Microsoft Garage

Solve for One, Extend to Many

Ed Essey — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:00:41 +0000

A single red dot in a usability test changed everything. For one participant, it was enough to stop the task entirely—a reminder that small moments can create big cognitive barriers. That insight sparked Inclusive Design for Cognition, an effort born in the Microsoft Garage Hackathon 2022 to design with, not just for, neurodivergent people. Through fast loops and co‑design sessions,....

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Project Pathfinder exemplifies AI in Action

Ed Essey — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:33:12 +0000

Project Pathfinder accelerates sovereign cloud deployments, cutting onboarding time by 85% while ensuring compliance and security. A true example of moving beyond automation to AI-first workflows that scale. According to Microsoft EVP and COO Carolina Dybeck Happe, “This project was singled out for two things that should be priorities for any AI implementation: first, it was rooted in an actual....

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Turning Customer Feedback into Actionable Insights

Ed Essey — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:00:24 +0000

Please join us in celebrating CX Observe Product Feedback Copilot’s induction onto the Garage Wall of Fame. CX Observe Product Feedback Copilot is an AI-driven solution designed to convert large volumes of customer feedback into actionable insights, enabling Microsoft’s product leaders to prioritize roadmaps and maximize customer value. Developed by Amir Banai and Yoav Dobrin during the Microsoft Global Hackathon....

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Getting the right part to the right place at the right time

Ed Essey — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 13:00:04 +0000

Please join us in celebrating PRISM’s induction onto the Garage Wall of Fame. Faced with the challenge of ensuring the right spare part is available at the right time for Azure’s global datacenter fleet, a Microsoft Hackathon team built a predictive, AI-powered solution to transform the spares supply chain. Born at Hackathon 2024, PRISM uses advanced machine learning and live....

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A Mission to Bring the Clean Energy Future

Ed Essey — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 16:00:17 +0000

Please join us in celebrating Generative AI for Permitting’s induction onto the Garage Wall of Fame. Faced with the challenge of slow and costly permitting for clean energy, a Microsoft Hackathon team built an AI-powered solution to break the bottleneck. Born at Hackathon 2024, this breakthrough uses generative AI to automate document creation, support permitting engineers, and help regulators review....

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Reconstructing Hope with AI

Ed Essey — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:30:49 +0000

Please join us in celebrating AI-powered Reconstruction of Destroyed Buildings’ induction onto the Garage Wall of Fame. In the wake of destruction, a hacking team in the Microsoft Garage developed a groundbreaking solution to help rebuild what was lost. The idea came during Microsoft’s Global Hackathon 2023, driven by the urgent need for better reconstruction solutions. The team made remarkable....

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Robotics for Wildfire Protection and Mitigation

Ed Essey — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:00:42 +0000

Amid this chaos of relentless wildfires in the United States during the summer of 2022, a hacking team in the Microsoft Garage developed a groundbreaking solution: Robotics for Wildfire Protection and Mitigation. The idea originated during Microsoft’s Global Hackathon 2022, inspired by the urgent need for advanced wildfire protection. Through relentless iterations, the team achieved remarkable technical breakthroughs, integrating robots....

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Dream Big, Change the World

Garage Team — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:05:29 +0000

At Microsoft, innovation isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a way of life. Through The Microsoft Garage, employees are given the tools, resources, and freedom to dream big and turn those dreams into reality – and with big impact. It’s a space that empowers employees to apply insights from their day-to-day work, unlock their creativity, and collaborate across Microsoft on....

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Saving the Planet One Hard Drive at a Time

Garage Team — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 19:43:58 +0000

At the 2022 Microsoft Global Hackathon, Principal Data Scientist Ranganathan Srikanth led the Secure and Sustainable Disposal of Hard Disks project, addressing the environmental and data security challenges posed by data centers. The team developed a robot to disassemble hard drives, enabling the recycling of valuable materials while ensuring data security by destroying sensitive data. This innovation builds on Microsoft’s....

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Welcome to the Digital Preservation of Languages: Microsoft Language Bank

Garage Team — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 12:34:16 +0000

The Microsoft Language Bank, an initiative born from the 2022 Microsoft Hackathon, addresses the urgent need to preserve the world’s languages, 40% of which are endangered. Spearheaded by a team of ten in Beijing, the Language Bank employs AI to develop text-to-speech (TTS) technology for underrepresented languages like Inuktitut, Kurmanji, Hakka, and Minnan Chinese. By collecting voice data and innovating....

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