Computing is everywhere. Computers are showing up in the most interesting places. Meanwhile, today's most compelling scientific questions are fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature, creating new challenges for computing research. Researchers from diverse fields are finding new ways to collaborate. This is a time for optimism.
Each year, leaders from academia join with Microsoft researchers to explore the latest research results, collectively discuss the challenges being faced by the community, search for the best approaches to meeting those challenges, and identify new research opportunities. A wide range of interests and a broad variety of technical areas provides a unique venue for meeting with colleagues and friends across the full range of the computing disciplines. This week's Technometria features the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit's opening panel, moderated by Ed Lazowska and including a number of leading academics and Microsoft researchers.
Ed Lazowska (Moderator) holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Lazowska received his A.B. from Brown University in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977, when he joined the University of Washington faculty.
Lazowska's research and teaching concern the design, implementation, and analysis of high-performance computing and communication systems. Current research includes information technology to support sustainable rural development, data architecture for the Ocean Observatories Initiative, control theory applied to computer system management, and support of the GENI initiative. Nineteen Ph.D. students and 23 M.S. students have completed degrees working with him.
Craig Mundie was named to the new position of chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft in June 2006. He is working closely with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to assume responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts – in anticipation of Gates’ departure from a day-to-day role in Microsoft in July 2008. Mundie also partners with General Counsel Brad Smith to guide Microsoft’s intellectual property and technology policy efforts.
Mundie holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in information theory and computer science from Georgia Tech.
Rick Rashid is Senior Vice President for Microsoft Research. Currently charged with oversight of Microsoft Research’s worldwide operations, Richard (“Rick”) F. Rashid previously served as the director of Microsoft Research, focusing on operating systems, networking and multiprocessors. In that role he was responsible for managing work on key technologies leading to the development of Microsoft Corp.’s interactive TV system and authored a number of patents in areas such as data compression, networking and operating systems. In addition to running Microsoft Research, Rashid also was instrumental in creating the team that eventually became Microsoft’s Digital Media Division and directing Microsoft’s first e-commerce group. Rashid was promoted to vice president of Microsoft Research in 1994, and then to senior vice president in 2000.
Rashid was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 for his work in operating systems and for innovation in industrial research. Rashid received master of science (1977) and doctoral (1980) degrees in computer science from the University of Rochester. He graduated with honors in mathematics and comparative literature from Stanford University in 1974.
Daniel A. Reed is the director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, a major collaborative venture of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the state of North Carolina. RENCI focuses on finding solutions to complex, multidisciplinary problems, bringing together experts from academia, government and industry and applying world-class computing and technology resources to find innovative solutions to these problems.
Dr. Reed also is Chancellor’s Eminent Professor and serves as Senior adviser for Strategy and Innovation to UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser. In that role, he works with the Chancellor and other university administrators and faculty to develop new multidisciplinary research initiatives. Reed came to North Carolina in 2004 and from 2004 through April 2007, he was CIO and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services at UNC-Chapel Hill. During that time, he led the effort to integrate campus computing services, helped launch the campus Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process, and enhanced services for education, research, administration and outreach.
Jeannette Wing is the President's Professor of Computer Science and the Head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her S.B. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1979 and her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1983, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Starting July 1, 2007, she became the head of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
Resources:
This free podcast is from our Technometria with Phil Windley series.
For The Conversations Network: