Past posts have examined his efforts to…
As do other recreational pilots, Ashish Kapoor learned during flight training that he shouldn’t count on the accuracy of wind forecasts. The best available forecasts in the United States—from the federal government’s Winds Aloft program—have been based largely on data from instrumented weather balloons released…
Most of us can only dream of having the perfect personal assistant, one who is always there when needed, anticipating our every request and unobtrusively organizing our lives. Cortana, the new digital personal assistant powered by Bing that comes with Windows Phone 8.1, brings users…
Gaurav Sharma appeared relaxed but focused in his purple hoodie on January 16, 2014. Less than 20 seconds later, Sharma, a 15-year-old from Lakeside High School in Seattle, found himself the owner of a Guinness World Record® for fastest text message using a touch-screen mobile…
Leslie Lamport first began dabbling in computers while he was still in high school. Nothing too unusual about that—until you consider that this was in the mid-1950s. Lamport was attending the Bronx High School of Science in New York, and he and a friend used…
Cyrus Bamji had encountered a challenge. Luckily for him, Microsoft Research had just the solution. Bamji, Microsoft partner hardware architect for Microsoft’s Silicon Valley-based Architecture and Silicon Management group, and members of his team were trying to incorporate a time-of-flight camera into Xbox One, the…
A robot comes up from the subway. How does it know where it is? To most people, this sounds like the opening line of a joke, but for Jamie Shotton, senior researcher in the Computer Vision Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, the “lost robot” is…
By Douglas Gantenbein, Senior Writer, Microsoft News Center In a classroom near Bangalore, India, young students packing a classroom eagerly wave sheets of white paper covered with black symbols. They aren’t misbehaving—they are participating in a test of new educational technology pioneered by a team at…
By Douglas Gantenbein, Senior Writer, Microsoft News Center A new approach to managing data over a network has enabled a Microsoft Research team to set a speed record for sifting through, or “sorting,” a huge amount of data in one minute. The team conquered what…
