Latin American Faculty Summit 2012
|Advancing Environmental Understanding: the Role of eScience
Our understanding of the world around us is evolving, and with evolution comes the need for adaptation. Environmental scientific research increasingly has to adapt—from dealing with increasingly large and growing datasets, to trying to credibly inform the public and policy makers. There is a need to have new types of applications grounded in scientific research to move from raw discovery, to knowledge, to informing practical decisions. Understanding environmental changes from the levels of neighborhoods, to regions, to the globe is the focus of scientific study and policy decisions. Technology reinforced by computing is demonstrating the capacity to improve our environmental understanding.
|Using Computer Vision for Graphics
Creating compelling-looking content by using conventional graphics techniques is often laborious and requires significant artistry and experience. Over the past few years, I have been looking into how this content-creation process can be simplified through using computer vision techniques.
|Deep Neural Networks for Speech and Image Processing
Neural networks are experiencing a renaissance, thanks to a new mathematical formulation, known as restricted Boltzmann machines, and the availability of powerful GPUs and increased processing power. Unlike past neural networks, these new ones can have many layers and thus are called 'deep neural networks'; and because they are a machine-learning technique, the technology is also known as 'deep learning.'
|Moving the Needle and Growing Women in Computing in Latin America
Learn about pilot programs launched in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico to expand the numbers and influence of women in computing. These programs are supported by Microsoft Research Connections' Latin America Women in Computing Call for Proposals. Learn about the programs’ goals and progress to date, and hear about what has worked and what hasn’t. Join the discussion and provide ideas on how we can make a difference in growing women in computing in Latin America, and learn about opportunities to apply for a similar program in the future.
|Specialized Machine Translation Using the Microsoft Translator Hub - Customized Models for Language Preservation and Domain Specific Deployment
This talk provides an overview of an enhancement that enables the Microsoft Translator to provide targeted and customizable translation systems. This new system, called the Microsoft Translator Hub, enables personalized, private, and/or crowdsourced translation models to be independently built by companies, communities, and language preservationists.
|The Golem Project: a Laboratory for the Construction of Service Robots
A service robot is a system with inferential, perceptual, and action capabilities oriented to assist people with diverse daily living tasks. In this talk, we present an overview of the conceptual framework and methodology that went into the construction of the Golem series of service robots, which were developed over the last few years by the Golem group at IIMAS, UNAM. We discuss the current state of the technology, highlighting the kinds of advances that are required for service robots to perform well in the RoboCup competition, especially in the @Home category. The talk concludes with two reflections: one about the value of service robots in practical settings, and the other about the construction of service robots as a case study of technological development in the Latin American context.
|Big Data and the Cloud Phenomenon
Big data and cloud computing are two of the hottest areas in computer science research. In this talk, we cover the architecture design patterns and research challenges involved in building large, linearly scalable systems.
|Experiences in Software Engineering
Over the past last two and one-half years, the engineering team within Microsoft Research Connections has shipped 15 exciting software products for academics and researchers, including Microsoft Translator Hub, ChronoZoom, Layerscape, Try F#, Project Hawaii, .NET Bio, and the Chemistry Add-in for Word. How does a team of eight full-time Microsoft engineers consistently deliver great software for academics? What lessons have they learned in the process? Join us for this interactive talk to find out.
|Probabilistic Graphical Models: Applications in Biomedicine
Probabilistic graphical models include a variety of techniques based on probability and decision theory-techniques that give us a theoretically well-founded basis for making decisions under conditions of uncertainty and to solve complex problems efficiently. Over the last year, these methods have been used in a great variety of applications, from medical expert systems to intelligent user interfaces.
|Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse - Architecture Overview
In this talk, I present an architectural overview of the SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse DBMS system. PDW is a massively parallel-processing, share-nothing, scaled-out version of SQL Server for DW workloads. The product is packaged as a database appliance built on industry-standard hardware.
|Engineering Methods for Ensuring Program Correctness
Common engineering practices today use testing to ensure the quality of software. But relying solely on testing has several well-known drawbacks, such as only testing the program for the given inputs and applying tests only after the entire program has been developed. An idealistic, long-standing dream has been to formally verify the correctness of program, for all inputs. Is there some reality in that dream?
The world is experiencing a technology shift. In 2012, touchscreen-based mobile devices, namely smartphones and tablets, will outsell desktops, laptops, and netbooks combined. Powerful, easy-to-use smartphones are likely to be the first and, especially in developing countries, possibly the only computing devices that virtually everyone will own and carry at all times. Is it possible to develop new software directly on these mobile devices, without using a PC? What would a user interface for such a new development model look like?
In April, CareerCast.com placed software engineer at the top of its rankings of 200 jobs, noting that for software engineers the 'pay is great, hiring demand for their skills is through the roof, and working conditions have never been better.' But what do software engineers do in 2012? From developing new tools for verifying software, to assisting product groups in coping with bugs and big data, to securing applications on mobile phones, there is a huge variety in software engineering jobs.
|Bringing Theories to Life: Computer Science at Microsoft Research
The future of computer science lies neither in stability or change, but in the interplay between them. Both in terms of theory and in the software that brings the theories to life, there is a need for stability, so that ideas and techniques can become well known and part of the scientific ecosystem. But at the same time, researchers are always striving to push the boundaries and bring about change that reflects the concerns of our time, such as handling big data, ensuring privacy and security, and facilitating mobile computing, as well as unifying previously neglected groups through computer vision, natural user interfaces, and machine translation.
|Information Management via CrowdSourcing
CrowdSourcing uses human intelligence to solve tasks that are simple for humans but difficult for computers. CrowdSourcing can also use humans as sources of valuable information, for example, to exploit the 'wisdom of the crowd.'
|Strengthening Mexico's Participation in Global Research Networks
The Mexican research community has historically collaborated well with colleagues from different countries, but as research systems have become more internationalized over the past decades, we must redouble our efforts to integrate effectively into the expanding global networks of knowledge. In this context, governments should support the strengthening of national systems along the chain of education-science-technology-innovation, and should facilitate their internationalization through the mobility of students and researchers, the undertaking of joint projects, and the funding of technology based companies.