A Microsoft delegation paid a visit to USTC for academic exchange and cooperation on Nov 3rd. The delegation, led by Dr. P. Anandan, Managing Director of Microsoft Research Outreach, also includes the Director and the Manager for Academic Cooperation, Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), which are Dr. PAN Tianyou, and Dr. WU Guobin, respectively.

In the morning, the delegation first visited the USTC-MSRA MoE Ket Laboratory. Prof. LI Weiping, Dean of the Lab, showed a warm welcome to the delegation and introduced the basic information of USTC as well as some innovative works in recent years. Then, Assoc. Prof. CHEN Xuejin, who is also a joint trained doctor by USTC and MSRA and a Microsoft Scholar, introduced the developing process of the Lab and achievements in terms of talent training and Scientific Research. Another two young teachers that had attended the “MSRA Star Track Program”, Assoc. Prof. SUN Guangzhong and Assoc. Prof. FANG Lu, also introduced their recent works and latest achievements that are gained together with Microsoft people. Dr. Anandan fully appreciated the achievements and gave remarks that Microsoft Research will continue the cooperation and support USTC on the aspects.

Later, the Microsoft delegation visited the Robot Lab in the School of Computer Science and Technology. Prof. CHEN Xiaoping’s research group exhibited the newly developed functions of the Kejia Robot and introduced the development history of the Robot Lab. The two parties exchanged ideas on some key technologies of robot, e.g. computer vision, machine learning and language processing. Dr. Anandan introduced the latest development on Kinect for Windows, and hoped that Microsoft will continue to cooperate in the field of object recognition.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited USTC History Museum and School for the Gifted Young (SGY). Prof. CHEN Yang, Dean of SGY, and Prof. YIN Min, Secretary of CPC Committee of SGY, gave a brief introduction on SGY’s history and expressed appreciation to Microsoft’s long-term focus on university education. Then, the delegation arrived at the Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT), USTC. There they learned the strategic planning of IAT as well as the latest progress of Hefei precursor test network, which is part of the test facility of the Future Network.

Later in the evening, Dr. Anandan addressed a speech entitled “Inviting the Future at Microsoft Research”. He introduced in the talk four different types of research projects and their feature. He also exchanged minds with the audiences on various topics such as “how to choose a research area”, “how to choose an academic institution after graduation”, and “Microsoft’s latest innovation strategy”.