Computing in the 21st Century 2019

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing and will continue to change the world in almost every aspect of our lives. We have seen important technological breakthroughs in AI in recent years, such as human parity in image recognition, speech recognition, machine translation, and reading comprehension, just to name a few. Parallel to these state-of-the-art research advancements, there has also been an increasing number of successful attempts on AI landing in various industries, from finance to logistics; from retail to manufacturing; from healthcare to education; and so on. While we should feel lucky and proud to be the first generation of humans to live together with AI, we should also feel a sense of responsibility to tailor AI into something that is good for all – for people, for society, for the planet, and for the future. It would make sense for us to reflect on the evolution of AI and contemplate its roadmap and impact. Within this context, Microsoft Research Asia’s biggest annual event, Computing in the 21st Century Conference, will be held in Shanghai, China on August 30, 2019, in conjunction with the World AI Conference (WAIC), featuring the theme: “AI for All.”

The conference is one of the largest and most influential conferences in the field of computer science education and research in China and the Asia Pacific region. To date, 20 sessions have been held in China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, among other countries and territories, with a combined audience of more than 40,000 people. About 200 distinguished speakers have presented at the conference, including more than 35 (person-time) Turing Award winners.

The conference this year features global computer science pioneers and AI leaders as keynote speakers including Dr. Harry Shum (Executive Vice President of Microsoft, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, Member of National Academy of Engineering (USA), International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering); Professor Raj Reddy (Turing Award Winner, IEEE Fellow, ASA Fellow, AAAI Fellow, Member of National Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering); Professor Jeannette Wing (ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences); Professor Demetri Terzopoulos (ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, Fellow of Royal Society of London, Fellow of Royal Society of Canada); Professor Yuanyuan Zhou (ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow) and Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon (Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, Chairman of Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific R&D Group, Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia, IEEE Fellow).

We warmly invite you to join us at this event to receive inspirations from thought leaders and to discuss the next technological wave of AI that will ultimately improve our lives and society.

Conference Chairman

Tie-Yan Liu

Assistant Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia