Innovation is global, says Microsoft executive

Innovation has always been a global enterprise, and even within the U.S. about half of all PhDs are given to people that were not born in the U.S., according to Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, the research and development (R&D) arm of Microsoft.

Rashid was in Bangalore last week for a research conference hosted by Microsoft Research’s Indian lab. Rashid spoke to IDG News Service on the sidelines of the conference about the globalization of R&D, some of the technologies Microsoft Research is working on such as on-the-fly translation in instant messaging, and other issues. Below an edited version of the interview.

IDG News Service: In your address, you referred to your research on surface computing. Could you give some more details on that?

Rashid: In the not too distant future, we believe that it will be possible to turn almost any surface into a computing surface. So what we are doing now is research investigation both on the technology to support that, and also on the user interface technology, the way people will use it, and the kinds of applications that might exist. I showed (at the conference) a specific one of those which is the PlayAnywhere work, where we are also looking at wall sized displays, we are looking at new kinds of gesture-based interfaces, and we are also looking at technology that has a semi-transparent surface where you can put physical objects against it, and it will be able to see them and interact with them.

IDGNS: What would be the likely applications for these technologies?

Rashid: The applications could be all sorts of things. It could be used in medical applications, for visualization by doctors, where they need people to use their hands to manipulate the images. It could be used in cartography or digital mapping where you’ve got to be able to physically see and turn and manipulate the interface. It could be used by teachers to show things, and it could also be used by corporations for the visualization of information. So there is lots of potential usage.

IDGNS: Do you expect products based on this technology any time soon?

Rashid: We never know when something is going to change into a product. I can never predict that. Right now it is research that we are publishing.

IDGNS: The head of the Indian, lab, P. Anandan, said that his team had developed a framework that would enable instant messages to be translated from one language to another on the fly. Do you see this technology getting into a product from Microsoft?

Rashid: One of the things we are trying to explore with the MSN group is how we can get that technology available. I think that probably sometime over the next year to 18 months or so, you will start to see those kinds of features both in our products, and probably in products from our competitors. The specific goal we have with this work is to really make it multilingual, and not just something into English or English into something.

IDGNS: What are the other focus areas for Microsoft Research globally?

Rashid: We do research in more than 55 different areas. We do work in computer vision, in image editing, graphics, and 3-D imagery. We also do work in software engineering technologies which are of course critical to Microsoft. We also do work for example in AIDS research. Some of our researchers have been using computer science techniques to tackle the problem of identifying and creating vaccine candidates for the AIDS virus. We are not just doing core computer science but also work on the fringes whether that maybe biology, maybe physics and other areas.

IDGNS: How would this translate perhaps into products for Microsoft’s product groups?

Rashid: I have a team of people whose full-time job it is to take the work that is coming out from research and find ways of getting them into our products. The key thing is that you work very creatively finding uses for technology.

Almost every thing I can think of that we have done has wound up in some product at some point. We don’t usually know whether that is going to happen. We started a computer vision group, for example, before any product in Microsoft could conceivably use it. We started working in media, such as streaming media and digital media, before there was anything in the company that was doing it as a product. We started working in graphics before anybody in the company was doing 3-D graphics.

I would say that the vast majority of the research that has results will make it into a product. Research is a risky business. You try ideas and they don’t always work. If you try a lot of ideas and they all work, then you are not taking enough risk.

IDGNS: As multinational companies need to develop products for local markets, is there a pressure for research organizations to have operations in various countries and markets?

Rashid: There is no pressure to do that. The reason we start research labs in different parts of the world is because we are trying to attract very smart people. It certainly is the case that the diversity of backgrounds, and the diversity of perspectives among the researchers, as we go into different parts of the world, do impact the work we do, and do impact ultimately our products. But I look at that as a side effect. The first goal is to move to where the talent is, and hire the best people we can.

IDGNS: Do you see innovation moving out of the U.S.?

Rashid: I think innovation has always been a global enterprise. If you look at the field of computer science, even within the U.S., about half of all PhDs are given to people that were not born in the U.S. Innovation has always been a global enterprise, and I just see that continuing.

IDGNS: As companies set up R&D operations outside the U.S., and some of the migrant PhDs go back home to start businesses, do you see the U.S. losing its cutting edge in innovation ?

Rashid: I don’t tend to think of things that way. I look at it, and say how as a global community can we move the state of the art forward. That is what I am trying to do. I am trying to hire the best people I can, and if sometimes that means creating labs in other parts of the world, that is what I do. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about how many people I have here or there. If I can hire great people in India, I am going to hire great people in India. If I can hire great people in China, I am going to hire people in China. If I can hire great people in the U.S., I am going to hire great people in the U.S.