Microsoft Research New England will focus initially on the combination of core computer science -- especially as it relates to new algorithms -- and the social sciences, including economics, psychology and sociology. An additional team of researchers also will focus on design. The combination will bring together form and functionality in the context of how people use -- or want to use -- technology, with a goal to envision and begin developing the technology experiences of the future.
"Technology is part of the fabric of society today," Chayes said. "By merging the disciplines of computer science and social science, the research we're doing at the New England lab begins a new era in computer science and is really a reflection of how technology is evolving along with human beings. We have a great team in place, and our location in the New England technology and academic 'green belt' should provide an amazing source of talent, partnerships and ideas."
Chayes has established an initial core team of 33 distinguished researchers, post-doctoral students, interns and visiting researchers to begin serious research in earnest. Six of the principal researchers who have joined the lab have long ties to Microsoft and the broader research community. Others have joined the lab from around the world, making the team both multidisciplinary and multinational in nature.
The new lab also is expected to benefit other research and academic institutions in the New England area, providing opportunities for collaboration and connections with top Microsoft researchers. The lab already is working on two joint seminars with MIT -- one with the MIT Laboratory of Information and Decision Science and another with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Microsoft Research New England also is interacting with Harvard University's Initiative in Innovative Computing and Berkman Center for Internet and Society, as well as the Janelia Farm Research Campus, a new stand-alone interdisciplinary biology institute founded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Other collaborative projects underway in the lab include the following:
- The lab already has hosted several prominent economists from MIT and Harvard for its work on aspects of the economics of ad auctions.
- Another cross-disciplinary team is working on the game theory of matching algorithms, which are widely used to match residents with medical schools, kidney donors with recipients and other complex associations.
- A prominent physicist from Torino, Italy, has been working with several lab members on a promising new class of network algorithms that could solve a wide variety of problems, from matching ads with advertisers to reconstruction of gene regulatory networks.
- Another visiting researcher from Boston University has been working with the lab on models of stability for Web search engine crawling, dealing with how to most efficiently process massive amounts of data.
