In “Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins,” Senior Principal Researcher Mary L. Gray (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/mlg/) explores how technology and community intertwine and the role technology can play in supporting community-driven innovation and community-based organizations. Dr. Gray and her team are working to bring computer science, engineering, social science, and communities together to boost societal resilience in ongoing work with Project Resolve (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-resolve/). She’ll talk with organizers, academics, technology leaders, and activists to understand how to develop tools and frameworks of support alongside members of these communities.In this episode of the series, Dr. Gray and Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock (https://www.schock.cc/), scholar, designer, and activist, explore design justice, a framework for analyzing design’s power to perpetuate—or take down—structural inequality and a community of practice dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable world through inclusive, thoughtful, and respectful design processes. They also discuss how critical thinkers and makers from social movements have influenced technology design and science and technology studies (STS), how challenging the assumptions that drive who tech is built for will create better experiences for most of the planet, and how a deck of tarot-inspired cards is encouraging radically wonderful sociotechnical futures.https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
In “Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins,” Senior Principal Researcher Mary Gray (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/mlg/) explores how technology and community intertwine and the role technology can play in supporting community-driven innovation and community-based organizations. Dr. Gray and her team are working to bring computer science, engineering, social science, and community together to boost societal resilience in ongoing work with Project Resolve (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-resolve/). She’ll talk with organizers, academics, technology leaders, and activists to understand how to develop tools and frameworks of support alongside members of these communities. In this episode of the series, Dr. Gray talks with Dr. Tawanna Dillahunt (http://www.tawannadillahunt.com/), Associate Professor at University of Michigan’s School of Information, Zachary Rowe, Executive Director of Friends of Parkside (https://friendsofparkside.org/), and Joanna Velazquez, Campaign Manager at Detroit Action (https://detroitaction.org/). The guests share personal experiences where community and research collaborations have been most impactful in solving problems, talk about ways that participatory research can foster equal partnerships and fuel innovation, and offer perspectives on how researchers can best work with communities to work through problems at a local level. They also discuss the role that technology plays—and doesn’t play—in their work.https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
In “Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins,” Senior Principal Researcher Mary Gray (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/mlg/) explores how technology and community intertwine and the role technology can play in supporting community-driven innovation and community-based organizations. Dr. Gray and her team are working to bring computer science, engineering, social science, and community together to boost societal resilience in ongoing work with Project Resolve (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-resolve/). She’ll talk with organizers, academics, technology leaders, and activists to understand how to develop tools and frameworks of support alongside members of these communities. In this episode of the series, Dr. Gray talks with Dr. Desmond Patton (https://socialwork.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty/full-time/desmond-upton-patton/), whose work at the intersection of social work, social media, and technology seeks to understand the root of aggression, grief, and trauma in ways that can help inform interventions for social workers and broader communities. Together, they explore Patton’s learnings about the challenges of using AI in a field that’s full of nuance and how informed technology can make positive social impacts in partnership with local communities. Dr. Patton also shares how his work on gang violence has grown his understanding of how social media can influence and transform the narratives about people.https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions. Teams from across the Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under The New Future of Work initiative. The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode of The New Future of Work series, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) and Senior Principal Researcher Siddharth Suri (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/suri/) explore the many ways people were impacted by work shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic. They talk about how race, gender, income, and other factors are indicative of how people have fared and what this means for the future of work. The researchers discuss the importance of examining potential hidden consequences—and patience—when using short-term data to make long-term decisions, emphasizing aspects of burnout and innovation.Topics covered in this wide-ranging conversation includebenefits of commutes and a silver lining in the shift to remoteand hybrid work—the movement of more innovative jobs out of large metro areas, creating momentum for greater opportunityindiverselocations. The research that Siddharth Suri describes in this podcast was jointly done with Hana Wolf of LinkedIn. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions. Teams from across the Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together underThe New Future of Work initiative. The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode ofThe New Future of Work series, Chief ScientistJaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) and Principal User Research Manager Ginger Hudson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginger-hudson-1a6b52) share how people evolved their home office setups throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and they explore how information workers used various devices and peripherals to put their best self forward as the shift to remote work quickly unfolded. They also talk about what an “anatomy of hybrid work” might look like and some considerations for making a hybrid model of work sustainable in the long term, including the expansion of workspaces to outdoor environments. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions.Teams fromacrossthe Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under The New Future of Work initiative.The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode ofthe podcast, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) andSenior User Research ManagerMatt Brodsky (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbrodsky-ph-d/) examine how the level ofIT support availableduring the shift, including the ability to provide hardware and software, made the difference between laying off staff and weath...
Unlocking the challenge of molecular simulation has the potential to yield significant breakthroughs in how we tackle such societal issues as climate change, drug discovery, and the treatment of disease, and Microsoft is ramping up its efforts in the space. In this episode,Chris Bishop (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/cmbishop/), Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, welcomes renowned machine learning researcherMax Welling (https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/m.welling/) to the Microsoft Research team as head of the new Amsterdam lab. Connecting over their shared physics background and vision for molecular simulation, Bishop and Welling explore several fascinating topics, including a future in which machine learning and quantum computing will be used in tandem to model molecules, the power of machine learning to provide “on demand” data in this space, and goals for the first year and beyond at the Amsterdam lab. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions. Teams from across the Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under The New Future of Work initiative. The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode of The New Future of Work series, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) and Principal Productivity Engineer Brian Houck (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-houck-b4123132/) discuss what the massive shift to remote work meant for developers—both employees of Microsoft and customers using Microsoft developer platforms to support their work. They’ll talk about how taking a holistic approach to developer productivity can benefit both efficiency and happiness, with an emphasis on the important role social connections and processes play in a field often thought of as an isolated endeavor. They also explore pros and cons of everyday developer tasks, like code review and whiteboarding, being done in a hybrid work setting. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions.Teams fromacrossthe Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together underThe New Future of Work initiative.The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode ofThe New Future of Work series of the podcast, Chief ScientistJaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) and Senior Research EconomistSonia Jaffe (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/sojaffe/) delve into the “Personal Productivity and Well-Being” chapter of the report, beginning with why measuring productivity isn’t as easy as just observing output or counting hours worked. They also explore how people already working from home helped them better understand how people adjusted to remote work, the diversity in experiences among workers, and how we can be better coworkers to our remote colleagues whether we’re working from home or not. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)
For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions. Teams from across the Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under The New Future of Work initiative. The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work. In this episode of The New Future of Work series of the podcast, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/teevan/) and Abigail Sellen (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/asellen/), Deputy Lab Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the United Kingdom, explore the dynamics of meetings and collaborations in the context of remote work. They specifically address the difference between weak and strong ties in our professional networks and why both matter to employee and company success. They also break down the phenomenon of video fatigue and share ways in which remote meetings may actually have the advantage. https://www.microsoft.com/research (https://www.microsoft.com/research)