Microsoft: Research is our insurance policy

 

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By Barry Collins in Los Angeles

Posted on 29 Oct 2008 at 19:10

Microsoft's Research department is the company's insurance against tough times, according to the man who heads the expensively-assembled department.

Rick Rashid told attendees at the Professional Developers Conference that the company's oft criticised Research division has helped keep the company at the top of industry, whilst competitors have fallen by the wayside.

"Basic research is a source of IP, a source of new technologies," he said. "Basic research groups are early-warning systems."

"But the reason to invest in basic research... is that basic research gives you the ability to survive when things go wrong. It's important that we have that reservoir of investment to draw on in difficult times," he said.

Competitors have often argued that Microsoft gets a poor return on the multi-billion investment it makes in its Research department every year. But Rashid cited research as far ranging as data centre cooling to HIV vaccinations as evidence of the company's return on investment. Every major product in the Microsoft portfolio had some input from the Research team, Rashid claimed.

In the run up to the US elections, the Microsoft executive also criticised the Bush administration's record on academic research, claiming that funding to vital projects such as DARPA had been stymied. "It's caused people within the research community to question where we're going as a country," he said.

Coding for kids

Rashid said it was also vital to encourage children to take up programming at a young age. He cited the example of his two young boys, aged 8 and 9, who were being taught to program by their mother, claiming that his eldest is now capable of coding exception handlers and timers. "Not many children have two parents that taught computer science at university level," Rashid conceded.

Rashid's colleagues then demonstrated a new "lightweight programming for kids" package called Boku. Instead of asking children to parse code, Boku uses an Xbox 360 controller to encourage children to enter commands and variables through an onscreen menu.

The software allows children to quickly build graphically immaculate 3D games, encouraging them to experiment with different gaming scenarios.

Boku will be released early next year.