Microsoft's Rick Rashid has 800 computer scientists with Ph.D.s at his disposal, and he wants you to know he's not afraid to use them.
"We've grown from basically me to 800 Ph.D. researchers from all over the world," Rashid said of Microsoft Research.
"It's like saying we've created a new Berkeley science faculty every year for 17 years," he said.
That makes Microsoft Research one of the largest basic research programs in the field of computer science, says Rashid, the senior vice president for Microsoft's R&D division. In addition to the on-staff scientists, Microsoft brings 1,000 Ph.D. interns each year to work in its labs. By comparison, the U.S. produced only 1,500 Ph.D.s in computer science in 2007.
Rashid spoke at Microsoft Research TechFest, a big display of research projects that all those braniacs are working on. Rashid admits he initially didn't want to open the labs up at all.
"I kept poo poo'ing (the idea)," he told the assembled audience here at Microsoft's corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash, "thinking that no one would be interested in this stuff."
Turns out, a lot of people were interested -- especially Microsoft's own employees.
TechFest is now in its seventh year and Rashid admits that opening things up was actually a pretty good idea.
First and foremost, TechFest serves as a kind of internal trade show for the rest of the company and features 150 projects and 20 lectures for 6,000-7,000 thousand Microsoft employees.
But it's also a chance to show the world at large what goes on inside the labs. Microsoft dedicates one day during the week of TechFest (today) to the public and showcases about a quarter of those projects for the press.
Here are some notes from Rick's speech:
Microsoft has one of the largest basic research programs in the field of computer science, covering everything from quantum computing to security.
The first research facility was located in Redmond, Wash. Since then, Microsoft has expanded around the globe with research labs now in San Francisco, Cambridge, U.K., Beijing, Silicon Valley, Bangalore, and soon, one in Cambridge, Mass.
There are more than 2000 people working in Microsoft's research labs at any given time.
Things at Microsoft Research are organized like a university research program. Specifically, Rashid said the model is Carnegie Mellon's research program circa 1980.
"People always ask me: What's going to be the next big thing," Rashid said. "You're seeing raw material today. We don't decide what the next big thing is. We often don't have any idea what it's going to be. It's the individuals and the way they use the software...that ultimately decide.
And on that note, I'm off to see some demos.
