Anne Legato, Author at Microsoft Garage

PowerPoint team shows how hackathons and teamwork are the best testing grounds for giving life to ideas

Anne Legato — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 18:24:15 +0000

Hacking culture comes naturally to Alex Gueniot. As the senior software engineer for PowerPoint driving technical implementation of new features, he just can’t give up on good ideas. “I compulsively need to create and to collaborate with people. That’s why I’ve been involved in almost 20 hackathon projects in the past seven years. One year, I was on six hackathon....

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This Microsoft Garage intern shares how she refused to let fear define her

Anne Legato — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 22:55:39 +0000

In high school, Kristen Laird experienced terrible burns as a result of a lab experiment explosion. She struggled for years with fear of flames, and decided to turn it around by looking her fear straight in the face and becoming an EMT (emergency medical technician) and a volunteer fire fighter. Through this experience, she has learned to experiment, explore, and....

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Sports Performance Platform crunches data to optimize training for the Seattle Seahawks

Anne Legato — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 21:06:07 +0000

DeShawn Shead, a 28-old Seattle Seahawks cornerback, hasn’t been able to play for a year due to a torn ACL and meniscus injury suffered during Seattle’s 36-20 divisional round playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons in January, but he’s just about ready to head back onto the field. In fact, he’s returned to practice. Technology and science – sports science....

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2017 Hackathon team connects with non-profit Yuwa to create mobile app

Anne Legato — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 20:52:11 +0000

Devika Mittal, a corporate strategy manager at Microsoft who grew up in New Delhi and now lives in Washington, DC, knew that child trafficking and violence against women in rural areas in India was a growing human-rights crisis. But for a long time, the fate of at-risk Indian girls far away from her, while distressing, was something she felt helpless....

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Mixed Reality gives Neuroanatomy lessons a boost

Anne Legato — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 18:00:53 +0000

With its unique hemispheres and intricate connections, the brain is one of the most exceptional, yet complex organs in the human body. The intricate structure has posed a unique challenge for generations of students looking to understand and ultimately master how its many parts fit, and work, together. But this fall — thanks to Microsoft HoloLens and mixed reality technology—....

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Artificial intelligence eclipses cloud and mobile projects to win the day at Microsoft 2017 Hackathon

Anne Legato — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:15:50 +0000

What started in 2014 as an experiment to engage employees has turned into a strategic tradition to help Microsoft establish itself at the leading edge of innovation. And this year, the hottest player at the Microsoft Hackathon was artificial intelligence. Organizers say the four-day event, which has become the world’s biggest private hackathon with more than 18,000 employee participants, provides....

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Transform Data by Example, a Microsoft Garage project for Excel

Anne Legato — Tue, 16 May 2017 19:25:59 +0000

Many Excel users can relate to the problem of data wrangling. You start with an input data set that you wish to transform into a new format so that you can perform further analysis using the transformed data. Not surprisingly, these problems arise for common types of data such as date and time, addresses, phone numbers, URLs. For example, consider....

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A commitment to worldwide innovation

Anne Legato — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 21:56:41 +0000

What began in 2009 as an underground offshoot of Office Labs has mushroomed into a global program inspiring Microsoft employees, interns, and the industry to reconsider how cultural reinvention and innovation can indeed happen.

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The Microsoft Garage celebrates 2 years as a powerful resource for trying new ideas

Anne Legato — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 04:24:30 +0000

Step 1: Turn your passion into a project A mantra resonates throughout The Garage: Doers, not talkers. In the last two years, The Garage has evolved from a 24-hour idea factory to a program dedicated to encouraging all employees to take their ideas and bring them to life. The Garage provides resources such as expert advisors, maker spaces, hackathon tools,....

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Through fast-track projects, Microsoft Garage interns make an impact on both the public and their mentors

Anne Legato — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 02:58:39 +0000

When students with the Microsoft Garage began their internship in Cambridge, Massachusetts in June, they found a new workspace, a pair of managers and an intern who quickly became a guiding force to these newest members of the team – even though she had only started four months earlier. Maddy Leger, 20, had already completed a 12-week winter internship as....

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