computer science

Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Microsoft Research rather than just read about it. In short: Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers.

Key takeaways

Microsoft Research belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Microsoft Research to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Microsoft Research from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers. Microsoft Research employs more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners. Between 2010 and 2018, 154,000 AI patents were filed worldwide, with Microsoft having the largest percentage of those patents, at 20%. According to estimates in trade publications, Microsoft spent about $6 billion annually in research initiatives from 2002 to 2010 and has spent from $10–14 billion annually since 2010. Microsoft Research has made significant advances in the field of AI which it has infused in its products including Kinect, Bing, HoloLens, Cortana, Microsoft Translator, LinkedIn, Havok and Dynamics. The mission statement of MSR is:

Expand the state of the art in each of the areas in which we do research Rapidly transfer innovative technologies into Microsoft products Ensure that Microsoft products have a future

Key people Microsoft Research includes the core Microsoft Research labs and Microsoft Research AI, Microsoft Research NExT (for New Experiences and Technologies), and other incubation efforts all directed by corporate vice president Peter Lee.

Research areas Microsoft research is categorized into the following broad areas:

Fellowships Microsoft Research sponsors several research fellowships for faculty and graduate students in the field of computer science. A non-exhaustive list of notable alumni of their fellowship programs include:

Victor Bahl Anders Hejlsberg Don Box Jennifer Tour Chayes Dave Cutler David DeWitt Susan Dumais Marcus Fontoura Michael Freedman Erich Gamma Johannes Gehrke Jim Gray (computer scientist) Alex Kipman Butler Lampson Morgan Klaus Scheuerman Raghu Ramakrishnan Mark Russinovich John Shewchuk Burton Smith Jeffrey Snover Jaime Teevan Charles P. Thacker Eric Traut

Research laboratories Microsoft has research labs around the world including the following non-exhaustive list:

Microsoft Research Redmond was founded on the Microsoft Redmond campus in 1991. It has about 350 researchers and is headed by Donald Kossmann. The bulk of research on the Redmond, Washington campus focuses on areas such as theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning, systems and networking, security, privacy, human–computer interaction, and wearable technologies. Microsoft Research Cambridge was founded in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Roger Needham and is headed by Christopher Bishop. Antony Rowstron and Abigail Sellen are Deputy Directors. The lab conducts research on topics including machine learning, security and information retrieval, and maintains close ties to the University of Cambridge and the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA or MSR Asia) was founded in Beijing in November 1998. It has expanded rapidly and now has more than 300 researchers and developers, along with approximately 300 visiting scientists and students (including its new satellite office in Shanghai). Its focus includes natural user interfaces, multimedia, data-intensive computing, search and online advertising, natural language processing, and computer science fundamentals. This lab forms part of the Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group (ARD) R&D center, which also has campuses in Suzhou, Shenzhen, Tokyo, and Taipei. Microsoft Research India is sited in Bengaluru (Bangalore) and is headed by Sriram Rajamani. Microsoft Research Station Q, on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, was founded in 2006. Its collaborators explore theoretical and experimental approaches to creating the quantum analog of the traditional bit—the qubit. The group is led by Michael Freedman. Its Quantum Architectures and Computation (QuARC) group is based in Redmond, while other Station Q satellite locations exist on the campuses of Delft University of Technology, Purdue University, University of Copenhagen, and University of Sydney. Microsoft Research New England was established in 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts adjacent to the MIT campus by Jennifer Chayes who also managed the New York and Montreal labs. The lab is now managed by Susan Dumais. The lab collaborates with the broader research community and pursues interdisciplinary research that brings together computer scientists and social scientists to develop future applications. Microsoft Research New York City was established on May 3, 2012. Susan Dumais serves as Managing Director of this location as well as the New England and Montreal labs. The lab collaborates with academia and other Microsoft Research labs in computational and behavioral social sciences, computational economics and prediction markets, machine learning, and information retrieval. Microsoft Research Montreal was established after the acquisition of Maluuba by Microsoft in 2017. Susan Dumais serves as Managing Director of this location as well as the New England and New York City labs. The lab collaborates with academia and other Microsoft Research labs in natural language processing (specifically machine reading comprehension), deep learning and reinforcement learning. Gray Systems Lab, in Madison, Wisconsin. Named after Jim Gray, GSL opened in 2008 to research database technologies. Microsoft Research Asia - Tokyo was established in November 2024 and is headed by Yasuyuki Matsushita. The lab focuses on embodied AI, societal AI, well-being and neuroscience, and industry innovation. It collaborates with Japanese academic and industry partners while maintaining close ties with other Microsoft Research Asia facilities. The lab operates various research programs including joint research initiatives and internship opportunities, contributing to AI innovation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Former research laboratories Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, located in Mountain View, California, was founded in August 2001 and closed in September 2014. Silicon Valley research focused on distributed computing and included security and privacy, protocols, fault-tolerance, large-scale systems, concurrency, computer architecture, internet search and services, and related theory.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Microsoft Research

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Microsoft Research claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Microsoft Research before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Microsoft Research ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Microsoft Research

In research: Microsoft Research appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Microsoft Research in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Microsoft Research is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American organizations established in 1991, Artificial intelligence industry in the United States, Artificial intelligence laboratories, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Microsoft Research outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Microsoft Research in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Microsoft Research means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Microsoft Research out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Microsoft Research in simple terms?

Why does Microsoft Research matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Microsoft Research?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Microsoft Research.