Looking out the windows of Microsoft Korea’s headquarters, I enjoy a magnificent sight: Gyeongbok Palace, Seoul’s most recognizable landmark, which spreads below me in its centuries-old splendor. Another inspiring sight adorns the office walls around me: posters describing research projects from Korea and Japan, each project a result of the researchers’ collaboration with Microsoft Research. These posters are tangible reminders that we are celebrating the first Microsoft Research Korea • Japan Academic Day.
View from Microsoft Korea’s headquarters, showing the Gyeongbok Palace and capturing a sliver of a banner announcing the first-ever Microsoft Research Korea • Japan Academic Day.
For the past decade, Microsoft Research has funded select research proposals from universities throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Each year, we’ve celebrated our collaborative efforts by hosting separate Korean and Japanese Days, events that shared the fruits of our joint research and solidified connections with and among Asian academics. These events strengthened our relationships in both countries, and this year, wanting to embrace a more open and international atmosphere in research and academia, we’ve combined the two. Thus on May 7, 2015, 120 academic researchers and distinguished guests—93 from Korea and 27 from Japan—joined with 22 computer scientists from Microsoft Research to share, learn, and get inspired by recent findings in advanced research.
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Nearly 150 research scientists attended the Korea • Japan Academic Day.
The event kicked off with a warm welcome from Microsoft Korea General Manager James Kim, after which Hsiao-Wuen Hon, chairman of Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development (ARD) Group and managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, shared Microsoft’s views on innovation and the company’s ultimate goal of empowering everyone to do more and achieve more. Next, P. Anandan, managing director of Microsoft Research Outreach, discussed how his group works with the academic community to foster research collaboration, talent development, academic exchange, and curriculum innovation, drawing examples from the notable research that is conducted in Korea and Japan. The welcoming ceremony concluded with Tim Pan, director of Microsoft Research Outreach Asia, introducing the Call for Proposal program, an initiative that empowers academics to collaborate with researchers beyond Microsoft Research, and expressing his optimism about such collaboration opportunities around the globe.
Following the opening, six computer scientists from Microsoft Research—Qiang Huo, Steve Lin, Masaaki Fukumoto, Tao Mei, Chin-Yew Lin, and Ming Zhou—described their recent work in optical character recognition and image recognition. They presented captivating demos of research prototypes and displayed some of the most popular recent Microsoft Research products, giving attendees a sense of the creativity that takes place at in the Microsoft labs.
At noon, while enjoying a light lunch, we had an interesting two-hour poster and demo session that featured 25 projects from Korea and 10 from Japan, each project presented by its justifiably proud owners. The session featured a competitive element, as the Korean projects vied for three prizes and the Japanese projects competed for four.
Lunchtime was all the more enjoyable thanks to the poster and demo presentations.
In the afternoon, the guests broke into eight topical groups: Search Mining; Graphics, Vision, and Interactions; Speech; Security; Wireless and Networks; Human-Computer Interaction; Systems; and Social Impact. Personnel from Microsoft Research hosted each group, while professors from Korea and Japan delivered talks related to their work. Thanks to the joint nature of the event, the sessions had a global perspective and provided guests with a bounty of research and provocative academic debate.
Thought-provoking breakout groups let researchers explore topics in depth.
After a full day of academic rigor, guests relaxed at a banquet, which culminated in the awards for the poster and demo session. The three Korean prizes went to:
- Seong-Whan Lee of Korea University, for Development of Brain Signal Processing Algorithms based on Deep Learning for Decoding User Intentions to Control a Lower Limb Exoskeleton
- Jin Bae Park of Yonsei University, for Interactive Flight Experience Simulator Using Head-Mounted Display, Multicopter, and Kinect
- Uichin Lee of KAIST, for Swim Train
The four Japanese prizes were awarded to:
- Yoshihiro Kawahara of the University of Tokyo, for Using Inkjet Printers for the Fabrication of Electrical Circuit Boards for Rapid Prototyping
- Graham Neubig of Nara Institute of Science and Technology, for Semantic Parsing for Ambiguous Input through Paraphrasing and Verification
- Hideyuki Sawada of Kagawa University, for A Study of Displaying Tactile/Haptic Sensations Using the Micro-Vibrations Generated by SMA wires
- Toshihiko Yamasaki of the University of Tokyo, for A Navigation System for Media Generation by Consumers
Leading a toast to the guests and a successful event, from the left: Microsoft Korea General Manager James Kim, Microsoft ARD Group Chairman & Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia Hsiao-Wuen Hon, and Managing Director of Microsoft Research Outreach
P. Anandan
Throughout dinner, guests shared casual and meaningful chats, strengthening the relationships that foster cooperative innovation and discovery. Seated among seasoned professors who boast long-term collaborations with Microsoft Research were many young researchers—some of them former interns who now work full-time for Microsoft, others rising stars in academia who can look forward to upcoming internships with Microsoft Research. Whatever their age and wherever their careers take them, we look forward to their continued collaboration with us, as we continue to drive the research and talent ecosystem that connects Asian academia and Microsoft Research.
—Miran Lee, Principal Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research
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