Microsoft Research Lab opens in Bangalore

B'lore gets MS research lab
While Hyderabad bagged the development center, Bangalore notched Microsoft's research lab - first in India and sixth worldwide.
CIOL News

BANGALORE: Microsoft Research's first-ever lab in India, and sixth worldwide, will effectively cement Bangalore's number one spot in basic and applied technology research. The new Microsoft Research lab facility coming up in Bangalore adds a fresh chapter in Microsoft's quest for top research talent in a country known for producing high-quality computer whizzes.

Bangalore's Microsoft Research facility will be the third outside the United States in 13 years, and the first since the opening of the company's Silicon Valley research lab in August 2001. Microsoft is currently narrowing down on two or three locations in Bangalore for the proposed facility.

At the opening of Microsoft Research (MSR) India's innings on January 12, Microsoft Research Senior Vice-president and Chief, Rick Rashid, expected the lab to consist of about two dozen scientists in the first year, working in areas ranging from geographical systems to multilingual software technology.

Microsoft India's product development and support operations currently employ about 1,400 people, in addition to contract workers. Rashid, a former computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, has for long maintained that the Microsoft India research lab in Bangalore will be dedicated solely to basic and applied research, not product development. But the large number of talent which Microsoft has been able to retain in India over the years points to the fact that India's most prestigious Microsoft venture yet will have a strong say in crafting key product IPs out of Bangalore.

India's strong IT industry and growing demand for products at the bleeding edge of technology and the market are two factors which have attracted both product development and fundamental research - dynamics which the dapper Rashid finds compelling. Not the costs of setting up the lab though, which he declines to, identify.

P Anandan, from Microsoft Research's Redmond lab, is known for his pioneering research in computer vision, optical data flow, and video motion analysis. He takes over as MD of the new Microsoft India Research Lab. The India-based research group will have a sizeable spin on technologies for emerging markets, a section to be headed by Kentaro Toyama, another veteran Redmond hand.

Although Microsoft Research doesn't engage in product development, technologies which researchers create do make their way into the products the company markets. For instance, in 1995, when Microsoft decided to integrate Windows '95 with its Office products, new algoriths for 32-bit code from MSR helped accelerate the process. MSR's work with developer and academic communities on mobile OS applications has brought digital interactivity into a wide range of handheld devices.

"Now, MSR's goal is to have a world class research wing out of India. It is an important investment and should yield results in the coming years. We want to start with a few good people, strong senior researchers, so we are not into counting the big piles of money yet," quips Rashid, as he shies away from quantifying investments in human capital as opposed to assets.

While Microsoft India is currently building a new campus on its Hyderabad properties, Redmond decided to place the Microsoft Research labs in Bangalore because of its key research strengths, says Anandan. "We have quicker access to institutions like the IISc, who can produce world-class research talent." In fact, Microsoft has already announced plans for the research unit to recruit students coming out of universities and colleges on its rolls, as well as on internships, another reason why Microsoft decided to lease space in Bangalore, with its key academic institutions and scientific research competencies.

"The lab will focus hugely on multilingual software where India with its numerous languages and diversity holds great scope. Our investments in Microsoft Research have always been on top-grade people. On the research side, we can't simply fill up chairs like on the development and services side. We will look for researchers with demonstrated abilities to work on fundamental research, who have the drive to bring about change in their respective fields. For the same reason, it's difficult to comment on hiring mixes at this point of time," said Rashid.

Along those lines, some of the initial areas of focus in the new Microsoft India lab -- such as multilingual systems, GIS and technologies for emerging markets -- mesh well with key issues in the country. While the academic and research interests of employee's matters initially in Microsoft Research labs worldwide, issues of the country they operate in will eventually take over. As the Bangalore arm of Microsoft Research grows "technology as artefact" in Rashid's words, things should be no different.