NEW YORK — Microsoft is moving to the Big Apple in a big way. The company on Wednesday announced that it would be opening a new research laboratory located in Manhattan staffed by 15 full time scientists, many of them former Yahoo researchers.
The lab, called Microsoft Research New York City, will be the 13th around the globe of its kind for the company and will focus on specifically on “experimental social science, algorithmic economics, and machine learning, along with information retrieval,” Microsoft wrote in a news release.
The research team will be led by Jennifer Chayes, founder and current managing director of Microsoft Research New England.
“I was born in Manhattan, and I’ve always felt a special bond with the vibrant energy, creativity, and innovative spirit of New York City,” Chayes wrote in a blog post, later adding, “This new lab will provide an opportunity for Microsoft Research researchers and developers worldwide to share and interact with the NYC academic and tech communities.”
It appears that Microsoft’s research department was impressed by the recent moves of New York-based universities to set up tech campuses and programs, part of a broader push by the city government to foster top programming and entrepreneurial talent, enough to perhaps eclipse Silicon Valley as America’s tech capital.
Chayes said that Microsoft had already been in contact with “Columbia, NYU, the new Cornell-Technion NYC campus, Princeton, and Rutgers, to discuss ways to collaborate more closely and to support each other.”
Now a Microsoft spokesperson has revealed more about the effort to TPM.
For instance right now the researchers are based out of Microsoft’s corporate office in midtown Manhattan until a more suitable permanent space can be found.
As for what specifically the research team will be working on and whether that could include consumer products such as Microsoft’s XBox, Kinect, Windows Phone or other devices, Microsoft was tight-lipped.
“The MSR-NYC researchers are just getting started, and we didn’t hire them to work on specific projects,” Microsoft’s spokesperson said. “As they settle in, meet their new colleagues and product group partners, Jennifer [Chayes] and [assistant managing director] David Pennock will work with the collective team to determine interests and projects proposals.”
Pennock himself was a former Yahoo researcher and previously chaired the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Electronic Commerce. Microsoft’s new research lab is also open to hiring in the NYC area or beyond, though Microsoft’s spokesperson didn’t reveal any official job openings.
“The overall philosophy at Microsoft Research isn’t quantity but quality,” Microsoft’s spokesperson told TPM. “There aren’t a current set number of employees we are looking to add to NYC lab, but we are always seeking the best and brightest in research and will take advantage of strategic opportunities to hire complementary talent as opportunities arise.”
Further, the researchers will have what Microsoft says is a great deal of autonomy when it comes to their specific areas of study. The entire philosophy of the lab can be summarized as follows, according to Microsoft:
“We are not bound by product cycles, timelines, and deadlines. By removing these restrictive processes, providing the freedom and resources to excel, and creating a serendipitous environment that encourages risk-taking, we engender a culture of creativity and innovation across the entire facility. Our new researchers arrive with a strong track record in social media, computational economics and machine learning, but it’s very possible that over time they may pursue other areas.”
In some ways, it sounds as though Microsoft is taking pointers from IBM’s successful transition from consumer and business computing hardware to IT, software, artificial intelligence and other ambitious research projects.
Of course, Microsoft’s position is quite different than IBM’s ever was, with the company still pushing hard to court ordinary consumers with Windows 8, Windows Phone, and a new e-books venture.
Then again, Microsoft’s NYC researchers just began work on May 2. Stay tuned.