{"id":924321,"date":"2023-03-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=924321"},"modified":"2023-03-03T08:44:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:44:17","slug":"research-focus-week-of-march-6-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/research-focus-week-of-march-6-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Focus: Week of March 6, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"193\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264-1024x193.png\" alt=\"Microsoft Research Focus 11 edition, week of March 06, 2023\" class=\"wp-image-924339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264-1024x193.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264-300x57.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264-768x145.png 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264-240x45.png 240w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_banner_1400x264.png 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><em class=\"\">Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code\/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n<aside id=accordion-dde986d1-1fc1-4f59-b2a1-580a3bc4ad71 class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block accordion mb-5 pb-0\" data-bi-aN=\"table-of-contents\">\n\t<button class=\"btn btn-collapse bg-gray-100 mb-0 display-flex justify-content-between\" type=\"button\" data-mount=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion-collapse-dde986d1-1fc1-4f59-b2a1-580a3bc4ad71\" aria-expanded=\"true\" aria-controls=\"accordion-collapse-dde986d1-1fc1-4f59-b2a1-580a3bc4ad71\">\n\t\t<span class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__label subtitle\">In this article<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__current mr-4 text-gray-600 font-weight-normal\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t<\/button>\n\t<div id=\"accordion-collapse-dde986d1-1fc1-4f59-b2a1-580a3bc4ad71\" class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__collapse-wrapper collapse show\" data-parent=\"#accordion-dde986d1-1fc1-4f59-b2a1-580a3bc4ad71\">\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-body bg-gray-100 border-top pt-4\">\n\t\t\t<ol class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#hide-and-seek-with-spectres\" class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item-link\">Hide and seek with Spectres<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#microsoft-researchs-philipp-witte-on-improving-carbon-sequestration-with-ai\" class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item-link\">Microsoft Research's Philipp Witte on improving carbon sequestration with AI<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#microsoft-research-data-science-summer-school-apply-now\" class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__list-item-link\">Microsoft Research Data Science Summer School \u2013 Apply now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<span class=\"msr-table-of-contents-block__progress-bar\"><\/span>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<h6 id=\"new-research\" class=\"has-blue-color has-text-color\">NEW RESEARCH<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"hide-and-seek-with-spectres\">Hide and seek with Spectres<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Attack methods like <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/news-events\/alerts\/2018\/01\/04\/meltdown-and-spectre-side-channel-vulnerability-guidance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spectre<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> exploit speculative execution, one of the key performance optimizations of modern CPUs. Microsoft researchers are working on a <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/sca-fuzzer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">novel testing tool<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> that can automatically detect speculative leaks in commercial (back-box) CPUs. However, until now the testing process has been slow, which has hindered in-depth testing campaigns and the discovery of new classes of leakage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a new paper: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/hide-and-seek-with-spectres-efficient-discovery-of-speculative-information-leaks-with-random-testing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hide and Seek with Spectres: Efficient discovery of speculative information leaks with random testing<\/a>, researchers from Microsoft and academic collaborators identify the root causes of the performance limitations in existing approaches\u2014and propose techniques to overcome them. These techniques improve the testing speed over the state of the art by up to two orders of magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These improvements enabled the researchers to run a testing campaign of unprecedented depth on Intel and AMD CPUs. In the process, they discovered two types of previously unknown speculative leaks (affecting string comparison and division) that have escaped previous manual and automatic analyses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper that describes the novel techniques will appear at <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ieee-security.org\/TC\/SP2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--5d9b521ff50550d4b1cbd70280208d1f\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/hide-and-seek-with-spectres-efficient-discovery-of-speculative-information-leaks-with-random-testing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the paper<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\t<div class=\"border-bottom border-top border-gray-300 mt-5 mb-5 msr-promo text-center text-md-left alignwide\" data-bi-aN=\"promo\" data-bi-id=\"1045008\">\n\t\t\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"row pt-3 pb-4 align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"msr-promo__media col-12 col-md-5\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"bg-gray-300\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/gigapath-whole-slide-foundation-model-for-digital-pathology\/\" aria-label=\"GigaPath: Whole-Slide Foundation Model for Digital Pathology\" data-bi-cN=\"GigaPath: Whole-Slide Foundation Model for Digital Pathology\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-100 display-block\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2024\/05\/GigaPath-TW_FB_LI.png\" alt=\"Digital pathology helps decode tumor microenvironments for precision immunotherapy. GigaPath is a novel vision transformer that can scale to gigapixel whole-slide images by adapting dilated attention for digital pathology. In joint work with Providence and UW, we\u2019re sharing Prov-GigaPath, the first whole-slide pathology foundation model pretrained on large-scale real-world data, for advancing clinical research and discovery.\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"msr-promo__content p-3 px-5 col-12 col-md\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"h4\">GigaPath: Whole-Slide Foundation Model for Digital Pathology<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"large\">Digital pathology helps decode tumor microenvironments for precision immunotherapy. In joint work with Providence and UW, we\u2019re sharing Prov-GigaPath, the first whole-slide pathology foundation model, for advancing clinical research.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-buttons justify-content-center justify-content-md-start\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/gigapath-whole-slide-foundation-model-for-digital-pathology\/\" class=\"btn btn-brand glyph-append glyph-append-chevron-right\" aria-label=\"Read more\" data-bi-cN=\"GigaPath: Whole-Slide Foundation Model for Digital Pathology\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead more\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!--\/.msr-promo__content-->\n\t<\/div><!--\/.msr-promo__inner-wrap-->\n\t<\/div><!--\/.msr-promo-->\n\t\n\n\n<h6 id=\"podcast\" class=\"has-blue-color has-text-color\">PODCAST<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"microsoft-researchs-philipp-witte-on-improving-carbon-sequestration-with-ai\">Microsoft Research&#8217;s Philipp Witte on improving carbon sequestration with AI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could play an important role in minimizing climate change. Carbon sequestration \u2013 the process of locking carbon dioxide in deep underground reservoirs \u2013 is a developing technology that could make a meaningful contribution if it were deployed at scale. Deep learning AI technologies can improve the models required to develop these reservoirs, which could help scale up sequestration projects to a meaningful level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Philipp Witte, a researcher with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/research\/group\/research-for-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Microsoft Research for Industry<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, recently chatted with <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/s\/7ce47e23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Fixing the Future<\/em><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> from IEEE Spectrum about how AI can help improve carbon sequestration. For example, AI can facilitate computationally intensive simulations and manage complex modeling requirements more efficiently than conventional methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tune in to the <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/s\/7ce47e23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">podcast<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> for a lively discussion at the intersection of AI and decarbonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/7ce47e23\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h6 id=\"opportunity\" class=\"has-blue-color has-text-color\">OPPORTUNITY<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"microsoft-research-data-science-summer-school-apply-now\">Microsoft Research Data Science Summer School \u2013 Apply now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft Research New York City\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/data-science-summer-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Data Science Summer School<\/a> (DS3) is an intensive hands-on introduction to data science for local undergraduate students interested in attending graduate school in computer science and related fields. The curriculum includes coursework in data science and group research projects. This year\u2019s program runs from May 30 to June 23, and applications will be accepted through April 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The course is taught by leading scientists at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/lab\/microsoft-research-new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Microsoft Research New York City<\/a> and each participant will receive a laptop and $3,000 stipend. Sessions will cover tools and techniques for acquiring, cleaning, and utilizing real-world data for research purposes. The course also serves as an introduction to problems in applied statistics and machine learning, and will cover the theory behind simple but effective methods for supervised and unsupervised learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Applicants must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate program in the New York City area. We strongly encourage people from diverse, non-traditional, and under-represented backgrounds in STEM to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/data-science-summer-school\/program-details\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">program details<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> and <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/webportalapp.com\/sp\/login\/msr_2023_ds3_application\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">apply<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-2 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--94cca831b51607c4065a1630596ffdd9\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/webportalapp.com\/sp\/login\/msr_2023_ds3_application\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apply now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code\/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. Attack methods like Spectre (opens in new tab) exploit speculative execution, one of the key performance optimizations of modern CPUs. Microsoft researchers are working on a novel testing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42183,"featured_media":924387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"research-area":[13556,13558,13547],"msr-region":[],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[243984],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-924321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-blog","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-security-privacy-cryptography","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-blog-homepage-featured"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"","podcast_episode":"","msr_research_lab":[199571],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[480255],"related-groups":[559983,714067],"related-projects":[923382],"related-events":[],"related-researchers":[],"msr_type":"Post","featured_image_thumbnail":"<img width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-960x540.png\" class=\"img-object-cover\" alt=\"Microsoft Research Focus 11 edition, week of March 06, 2023\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-960x540.png 960w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-1066x600.png 1066w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-655x368.png 655w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-343x193.png 343w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-240x135.png 240w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-640x360.png 640w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788-1280x720.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/03\/RF11_blog_hero_1400x788.png 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/>","byline":"","formattedDate":"March 8, 2023","formattedExcerpt":"Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code\/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. Attack methods like Spectre (opens in new tab) exploit speculative execution, one of the key performance optimizations of&hellip;","locale":{"slug":"en_us","name":"English","native":"","english":"English"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924321"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924594,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924321\/revisions\/924594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event-type?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-promo-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-promo-type?post=924321"},{"taxonomy":"msr-podcast-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-podcast-series?post=924321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}