MICROSOFT TECHVISTA 2015

Microsoft Research India organized Microsoft TechVista 2015 which is a signature event of Microsoft Research for research community, government, and students to interact and exchange ideas on research and its future directions. TechVista is Microsoft Research India's annual research symposium. The event held at Hotel Vivanta at Bengaluru on January 23rd, 2015. This year research symposium basically focused on following key themes:

1. Computational Limits to Human Thinking

2. The Excitement of a Career in Research

3. Computational Thinking

4. Importance of Basic Computing Research

The symposium featured a number of globally recognized leaders in research, these includes Dr. Raj Reddy from Carnegie Mellon University, Prof. Ed Lazowska, from University of Washington, Dr. Jeannette Wing, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research.

Microsoft TechVista kick started with a welcome and motivational speech by Microsoft Research India, Managing Director Chandu Thekkath. His welcome speech was followed by talks from Microsoft Research Executives and Industry Luminaries.

Prof. Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington gave a talk on “Tsunami or Sea Change? Responding to the Explosion of Student Interest in Computer Science”. He discussed why student demand for computer science is booming. Demand for introductory courses; demand for the major; demand for upper-division and graduate courses by non-majors and Industry demand is also booming at a very fast pace.

Dr. Jeannette Wing, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research put her views on “Computational Thinking”. According to her, reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability. After her, Dr. Butler Lampson, Turing Award winner, and Technical Fellow at Microsoft discussed the importance of “Computer System Design”.

In post lunch session, the importance of Massively Empowered Classroom (MEC) Program by Microsoft India was put in the middle by Dr. Jennifer Chayes. She told the various advantages of such online course portal by Microsoft. After that there was a panel discussion on "How to do good research and have a successful career in research” by Dr. P. Anandan, Dr. Chris Bishop, Dr. Rico Malvar, Dr. Victor Bahl and Dr. Sriram Rajamani.

To conclude the event and to motivate the winners of Massively Empowered Classroom (MEC) program and poster presentation,there was the prize distribution ceremony at the end of the event. For MEC program, Eight students from all over the country got the awards. 1st & 2nd Position bagged by Students of IITs for Phd Poster Session. 3rd position awarded to Deepak Chandel from Computer Science Engineering Dept. of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon.