Futures Microsoft’S European Innovation Magazine Issue N°4 I June 2009

Futures Microsoft’s European Innovation Magazine Issue n°4 I June 2009

Computing and the environment: Tools to track threatened species Trust in digital life: Partnering for trustworthy ICT solutions

The ultimate challenge? Modelling the human body

Microsoft and the British Library: Meet the ‘extreme information user’ “ICT is the recovery” Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media

1 Colophon Content

Editor in Chief Thaima Samman, Associate General Counsel, Microsoft

Editorial Board Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft I. INNOVATION POLICIES FOR EUROPE Lisa Boch-Andersen, Senior Director Communications Europe, Microsoft Andre Hagehülsmann, Innovation Manager Europe, Microsoft On the agenda: bridging the industry–university gap 4 Peter Wrobel, Editorial Director, Science|Business ICT – the way out of the economic crisis 6 Laura Bacci, Associate Director, APCO Worldwide Jerick Parrone, Communications Coordinator-Publications, Microsoft A call for global innovation 9 European Research Council: set for growth, says president 10 External Contributors Richard Hudson, Science|Business Nuala Moran, Science|Business II. COMPUTING AND THE ENVIRONMENT Peter Wrobel, Science|Business Mary Lisbeth D’Amico Putting computer science to work on biodiversity 12 Jean-Fabrice Delaye Green ICT: the industry must lead the way 16 Lori Fortig Violette Frescobaldi More intelligence on the streets 16 Christina Giles Small cameras that not only see, they watch! 19 Anna Jenkinson ‘Water Watch’ makes a splash with EU bathers Randolph Walerius 21

Production Quadrant Communications III. SECURITY AND PRIVACY B-9000 Gent Do you have trust in digital life? 22

Layout and Design Data sharing: it’s all a matter of context 24 sittingonacornflake.be The face in the crowd 26 B-9040 Gent

Illustrations IV. COMPUTING FOR HEALTH Johan Raes The virtual physiological human: the search for computing’s supermodel 28 Printing Modelling in four dimensions 31 Roels Printing B-2500 Lier Your tissue samples are in the email 33 The wearable camera that brings back memories 34 Photography Marie-Paule Nègre Petra Jung V. PEOPLE AND PARTNERSHIPS Olivier Anbergen Paul O’Driscoll Going to extremes: the Research Information Centre 36 No constraints 39 Advertising INRIA, gateway to a complex but rich research system Microsoft 41 Searching questions 42 Contact details Optimising online services for thousands of different mobile phones 44 Microsoft Legal and Corporate Affairs - Europe Nerviërslaan / Avenue Des Nerviens 85 A helping had allows Hungarian firm to fund logistics project 46 B-1040 Brussels Windows Embedded collaborates with European business 47 www.microsoft.eu

Circulation number / Frequency 2,500 copies / Bi-Annual publication VI. HELPING PEOPLE GAIN SKILLS FOR A CHANGING ECONOMY 49

Disclaimer The content of this magazine, including news, quotes, data and other VII. READY FOR INNOVATION 50 information, is provided by Microsoft and its third parties for your personal information only. Views imparted by third parties do not necessarily reflect the views of Microsoft Corporation.

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Preface

Today’s global economic crisis does not take away the big challenges our society faces, such as diminishing natural and energy resources. Fortunately, ICT is a key part of innovative solutions to these challenges. As we show in this issue, Microsoft and our partners are aiding biodiversity in the cloud forests of Mexico, cutting down congestion in Zürich and enabling the development of energy-efficient cars, and much Commissioner Reding. And at the same time, as she more besides. “Here are whole industries waiting to be says, everything is directly related to individual citizens: developed,” European Commissioner for Information “When we speak about technology, actually we mean Society and Media Viviane Reding says. people”, improving the quality of their daily life, may ICT will also lead to fundamental transformations it be improved healthcare or the sustainability of our that will improve healthcare. Citizens, governments and natural environment. medical professionals are looking for novel solutions All the advances described in this issue are that provide safer and better care to more patients, in the result of long-term planning and long-term less time, and at less cost. commitment. The lesson for all of us is that even in such At Microsoft, we work with partners on technology challenging times, governments and businesses must solutions for every area of healthcare – from vision continue to invest in ICT and long-term innovation. systems for people with impaired memory to the computer modelling of whole organs. We have always been committed to investing in Jean-Philippe Courtois Europe. Today we employ around 2000 researchers and President, Microsoft International engineers to do R&D all across Europe, a number that is growing with our commitment to Europe. This issue of FUTURES will give a flavour of what those researchers are looking at and the results they are achieving – often working in partnership with industry and academia. From Oslo to Dublin, from Paris to Berlin, Microsoft is helping to transform the way we work and live. Technology empowers people, it empowers talent – this is the real chance technology offers, says On the agenda Bridging the industry-university gap The EU’s education commissioner, Ján Figel’, is pushing for change in European universities – to the economic benefit of all. By Richard L. Hudson

There’s no mystery about it: many of the world’s most effort to push for better collaboration. He is establishing important innovations have come from good collaboration a regular EU Forum for University–Business Dialogue, between industry and university researchers. But in to share best practice, review university governance and Europe, that dialogue is often difficult. Now, as part of explore common European approaches to the problem. its efforts to revive economic growth, the European Compared to the US, the Commissioner said in an in- Commission has made fixing the relationship a top priority. terview, “we are a mosaic of different systems, different In April, Ján Figel’, the EU Commissioner for legislation. We need instruments eliminating obstacles” to Education, Training, Culture and Youth, announced a new better industry–university collaboration.

4 innovation policies for europe

Ambassadors for innovation solving. And yet, somehow, according in tough times, he says. “The most to Commission forecasts, the EU will important message: this relationship Commissioner Figel’ has have to fill 12.5 million new, highly is a win–win situation.” n appointed Microsoft Interna skilled jobs by 2015. tional President Jean-Philippe Courtois as an Ambassador But the Commissioner sees hope for of the European Year of change Avoiding the Creativity and Innovation The biggest issue, he says, is culture. economic pitfalls 2009, charged with helping “Everything starts with mentality.” to make sure that the year is In the past, he says, many European At a conference on university– industry relations that he organised a success. The 25 Ambassa universities have viewed the world of earlier this year, Commissioner Ján dors reflect the full range of business with mistrust. “There has been a fear that collaborating with Figel’ summed up the rationale for creativity: from business and firms results in the loss of values in EU action: science to art, architecture education. But we have started to “We are now facing a very and philosophy. move away from that. Trust is growing. serious crisis of the finance sector, We are seeing an increasing commit- which is heavily impacting our On the agenda economy. The crisis carries two ment on both sides to work together,” major risks for our activities with it. Figel’ said. “First risk: That this squeeze on The extent of the problem is docu- The EU initiative starts with available resources might ‘motivate’ mented in Commission background suggestions to improve education – public authorities to reduce spen papers for the initiative. In 12 out of especially entrepreneurial educa- Bridging the ding for education or research. This 16 economic indicators of innovation, “which is very weak in Europe,” would be a big mistake. Such deci tion, such as patenting and scientific the Commissioner says. It goes on to sions would lead to a major capital publication, the US and Japan lead the examine the governance and fund- and knowledge destruction with very EU – creating what the Commission ing of universities (the US outspends industry-university gap negative effects for Europe’s growth calls an “innovation gap”. In entrepre- the EU by a margin of two-to-one on and employment prospects in the neurship – small business creation, higher education), the barriers to medium to longer term. funding and growth – most EU nations mobility of researchers between aca- Education, innovation and research lag far behind China, the US and other demia and industry, and other issues. play a crucial role for Europe, in major rivals. The Commission plans two or three particular in these difficult times. And, according to business additional meetings of the university– “Second risk: That in these surveys, European universities are industry forum this year, to discuss stormy times everybody will try to falling down on their most basic governance, SME policy, and the role find the best solution by and for him task: training the new workforce. of university-business cooperation in self. This would be the wrong way to The Confederation of British Industry regional development. go! It is especially in difficult times found that 44 per cent of employers However it happens, Figel’ says, crucial that we work together, that are disappointed with new graduates’ the climate for industry–university we exchange our ideas, discuss and awareness of the business world; 30 collaboration must improve in Europe. debate together problems and pos per cent fault graduates’ skill at team “There is an economic dimension” to sible solutions. Working in partner working, communication and problem the debate, that becomes more urgent ship is more important than ever.”

5 Commissioner Reding delivers her keynote address to Microsoft’s European Growth and Innovation Day Photo Olivier Anbergen ICT - the way out of the economic crisis Viviane Reding, European commissioner for all things hi-tech, is known for telling it like it is. A passionate advocate for new technologies, she has made a name for herself by confronting anything or anyone she thinks hinders European citizens from benefiting from what technologies have to offer. By Peter Wrobel

In a wide-ranging speech at Microsoft’s European Growth industry is currently short of 300,000 experienced and and Innovation Day in Brussels on 5 March 2009, Reding high-level engineers and ICT specialists. “If we don’t get shared her thoughts on some of the burning issues in Eu- those the industry won’t be able to develop in the way it rope at present, from the shortage of trained ICT experts has a chance to,” she said. in Europe, through the role ICT can play in getting the The IT industry is the tool for getting the whole economy going again, to how it can help reduce Europe’s economy out of the economic crisis, and it should be carbon footprint. viewed as the pre-eminent tool for growth and jobs. “We The Commissioner pointed out that Europe’s ICT know that while the economy goes down, the ICT and the

6 innovation policies for europe

“Those companies that utilise technologies in the future are Photo Olivier Anbergen the ones that will grow.”

IT businesses are growing,” Reding cannot afford to have 30 per cent of is trying to tackle, rather than just said. There is an opportunity not just citizens living in the countryside not improving economic productivity. Spe- for the industry but for the economy connected to broadband Internet, she cifically, the Commissioner referred as a whole, she said: those small and said. “If we want to close the gaps to the contribution of ICT to the fight medium-sized companies which util- and cover the white spots in the rural against climate change. “The smart- ise technologies in the future are the areas we certainly need to have a very est investment of all is to build a sus- ones that will grow. serious reform of radio spectrum,” tainable economy which promotes the But for the broader economy she said, because without it Europe transition to a low-carbon future and to benefit from technology we need will not have the wireless develop- that is the task which will be made to take some basic steps, she said. ment it needs. possible by ICT solutions,” she said These include having enough man- The Commissioner explained why – though she warned that due to the and womanpower, but there’s more. she believes high-speed infrastruc- horizontal impact of ICT across in- “We need to have secured that we ture is so important: “Broadband has dustries, “the carbon footprint of the have a real internal market,” she said a direct impact on productivity growth [ICT] sector is also growing”. But she – an internal market in the European […] Data show that those EU member was confident that the industry would Union without barriers where busi- states that are broadband leaders be able to deal with this by itself. nesses, big and small, can operate grow by 0.5 per cent faster than the She pointed out that the ICT right across that market. They need slow adopters.” ICT has been respon- industry stands to gain from efforts this to have enough scale to develop sible for 40 per cent of productivity to cut down on carbon emissions, and their technologies, she said. growth in recent years, and this is called for a focus on making ICT a For that you need basic infra- largely due to fast Internet access. green technology. “Think of the travel structure. “One of the reasons why I After touching on cloud com- substitution [by] video or teleconfer- am pushing so much […] for seam- puting and the crucial role in this of encing,” she said, or RFID-enabled less infrastructures is because that small and medium-sized companies, recycling. “All these may permit is basic to develop the content and Reding moved on to the role ICT can the re-engineering of supply chains the service industry,” said Reding. We play in more specific goals the EU towards a sustainable information >>

7 >> society,” she said. “My dream is that, for example, we “When we talk about technology, will have in the future a connected city which is green, where traffic manage- actually we mean people.” ment systems, environmental controls, waste treatment, urban maintenance lated to citizens. Consider the aged, for ployed, you do not need to go through systems are all connected and opti- example, who with the aid of technolo- a whole career, you just can go there mised for low-energy use […] Most of gy, and specifically e-health, could stay and show your talent. Utilising those you [here] are putting the small stones at home and still remain connected to talents in a positive way […] is the real together so that this dream can be- family, friends and doctors. chance [for] Europe,” said Reding. come a reality,” she said, and quickly, Today, for every retired person “This means that as businesses too, with the help of the policy makers. there are still five in employment. By and policymakers we start to think in a Imagine the energy saving – and the 2025 the ratio will drop to 3:1, and by different way. This means that we put increased quality of life – from hav- 2050 to 2:1. “We won’t solve that prob- the people in the centre of our thinking smart meters for whole cities, for lem for the next generation if we do not ing.” It is people who will advance our example. “Here are whole industries utilise the technology in the right way,” society. “That is what we can achieve waiting to be developed,” Reding said. Reding said. with the help of technology, not for the “When we speak about technology, “This is the real chance technology sake of technology, but for the sake actually we mean people.” Everything, offers. It empowers people, it empow- of the wellbeing of all people living in said the Commissioner, is directly re- ers talent. You do not need to be em- Europe,” she concluded. n

8 innovation policies for europe

As the global financial turmoil continues to cast its shadow, government leaders are gathe ring in Brussels to discuss The Royal Academy of Science, Humanities and Fine Arts,

Brussels, the venue for the Innovation Economy conference. O’Driscoll Photo Paul collaboration. By Richard L. Hudson A call for global innovation In 1944, the world’s leading economic and finance officials longer. Today, innovation is a global issue, not just national gathered at an obscure resort in rural New Hampshire called or regional. A company like Microsoft, the world’s largest Bretton Woods. There, they sketched out a new world eco- private R&D funder, operates a global network of labs and nomic order that led to the founding of the World Bank and research partners. In many scientific disciplines, cross- the International Monetary Fund. Now, a growing number of border collaboration among scientists is now the norm. And policy analysts believe, it’s time for another such meeting – the researchers themselves are mobile, hopping from coun- updated for today’s international knowledge economy. try to country. In such an environment, narrow national views A call for global collaboration in innovation is at the are no longer adequate. heart of an unusual international gathering of policy leaders The Brussels conference, called ‘The Innovation on 2 June in Brussels. The conference is convened with the Economy’, features workshops on global entrepreneurship Science|Business Innovation Board, a blue-ribbon panel of policy, climate research, intellectual property reform and leaders in European academia, industry and policy, in an other areas of international coordination. n effort to propel international action. Participants in the meeting include top officials from the European Union, India, Australia, South Africa and Finland – as well as senior officials of Microsoft, BP, the University of Vienna, ESADE Business School and other organisations. The Science|Business Innovation Board A new world order – that’s what a growing number In 2007 the Science|Business news service, in association of economists and policy makers are calling for as we go with Microsoft, launched a high-level panel of leaders to through the greatest economic crisis since the war. So far, debate and push for change in European innovation policy. the focus has been on conventional economic policy: Panel members include Jean-Philippe Courtois, President monetary supply, banking regulation, markets supervision, of Microsoft International, President Harriet Wallberg- industrial policy, and job preservation. But in some coun- Henriksson of Karolinska Institutet, CEO Roch Doliveux tries, support for innovation is also starting to be incorpo- of Belgian pharma UCB, and Managing Partner Helmut rated into the emergency policy agenda. Schühsler of Munich VC firm TVM Capital. In the past two Money is only part of the solution. Innovation is a com- years, the board’s views on entrepreneurship, cluster plex process affected by a welter of regulations, markets, formation, education and R&D policy have been reported and institutions – and so far, each major country has fol- in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Le Figaro, lowed its own policy inclinations, with little effort at collabo- El Pais and other leading newspapers. ration. That approach may have worked 20 years ago, but no

9 Fotis Kafatos, president of the European Research Council, photographed at Imperial College London, where he is Professor of Immunogenomics.

European Research Council set for growth, says president The ERC head urges basic research for economic growth – and charts a course for expansion. By Richard L. Hudson

After completing its start-up phase, Europe’s leading “It’s precisely at times of financial crisis that we need a agency for fundamental research is now ready to ramp counter-cyclical investment” in research and development, up the pace of its grants – and the economic crisis makes said Fotis C. Kafatos, the president of the European such investments more timely than ever, according to the Research Council and chairman of its Scientific Council. agency’s head. “You must make sure that the complex of our educational

10 innovation policies for europe

and research institutions is not starved course, will depend on its political pay- people based in industry applying in a period of economic crisis. Saving masters at that time in the European for grants. No one has so far, prob- rather than investing now is a danger- Council, Commission and Parliament. ably because it is not widely enough ous short-termist attitude. It is now On 24 February the EC announced the known as yet (that industrial re- that we must invest with conviction formation of a committee of leading searchers can apply). We intend to in the knowledge triangle: education, research, innovation.” The ERC began operations in Attracting non-EU researchers with ERC 2007, as a new initiative to fund basic grants is intended to help strengthen research through peer-reviewed competitions for grants, with excel- Europe’s science base – and reverse the lence as the sole criterion for success. Since then, it has selected about 575 brain drain that Europe has experienced researchers across Europe to get a to- for many decades. tal of €850 million – out of more than 11,000 applicants. Now the annual experts in science policy, from both make it clear that we can give grants spending pace is set to jump, to €775 Europe and overseas, to start review- to innovative people in industry, million this year, €1.1 billion next ing the work of the ERC to date. provided the enterprise allows the European Research year, €1.3 billion in 2011, €1.6 billion Kafatos, interviewed in his office principal investigators to follow their in 2012 and €1.7 billion in 2013. And if at Imperial College London where he nose in research. Basic research in Kafatos has his way, the growth won’t is also a professor, said the next steps industry is a component of industrial stop there. include pitching for more research- research, that falls within the ERC’s Council set for growth, “By 2013 we are at €1.7 billion ers outside the EU to apply for ERC remit; we would be very happy to – and by that year we should have grants. This is encouraged so long as support.” a second steep increase so that we the applicant is proposing to do the A further funding boost, from says president would reach something comparable research at an EU university or other 2014, is needed to consolidate the to the NIH budget during the following European institution. First priority, he attractiveness of ERC grants and seven years,” he said. The US National said, is involving US scientists – but strengthen European research, Institutes of Health is due to spend Japan, China and India are also on the Kafatos argues. “You need Europe to $30.3 billion in the fiscal year begin- agenda. Attracting non-EU research- clearly succeed in this major under- ning 1 October. The US National ers with ERC grants is intended to taking. Any stalling would be misguid- Science Foundation, which like the help strengthen Europe’s science ed. In a moment of crisis you want to ERC funds research across a broad base – and reverse the brain drain put resources as much as possible to number of fields, will spend $7 billion that Europe has experienced for many those who will have a major impact. in the coming fiscal year. decades. Excellence is at the core of the ERC.” Whether the ERC actually gets Industrial researchers are also He added: “If you think excellence a further budget rise from 2014, of welcome, he said. “We are open to is costly, try mediocrity.” n

11 12 computing and the environment

Putting computer science to work on biodiversity As concerns about global warming grow, scientists are turning to sophisticated computational models to better understand and ultimately predict the impact of climate change and human activity on biodiversity.

By Lori Fortig

Policy makers are asking tough questions about they are collecting on species, and to give them a how climate change may effect populations of solid base from which to predict what might hap- species and their habitat. Scientists haven’t pen in the future. been able to provide definitive answers because “It’s very important for science to become ecosystems, and even each plant or animal, better able to predict the behaviour of ecosys- are so complex, and much about them remains tems,” says Rich Williams, a researcher with unknown. Now, scientists are looking more Microsoft Research, heading the Computational frequently to hardware and software tools to help Ecology and Environmental Science group in the them make sense of the huge amounts of data Cambridge (UK) lab. “Environmental policy >>

13 >> making needs to move away from the in biodiversity, and contain many rare Soberon is studying the locations triage behaviour it often has, and bet- or endangered species, some of which where species have been observed in ter scientific understanding of ecosys- occur only in the forests. In Mexico Mexico’s cloud forests and their en- tems is vital to that goal.” about 20 per cent of the plant species vironment, such as temperature and To help push fundamental advan ces in ecosystem science, Microsoft Research and its partners are working “These are big simulations with on common methodologies, computer models and scientific workflow thousands of species and hundreds software that eventually could be used of thousands of data points.” broadly by the scientific community. They hope their work will lead to of the country live in the cloud forests, rainfall, so he can understand what new decision-support tools to better which occupy about 1 per cent of conditions the species need in order inform policymaking by governments that country’s total area. That’s 10 to live. There already are at least 20 and nongovernmental organisations times the number of plant species competing methods for using these worldwide. in Mexico’s tropical rain forests, data to predict the geographic distri- Ecosystems pose large computa- Soberon says. bution of species. His work involves tional challenges. They are huge enti- Cloud forests strip moisture from constructing virtual environments ties composed of plants and animals the clouds and fogs to provide water where all the relevant variables can be that rely on each another in many for millions of people who live in controlled, and testing and comparing ways, such as predators or prey, and villages below them. They are being the existing methods for predicting that vary greatly in lifespan, movement threatened by farming, alien species species distributions. and physical size. “You have to come and probably the biggest factor, cli- Soberon says his database of spe- up with useful abstractions, and not mate change, according to a report cies in Mexico’s cloud forests so far know every detail,” Williams says. by the UK-based United Nations has nearly 6,000 valid names of ver- The first steps are to get baseline Environment Programme World tebrate and plant species and 30,000 data on species and then to stan- Conservation Monitoring Centre. records of observations of them, with dardise those data. Much of the data There are already indications of the aim of having twice that number about the biological world cannot be populations suffering heat-related of observations. Those records can shared and compared easily. They exist declines. Some butterflies are leav- be used with mathematical modelling in scattered scientific papers, library ing the mountains to head north, or algorithms to predict the distribution archives, and in labs where scientists moving higher into the mountains. of each of the species. sometimes won’t share their hard-to- “The butterflies require a certain tem- “We will fit the species into the get field data. perature and precipitation,” Soberon current and very recent past cli- Jorge Soberon knows first-hand says. “If the trend in warmer climate mates, and extrapolate given the the magnitude of the task of compil- continues, they will run out of suitable future of climates that people like the ing reliable data to use for predictions. climate in 50 to 100 years.” IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on A senior scientist at the University He adds, “Since [climate] is Climate Change) provide you with,” of Kansas, Soberon is working with going to change, we need to know Soberon explains. “These are big Williams and others to create a model where the species are going to be simulations with thousands of spe- of the geographical distribution of more endangered, and where the cies and hundreds of thousands of species in Mexico’s cloud forests. This best possibilities are for doing some- data points.” The results of the proj- unique forest occurs worldwide on thing about it. We hope the results ect will be available publicly so other tropical mountains where there is fre- will be used to do policy and deci- scientists can apply the methods to quent cloud cover or fog. They are rich sion-making in Mexico.” their own databases.

14 computing and the environment

ver or blue wattle. In the United States, an estimated 50,000 invasive species of all kinds cause an estimated $137 billion in damage per year. Pachepsky says there are two components to the tool: one works with existing data (the spread of invasive species over several years), and another predicts what will happen in the coming years. Pachepsky expects a basic Web-based version and standalone version of the tool to be released within Microsoft this year and then to the scientific community as a free download. The work done by Pachepsky and Soberon requires collaboration among scientists in different disciplines. “For invasive species, the tool uses math, software development, computation, statistics and ecology. These are five major fields of science and inquiry,” Tracking the invaders consists of a command line and lots says Pachepsky. “Bringing that to- The need for tools that can be broadly of mathematical symbols, which can gether in a way that is coherent is a used prompted work on invasive spe- scare off users. Pachepsky is basing big challenge in science and progress cies models by Elizaveta Pachepsky, her tools on Microsoft’s Windows ope in general.” a specialist scientist at the University rating system and Silverlight graphi- Microsoft Research’s Williams, of California at Santa Barbara. She cal Web presentation. whose group comprises scientists began developing an invasion tool The goal is to enable prediction who are knowledgeable about tech- while doing postdoctoral research at and prevention strategies that could nology, sees such multidisciplinary Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK) help stem invasive species’ disruption collaborations as fertile ground for in collaboration with Ed Baskerville, to ecosystems and economic damage. problem solving. “It’s a two-way a visiting software developer. The By the end of the 20th century more street,” says Williams. “Computa tool aims to be easy for anyone to than 120 marine species were trans- tional tools and techniques open use with existing data to help develop ported to Europe by gardeners, on up new ways of tackling ecological models that predict which species hiker’s shoes, in ballast water of ships, problems. And biological ideas and are invasive and how fast they spread. and by other means, she says. DAISIE, the needs of scientists inspire the The initial focus is on invasive plants, the first comprehensive database of in- development of novel computational but the technology could be used for vasive and alien species in Europe, lists methods. It’s really fantastic.” other species. about 9,000 alien species. Only about He adds that the results can “My idea was to develop a soft- 10 per cent are invasive, meaning they be valuable in other areas as well. ware tool to develop models without cause economic damage or threaten “There’s already some interest in the having to have a math background,” biodiversity. Among DAISIE’s “100 of potential for tech transfer from the she says. Most models now use soft- the worst” invaders is Acacia dealbata, tools that are being developed into ware code that is not published or that a fast-growing tree also called the sil- product groups at Microsoft.” n

15 Green ICT: the industry must lead the way

The European Commission has called on national govern- ICT-enabled systems can reduce energy consumption of ments and companies to apply information and com- buildings in the EU by up to 17 per cent and carbon emission in munications technology (ICT) solutions to improve their transport logistics by up to 27 per cent, the Commission said. energy efficiency. It also wants the ICT sector to “lead It added that ICT can also help make people more aware of the way” by reducing its own carbon footprint by 20 per how they use energy. Smart metering in homes, for example, cent as early as 2015, five years ahead of its target for the can reduce energy consumption by as much as 10 per cent. economy as a whole. The Commission urged ICT companies all over Europe to Launching its Communication on ICT, energy effi- form partnerships with firms in the construction and trans- ciency and a low-carbon economy on 12 March this year, port industries to exploit what it believes will be a massive the Commission said ICT solutions can enable reductions growth industry. in emissions by up to 15 per cent by 2020, which would More information: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/ meet three-quarters of its target. activities/sustainable_growth/energy_efficiency/index_en.htm More intelligence on the streets We are all thinking more carefully about our impact on the environment, and this applies to one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions in particular – the traffic on our streets. Different approaches show how traffic flows can be improved, and all have in common the application of information and communication technologies to the benefit of the environment.

16 computing and the environment

How do you understand a city? that send the information to cars or research,” Horvitz said. “I’m still It began with a jam. Back in 2003, to smartphones and other portable buzzing with the glow that this is Eric Horvitz found himself stuck on devices. However, the new service actually possible.” The Clearflow the freeway while looking for a new will on occasion plan routes that system is freely available as part of restaurant in Seattle. Thinking that he might not be intuitive to a driver. For the maps.live.com site, initially for 72 might avoid the traffic jam, he did what example, in some cases Clearflow will cities in the United States. It will give most people with satnav in their car compute that a trip will be faster if a drivers alternative route information would do: he instructed it to route him driver stays on a crowded highway, that is more accurate and is attuned via side streets. rather than taking a detour, because to current traffic patterns on both The result was a nightmare. side streets are even more backed freeways and side streets. “It was awful,” he said. “Everything up by cars that have fled the original seemed to be backed up.” Nothing traffic jam. Who is out there? unusual there, you might think. But Microsoft researchers began Infotainment is becoming a key Horvitz is an artificial-intelligence trying to do just that by building element of automotive technology. researcher at Microsoft, and the night- software algorithms that modelled This trend is fuelled by the rapidly mare set him thinking. “It hit me that traffic behaviour and by collecting trip progressing consumer electronics we had to do all the side streets,” said data from Microsoft employees who world which offers better information Horvitz, who is the current president of volunteered to carry GPS units in their access, more mobile entertainment the Association for the Advancement cars. In the end they were able to build and new business models. of Artificial Intelligence. “We really a model for predicting traffic based on When Ford asked truck own- needed to understand the whole city.” four years of data and 16,500 discrete ers which new functions they wanted In April 2008, Horvitz’s idea bore fruit trips covering about 100,000 kilome- to organise their daily work more More intelligence as Microsoft introduced a Web based tres. The system effectively created efficiently, the response was a wish service for driving directions that individual “personalities” for over list for added value, going beyond helps drivers avoid traffic jams. The 819,000 road segments in the Seattle infotainment we have seen today. To new technology, called Clearflow, was region. translate this into new in-vehicle fea- on the streets developed over the last five years by After creating the Clearflow tures, Ford Motor Company teamed up a group of artificial-intelligence re- simulation for Seattle, the Microsoft with leading suppliers, spearheaded searchers at the company’s Microsoft researchers were able to transfer by Magneti Marelli and Microsoft, to Research laboratories. It is an am- the model by using the algorithms build a solution upon the extensible bitious attempt to apply machine- they had developed and then applying software platform Microsoft Auto learning techniques to the problem them to other cities. The city models which is at the core of FIAT Blue&Me of traffic congestion. The system is are combined with live traffic data and FORD Sync. The result is Ford intended to reflect the complex traffic generated by networks of highway Work Solutions, a set of applications interactions that occur as traffic backs sensors to create about 60 million that cover computing, navigation, fleet up on freeways and spills over onto road segments, allowing the system tracking and security with the overall city streets. to predict congestion based on time of target of increased work productivity. Traffic updates have recently day, weather and other variables like With the Crew Chief solution, become a standard feature offered sporting events. vehicles transmit data on vehicle loca- by the major Web portals as well as “I consider this to be the Moon tion, speed, idle time, fuel usage, next a number of specialised services mission of our machine-learning required vehicle maintenance and >>

17 >> diagnostic data to the fleet manager in real-time. The fleet manager, who can access the data with any computer on the Internet, can analyse every vehicle of his complete fleet at any time and may re-sequence or re-assign jobs on the basis of his fleet vehicle performance analysis, avoiding unnecessary detours and reducing CO2 emissions.

Tell me how to drive FIAT has taken another approach addressing how to reduce CO2 emission with an innovation called eco:Drive. eco:Drive is an easy-to-use computer application that will help people to drive more efficiently. It analyses individuals’ driving style and thus helps each driver to use less fuel, reducing CO2 emissions and saving money, up The eco:Drive application makes recommendations for a better driving style. to 15 per cent if used effectively. Users just download the application from the FIAT website onto their facts and figures. emissions and the money they have computer. Then they plug in any USB It is completely anonymous, so saved. They are also part of an online stick into the Blue&Me port of their nobody else sees each other’s details. community, called Ecoville, that is FIAT car. Blue&Me is the in-car en- Eco:Drive analyses the user’s driving populated by all the FIAT eco:Drive tertainment system that is built upon technique and it shows how efficiently members around the world. As more Microsoft Auto platform. Information one has driven, based on accelera- drivers join, the community grows and on how a user drives will be saved au- tion, deceleration, gear changes and so the savings we all achieve together. tomatically. Then the stick is plugged speed. Clever step-by-step tutorials Hopefully Ecoville will encour- back into the user’s computer. The then help improve the driving style, age drivers to be more sensitive. information uploads into the eco:Drive with information from the user’s own Each driver is making just a few small application. Technology then gets to journeys. changes, but together they will create work, converting the data into useful Users can monitor their total CO2 a world of difference. n

18 computing and the environment

Small cameras that not only see, they watch! Small computing devices, such as enhanced cameras, are becoming smarter and more capable: not only do they record visual input (video) but they are starting to interpret it.

The eco:Drive application makes recommendations for a better driving style. Video cameras are being built into ETH Zurich, Switzerland, heading the video images.” phones, robots, vehicles, traffic lights, Computer Vision and Geometry group. In the long term, embedded and homes. For example, in-home Pollefeys, together with his fellow systems that are good at interpreting embedded vision systems will have researcher Gabriel Brostow from ETH video motion will be critical for buil the dual roles of security and inter- and Andrew Blake from Microsoft ding devices ranging from stationary action, monitoring for children in Research Cambridge, recently started stand-alone CCTVs to car-mounted dangerous parts of a kitchen or ser a research project awarded and sup- cameras. Vision will also play an ving as the substrate for robots and ported by the Innovation Cluster for increasing role in making mobile entertainment-centre controls. But Embedded Software (ICES), a joint phones aware of their environment so that is just the start. venture of Microsoft Research, the they can work for video-conferencing, “Critically missing from these ETH Zurich and the EPF Lausanne. personal or inspection-style data- devices is an embedded computer Pollefeys continues, “The main goal collection. vision system that can group the parts of our project is to develop novel There are numerous potential of a scene that are moving together,” algorithms that automatically detect application scenarios: for example, explains Marc Pollefeys, Professor at simultaneously moving objects in embedded CCTV systems can count >>

19 >> the number of pedestrians or vehicles ally interpreted by a human in order Blake and the Computer Vision team passing through their field of view, to be useful. The limited capabilities of Microsoft Research Cambridge as distinguish their trajectories at inter- in computing power and memory they are one of the best, if not the best, sections and help resolve congestion. of the small hand-held devices that teams in this domain worldwide,” says The locus of people, cars, and other have been previously available have Marc Pollefeys. “This is the value of entities moving through a scene must prevented the research group at ETH the collaboration within the ICES, and be tracked to establish what went Zurich from considering them as a bringing together the mutual expertise where, and how the entity looked. viable platform for computer vision. in computer vision and breaking down Real outdoor traffic scenes have However, small embedded computing the problem to implementable soft- long periods of sparse activity, with devices in general and those attached ware that runs on little devices prom- waves of rush hour traffic that follows to or augmented by a camera have ises great results.” n roughly the same trajectories. increased their computing power Another example is people- and will become more capable in the counting in crowds in order to feed future. The Microsoft Innovation real numbers to architects and urban Advancements on the software Cluster for Embedded Software planners who study crowd density and side must keep pace with the devel- (ICES) in Switzerland has been resolve bottlenecks of people traffic at opments of hardware to unleash the set up in cooperation with different times of day. Such informa- power of these technologies. “In the the two leading national uni- tion is also important when planning past there has been much research versities, the ETH Zurich and large sporting events where safety invested in analysing still images, but the EPF Lausanne. The ICES limits must be considered, and where what we need here are techniques research programme is due to public transit frequency is adapted to that are relevant for video analysis,” run for five years and Microsoft real-time needs. In such scenarios, explains Pollefeys. There are two will invest up to 1 million mobile devices with built-in video situations causing motion: either the Swiss francs per year. The col- cameras will be mounted near traffic camera observes things and people in laboration and participation of signs and will periodically send back motion, or the camera itself is mov- researchers from various dis- distilled information about how many ing, so stationary objects appear as ciplines, involving both Swiss people are going which way, without moving. In both situations, Pollefeys universities, Microsoft Research risking the privacy concerns of indi- and his team face the challenge that Cambridge and partners from viduals. objects are often partially occluded in industry, is key to creating and And, of course, another applica- parts of a video sequence, which limits expanding a pool of know-how tion domain is science, where came the use of some existing image analy- that is accessible to all part- ras and integrated video analysis sis techniques, so motion must be ners of the Innovation Cluster. could help monitor and track species analysed in order to reveal boundaries An Industry Council is being for biodiversity research. Sensors of objects. Another challenge is that established to better connect have just started to impact data col- when the camera is moving, nearby academia with industry and to lection in science. objects appear to move more quickly create a channel to industry for Today, video camera systems than distant ones, in a phenomenon early-stage technologies that are used predominantly for collecting called “motion parallax”. result from research. videos that must be watched and visu- “We enjoy working with Andrew

20 computing and the environment ‘Water Watch’ makes a splash with EU bathers The European Environment Agency is pleased with users’ responses to its water quality site and plans to expand environmental features in the coming months. By Mary Lisbeth D’Amico As the warmer months approach, “Our long-term vision is to offer a platform to get the bathers across Europe will again be taking advantage of the European public more involved in environmental issues.” Environment Agency’s Eye on Earth Watch. Within the first few weeks Jansen. “Although this information Water Watch service, designed to give of launch, the site saw as many as may be subjective, if there is enough of citizens up-to-date information on the 200,000 visitors, according to Bert it, that can provide an important new quality of the water they swim in. Jansen, Project Manager, at the EEA perspective to supplement official data Launched in July 2008 in conjunc- in Brussels. Activity was highest in the on air, noise and water pollution.” tion with Microsoft, Water Watch gives Netherlands, Greece and Italy. While “We are keen to provide our users easy access via the Internet (see that ebbed some after the summer technologies for solutions to process, http://www.eyeonearth.eu) to informa- months, the EEA anticipates further manage, archive, query and publish tion on water quality ratings drawn continued interest with the 2009 bath- environmental data, and a key focus of from 21,000 monitoring points at ing season approaching. this and other projects is to enable and bathing sites in 27 European countries. So far the EEA has found little involve the community in doing this,” Using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Map- discrepancy between the perception says Rob Bernard, Chief Enviromental ping Technology, visitors to the site of beach users and official agency rat- Strategist at Microsoft. can zoom into a selected area of the ings. But beachgoers have also been As a next step, the EEA is looking online map of Europe or, alternatively, providing some interesting observa- at overlaying the site with an air qua type a beach name into the search tions. “We’ve seen comments on some lity index that measures three types bar. They can view icons colour-coded other related issues, such as people of air pollutants. Other indicators will green (compliant with EEA standards), who spotted alien invasive species on also be added such as soil and ozone yellow (not tested) or red (not compli- the beach,” says Jansen. measurements. The EEA also plans ant) to reflect the quality of the water. It is just this kind of on-the-scene to provide information on how climate A separate set of colour-coded icons evidence that the EEA wants to change is affecting Europe. By Decem- reflects user rankings of the waters. encourage. “Our long-term vision is to ber, the agency plans to have 12 sites The EEA has been pleased thus offer a platform to get the public more picked out on which it can deliver such far with the initial response to Water involved in environmental issues,” says information. n

21 Do you have trust in digital life? The Internet and other modern information and communication technologies are transforming Europe’s economy and society on a scale never seen before, offering opportunities for new forms of social interaction and innovative personalised services, and providing huge potential for economic growth. But can we trust them?

Europe is faring well in key areas of the Infor- penetration rates. The European ICT industry is mation Society. An increasingly dense web of world-class in mobile technologies, electronic broadband infrastructures is expanding rapidly communications services, transactional banking, to cover all European regions, with some EU medical equipment, and content and services, to countries being world leaders in broadband name a few specific examples.

22 security and privacy

These achievements have been made “It is essential to safeguard the Euro- rules and law, and raise the alarm through an open, free and demo- pean social ‘acquis’ in a future world about any misbehaviour. cratic society with strong respect for where many human and business The initiative has built in the fundamental human values, includ- activities are critically dependent on concept of flexibility in the solutions ing the right to privacy. These values complex technology infrastructures it envisions, so the system addresses are reflected in Europe’s legislative and digital services,” says Mario and notifies its users about changing environment, for instance in Europe’s Campolargo, director Emerging policies. For all of these jobs stan- exemplary privacy and data protection Technologies & Infrastructures at the dards and reference architectures regulations. Europe has cultivated European Commission. have to be defined and proposed. security and trust, which, together The goal is to provide developers An important aspect, is European- with the effective rule of law, are and system engineers with a refer- wide coordination with initiatives in fundamental for freedom, creativity, ence for designing, developing and this field, such as the Trustworthy economic investment and prosperity. reviewing specific technologies, for ICT theme in the Seventh Framework It is trustworthy ICT solutions instance on certification and identity Programme and the European based on Europe’s societal values management. Technology Platforms, preventing and technological strengths that will The members of Trust in Digital fragmentation and promoting cohe spur further growth and prosperity Life are identifying what needs to rence across research and policies in Europe and beyond. But that can be done in terms of a roadmap that already under way. Do you have trust only happen if we mobilise our social defines the research, technologies Trust in Digital Life also engages expertise and related assets to bring and policies that support the vision in broad, multi-stakeholder dialogue, accountability, transparency, security articulated in the partnership’s aiming to raise the general aware- and the rule of law generally into the Memorandum of Understanding. ness and understanding of trust- electronic realm. First, the partners want to identify worthiness that is essential if public in Technology companies, govern- and define criteria and characteris- policy and citizens’ acceptance of the digital life? ments, citizens, and other stakehold- tics of trustworthiness, and see how ICT solutions are to be developed. ers can work together to develop societal values such as privacy are The wider dialogue should span EU these trustworthy ICT solutions, and reflected in these. Member States, industrial and ser- on 11 May 2009 in Prague, during the So, the task is not only to iden- vice sectors and representatives of Future of the Internet conference, a tify the technological needs and citizens to foster a shared vision and big start was made when industry map these to the state-of-the-art in ultimately place Europe at the fore- partners Gemalto, Microsoft, Nokia technology, but also to address the front of innovation in trustworthy ICT. and Philips announced the formation relevant jurisdiction and regulation The Trust in Digital Life initiative of the Trust in Digital Life initiative. with trustworthy ICT solutions. These offers members an opportunity to Over the course of two years, Trust solutions and tools would support, proactively participate in shaping an in Digital Life will seek to set out a within a given jurisdiction, the as- evolving ecosystem in which people vision for trustworthy ICT solutions, sessment and auditing of activities enjoy justified trust. The partnership to translate this vision into an agenda as well as data and content usage – gives participants a vehicle for deve for research and innovation and, in all the time complying not only with loping a positive vision and speaking doing so, to coordinate with other regulatory requirements but also with one voice regarding trustwor- European initiatives in this field and with whatever privacy policies the thy ICT, and the Trust in Digital Life to engage in a broad dialogue with users agree on. In this way, the tools members invite others to join this public and private stakeholders. would enable enforcement of the effort.” n

23 It’s all a matter of context Confidential data need to be kept confidential –but there are times when the information needs to be shared, too. That’s where the new EU Framework Programme Consequence comes in. By Anna Jenkinson

24 security and privacy

A chemical tanker overturns on a a challenge,” he said. on the project in January 2008 and is busy city road, an aeroplane crashes, The main challenge for Orlov and developing two test-bed scenarios to there’s a nuclear material spillage. In his team of about 20 is to create some- evaluate its work. such emergency situations, response thing that doesn’t yet exist to fill a gap One of these scenarios is crisis teams from different organisations between the technology available now management, seeking a way to in- based in different places need to coor- and business requirements. crease access, in a controlled manner, dinate and share relevant information “Very often the current options to information that is usually protect- quickly and effectively. are for either ‘complete control’ or ‘no ed. This test-bed is hosted by consor- But how do you ensure that the control’ [of data],” Orlov wrote in a tium partner BAE Systems. information reaches all the people summary of the project. The other is with one of the UK’s who need it, and only those people, in What’s needed instead is a seven national research councils, the any given scenario? How do you pro- framework allowing information to be Science and Technology Facilities tect the privacy of individuals and the shared securely in dynamic set-ups, Council, another consortium member, confidentiality of organisations? How such as temporary project teams – which hosts large amounts of sensitive do you ensure that only the essential particularly when several organisa- scientific data involving many individu- data are shared in order to avoid in- tions are involved, he said. als and organisations, from different formation overload in a time-sensitive The idea behind Consequence countries with different laws, within emergency? grew from the introduction of digital specified time limits, and for particu- This is where Consequence comes rights management (DRM) to protect lar uses. Consequence aims to tackle in. The three-year research project, books, music and videos in electronic this “huge problem” of managing such funded by the EU’s Framework format. “The idea was interesting for large amounts of information with so Programme, aims to make it easier many other scenarios, for example many variables, Orlov said. and more secure for organisations cooperation between enterprises and Exactly how the end results of to share data. As a result, the project the exchange of confidential data,” the project will become available as consortium hopes that governments, Orlov said. products and services, the so-called businesses and consumers will be able The key difference was that DRM exploitation plans, remains to be to make more use of information and focused on fixed data, whereas what seen. “Still, our objective is to feed the computing technology (ICT) solutions. was needed was technology adapted knowledge and results gained in this The consortium is made up of for dynamic, changing situations. The project into our product development,” seven partners from industry and consortium, spread across Germany, Orlov said. “That’s what we would like academia, with Microsoft as its Italy and the United Kingdom, started to see at Microsoft.” n coordinator. Alexey Orlov, the project manager for Consequence, located MEMBERS OF THE CONSORTIUM: at the Microsoft European Innovation Center (EMIC) in Germany, has plenty " European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC), Germany, Coordinator, of experience managing multinational www.microsoft.com/EMIC projects. Since joining Microsoft in his " BAE Systems (Operations) Limited (BAES), United Kingdom native Russia in 1997, he has also been " Centre for Research and Telecommunication for Networked based in Bulgaria, France, Finland and Communities (CREATE-NET) (CN), Italy Germany. Still, this is his first time in " Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy the role of Framework Programme " Hewlett-Packard Italiana (HP), Italy coordinator. " Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial), “Whenever you’re doing some- United Kingdom thing for the first time, even if you have " Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), United Kingdom experience in similar roles, it’s always

25 The face in the crowd Cost-effective face-recognition software has been the springboard for success for one company spun out from the Politecnico di Milano. It has also won the company’s founders an inaugural ACES award for academic enterprise. By Randolph Walerius

Any fan of film thrillers recognises to identify and apprehend their suspect The researchers behind Kee Square the scene. Working against the clock before it’s too late. The tension built, Srl think the police should use a and the odds, police officers scan the the film will have the police arresting computer. The company was spun out thousands of faces pouring through a their man, usually thanks to the singu- of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, with busy downtown shopping area, trying lar wits of the hero. commercial ambitions for software

26 security and privacy

that can help security services spot the problems of the systems is the cost. coming from the image and sound face in the crowd. Even in the public sector, there is a group at the Politecnico, Tubaro and his The company had security ap- need to reduce costs.” colleagues are developing sound sys- plications in mind from the start, said Security is not the only applica- tems analogous to its work on images. Stefano Tubaro, one of the founders of tion for the software. Think of a group Security forces are again the primary Kee Square. “The principal sector is the of people waiting for a plane, Tubaro target market. “There are events that public sector: airports, train stations, said. They’re standing in front of an aren’t so easy to detect using images,” police bodies.” advertising screen. The advertiser Tubaro said. Tubaro, a professor of signal doesn’t know which ones are watching Security cameras won’t see when processing at the Politecnico, wor the screen, for how long, and with what a gun goes off, or glass breaks, and king with his colleagues, Augusto Sarti kind of response. “There are a lot of certainly not voices being raised. and Pasquale Pigazzini, joined forces these screens in these public spaces. Tubaro said Kee Square’s work on sonic with the Politecnico, Celin Technology There is no information on how efficient technology uses microphones placed Innovation Srl and Ghirlanda SpA in that type of advertising is.” in public places to help police identify July 2007 to form Kee Square. Quantica Kee Square thinks its technology what can’t be seen on camera. In the SGR, a Milan venture capital fund, came can classify the responses and help the best scenarios, the sound may alert on board in December 2007, bringing advertiser know what’s effective and the police to trouble before it happens, €1.5 million in capital along with it. what isn’t. The leader of a focus group he said. Facial recognition and classifica- meticulously tries to gather such re- “We think the use of images and tion technology isn’t new. But Tubaro sponses by asking questions and noting sounds can increase in a significant says that what he and his colleagues the responses. With the right software, way the performance of surveillance did was to make the software far easier Kee Square believes the camera can systems,” he said. Raised voices, for to use without buying expensive hard- study the audience in its natural setting example, could alert security when a ware on which to run it. and deliver fast feedback to the com- “normal conversation degenerates to “Other solutions require more pany. something that is not so normal.” Video hardware to run,” he said. “One of the Unsurprisingly for researchers security comes after the fact. But sound can allow detection in real-time or even slightly in advance of a problem, The ACES he said. Kee Square’s sound system is currently being tried in a Naples under- The ACES – short for Academic Enterprise Awards Europe – are the first ground station. Europe-wide awards for spin-out companies. Launched in 2008 by the From a successful career in re- Science|Business Innovation Board, a blue-ribbon panel of leaders in in search and publishing, Tubaro found dustry, academia and policy, the awards are backed by a coalition of top the adjustment to practical applica- European universities, multinational companies including Microsoft, foun tion the biggest surprise in his new dations, and the Science|Business news service. The programme prizes commercial activity. Thinking about were awarded at a ceremony at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering, problems related to algorithms and Stockholm, on 2 December 2008. The founders of Kee Square won the award then adjusting one’s thinking to the for IT spin-outs. The 2009 ACES will be presented in December at the Hôtel challenges of a real company, that’s a de Ville in Paris. big step, he said. “It is different from For more information, see www.sciencebusiness.net/aces. developing an idea or publishing in a scientific journal.” n

27 The virtual physiological human The search for computing’s supermodel Is this the ultimate challenge: to use computational techniques to construct a model of how the human body works? Nuala Moran takes a look.

28 computing for health

Much of the costly failure of drugs in development comes not because a “I would say it is a realistic ambition to model product is ineffective in treating the a whole organism. But it will take time and it disease, but because toxic side effects Yaki Setty, Microsoft Research Cambridge make it unsafe to use. needs a lot of effort.” But what if rather than waiting until the lengthy and expensive process of preclinical development is complete, aspects of the body. that replicates the interactions and it was possible to test not only for side One such is Yaki Setty, of the complexity of the human body. effects, but also activity on the target, in Computational Biology Group at Mi- According to the roadmap for a computer model? crosoft Research Cambridge, who is the project, drawn up under STEP Using computer models and working on models that simulate the (Strategy for the EuroPhysiome, simulations for early stage testing in four-dimensional formation of organs. a project funded as part of the drug discovery is but one example of With colleagues, he has developed a European Union’s Framework 6 the potential applications of the Virtual model of the formation of the pancreas research programme), the Virtual Physiological Human Initiative, a €72 in the mouse embryo, which traces Physiological Human Initiative is not million European Commission-funded the formation of the three dimensional aiming to create the model itself. group of projects that are setting down structure over time. He is now extrapo- Instead, it aims to create the structure the framework for a computer model lating this model to the formation of that will enable researchers working on of the human body, encompassing other organs (see “Modelling in four elements of the overall model to “share physiology from single biochemical dimensions”, page 31). observations, to derive predictive pathways, to the orchestration of these “From the work to date, I would hypotheses from them and to integrate reactions in the cells, tissues and orsay it is a realistic ambition to model a them into a consistently improving gans that make up the body. whole organism. But it will take time understanding of human physiology/ Like an architect’s drawing, this and it needs a lot of effort,” says Setty. pathology, by regarding it as a single framework will provide the plan and the system”. standards to allow researchers in any Putting it all together “The ambition and scope of discipline, anywhere, to collaborate and In parallel with the rise of computer completing the model itself is decades contribute to the building of the Virtual modelling of human biology, the reduc- long,” says Peter Coveney, Professor Physiological Human itself. It will also tionist techniques of molecular biology of Physical Chemistry and Director of mean the model is constructed in such have provided deep insights into the the Centre for Computational Science a way that it can readily be customised, thousands of individual components at University College London, who is or rather personalised, by feeding in – genes, proteins, cells, hormones, one of the project’s leaders. “But the patient data to make the model relevant enzymes and their associated effects framework we will set up will allow to a particular individual. on each other and on the body – that other research programmes and fund- Denis Noble, Emeritus Professor are involved in the functioning of the ing agencies to contribute and continue at Oxford University and a founding human body. with the work.” father of computational physiology, Now the Virtual Physiological Not only is the framework meant is credited with initiating modelling Human initiative aims to make it pos- to overcome the division of human of human organs, creating the first sible to take these Lego bricks of mo- biology into organ, tissue, cell, protein model of the heart in 1960. Noble, still lecular biology and the partial models and gene, or subsystems such as the a leader in the field, has continued to developed by Noble and his counter- gastrointestinal, cardiovascular or develop his virtual heart ever since, and parts, understand where the individual musculoskeletal, but also to overcome has been joined by hundreds of other pieces go, and glue them together in a the fragmentation of expertise into dif- researchers modelling myriad other single, comprehensive computer model ferent disciplines, each with a different >>

29 realistic objective. It also requires a from computer tomography, magnetic shift in perspective, from reduction- resonance imaging and three-dimen- ist molecular biology, to viewing the sional ultrasound will create a model human body as a highly organised and of an individual’s heart. massively parallel processing system. These structural models are driven Microsoft Research at the Univer- by software that simulates the electri- sity of Trento Center for Computational cal activity of the heart, making it pos- and Systems Biology in Italy is wor sible to predict the response to cardiac king at this intersection of biology and resynchronisation therapy in particular computing to develop new conceptual patients. “Our ultimate goal is to im- and computational tools that will en- pact on the process of patient selection hance understanding of the processes and the optimisation procedure [that is that are responsible for the large-scale programming the device] carried out properties and dynamics of the human in patients that undergo this complex, body. One discipline is now feeding off expensive and not fully understood the other, as increased understanding treatment,” says Sebastian. of how the body processes information The researchers are currently leads to the development of new, more validating their model against actual powerful computing tools, which can, in clinical data. Sebastian believes that turn, be applied to biology. such translation of computer models

“Increased understanding of how the body processes information is leading to new, more powerful computing tools.”

Into clinical practice and simulation technologies from fun- To highlight its practical value and damental research into clinical use “is demonstrate that the overall frame- one of the most important challenges work is appropriate, the Virtual in the coming years”. Physiological Human Initiative is fund- As the roadmap for the Virtual ing a number of individual projects, to Physiological Human says, “Currently, show modelling and simulation in ac- we are investigating the human body >> lexicon. Within the framework of the tion. “The point is that models need to by pretending that it is a jigsaw puzzle Virtual Physiological Human initiative, be timely,” says Coveney. “There needs made up of a trillion pieces. We are specialists from different disciplines to be the ability to pull out data on an trying to understand the whole picture will be able to work together, using a individual patient and run the model by looking only at a single piece or, common language. fast enough to impact on clinical deci- maybe, a few closely interconnected Building a Virtual Physiological sion making.” pieces; it is no surprise that we are not Human depends on recent increases in Rafael Sebastian and colleagues finding it easy.” computer processing power, increas- at the Barcelona Centre for Computa- When it is complete the frame- ingly sophisticated algorithms and the tional Imaging and Simulation Tech- work will enable investigations of development of grid computing, that nologies in Biomedicine are building a the human body as a single – though make the project – if long-term – a system, which when fed imaging data hugely complex – system. n

30 computing for health

Modelling in four dimensions From conception to birth, death and beyond, the human body is all about change. Thus, a key issue in modelling any aspect of the body is to move beyond static images of what any element looks like at any particular point, and factor in the fourth dimension of time. By Nuala Moran

Yaki Setty of the Computational Biology Group at Microsoft for modelling any organ. Eventually, it should be pos- Research Cambridge has been working with academics in sible to create such models in a week, or an hour,” said Israel to create a four-dimensional computer model that Setty. “The key is to determine what is the right level of recreates the origin and formation of the pancreas in a abstraction.” mouse embryo. Organogenesis – the process by which organs de- “Our overall aim is to devise a generic platform velop – involves precursor stem cells proliferating, >>

31 “The program gives a virtual real-time view of the growth of the pancreas from a few isolated stem cells to an integrated structure.”

>> differentiating and organising them- out by computer programs cannot fits well into the system, which is selves to form a functioning struc- yet replace live experiments, they especially interesting, given the two ture. But until now, understanding of can inform them, saving time and models representing two distinct or- the development of the pancreas, or resources. “Initial applications would gans from two evolutionarily diverged any other organ, was based mainly be for ‘in silico’ [computer] simula- organisms,” Setty noted. on two-dimensional, static images tions in research and drug develop- He added, “It shows there are captured in a time sequence. This ment, using these models to reduce common, underlying principles and reveals nothing about the emergence the use of animals,” said Setty. that you can extend the approach of the 3-D shape, nor of the dynamics In the longer term, the research- and concepts in the mouse pancreas that drive the process. ers believe such in silico experimen- model to other species and other Working from known mecha- tation may lead to better understand- organs.” nisms and processes, Setty and his ing of the pancreas, and of diseases The next stage might be to model colleagues have developed a 4-D such as diabetes. It can also provide the function of organs, but Setty said simulation of pancreas development. a starting point for computer models it is not certain that the approach When the program is run it gives a of the formation of other organs. used to model proliferation and virtual real-time view of the growth Since creating the initial model, structure is appropriate for func- of the pancreas from a few isolated Setty and colleagues have extended tion. “A better approach may be two stem cells to an integrated structure. it further along the development separate models that intersect with The model is interactive. This pathway of the pancreas, to show the each other.” n means that the signal pathways that formation of islets cells, the bodies are activated in the model can be al- that are responsible for secreting the Reference: Four-dimensional real tered, resulting in altered patterning hormone insulin. istic modeling of pancreatic organo as the pancreas develops. In other In addition, the robustness of genesis, by Yaki Setty, Irun R. Cohen, words, the model can be used to test the model has been tested by apply- Yuval Dor, David Harel, Proceedings hypotheses about the specific factors ing it to the development of another of the National Academy of Sciences, that drive organogenesis. organ, in this case the gonad of the Volume 105, Number 51, pages While such experiments carried worm Caenorhabditis elegans. “This 20374–9, 23 December 2008

32 computing for health Your tissue samples are in the email It’s a simple idea – digitise the results of microscopy and accelerate the healthcare process. One university hospital researcher decided to turn the idea into reality.

Pathology – the search for abnormal “We make sure everything the patholo- tutorials. Now, however, VMscope variations in human tissues and or- gist needs to do their job – the patient’s enables online histology labs to be set gans – reduces diseases to tiny tissue data and, in the end, the entire hospi- up. Developed with leading academic samples. These tissue samples are tal information system – is connected institutes, it is the only solution created prepared in a laboratory for visual inves- with the virtual samples via one access by educators, for educators. tigation with a traditional microscope. point,” says Saeger. Practical lessons for students can In any large hospital within a short time The advantages are enormous: now be run by a single faculty member, thousands of tissue samples accumu- pathologists are now able to share with students completing coursework late which have to be sent out physically information with other peers located re- faster than when using microscopes. to pathologists and which have to be motely to consult on difficult cases and Since switching to VMscope’s software, archived afterwards. to accelerate the diagnosis of diseases. student satisfaction has improved and There must be another way, The images are sent over the Internet they really appreciate and benefit from thought Kai Saeger, CEO of VMscope, rather than via time-consuming postal having access to slides outside of the a spin-off company created at Europe’s mail. “Virtual Microscopy helps a lot in laboratory. largest university hospital, the Charité in consulting with peers based on shared Established in late 2004, VMscope Berlin. “Being a spin-off of the hospital digital information,” confirms Thomas is today one of Europe’s leaders in this and university, we had the advantage of Schrader from VMscope. In addition, field. Together with other innovation being at the forefront of research and once the tissue samples are held digi- initiatives, Microsoft supports new and development, so we could go to market tally, researchers can use digital image young entrepreneurs such as VMscope with products very quickly,” says Kai analysis tools in further diagnosis and to in the high-tech domain – an initiative Saeger. complement the visual analysis. which seems urgently needed in order to The magic key is ‘Virtual Micros- The opportunities for more ad- create economic growth and jobs from copy’: instead of purely analysing tissue vanced education are also a major the ideas of young researchers. n samples with a microscope, the tissue advantage: more students and fewer re- samples are being scanned into digital sources make life a challenge for histol- images. VMscope’s software system ogy educators. In response, universities For more information, please visit http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/ then helps the digital tissue samples to are increasingly using digital micros- http://www.microsoft.com/germany/ be provided along with the patient’s data, copy, either to complement or to replace gruender/ so the pathologist is able to diagnose. traditional microscopy-based practical

33 The wearable camera that brings back the memories Microsoft’s SenseCam helps advance the study of neuroscience by enabling memory recall and opening the pathway for the development of new rehabilitation treatments.

Results of a new study, published in problems, rehabilitation methods have the Journal of Neurology, Neurosur- not previously benefitted from any gery, and Psychiatry with Practical significant technology breakthroughs. Neurology (JNNP) in March 2009, Tools that exist to improve memory, provides evidence that Microsoft such as alarms, diaries and calen- By tracking brain activity through Research’s innovative SenseCam dars, are often especially difficult for fMRI scans, researchers have been technology may help people who cognitively impaired people to use and able to show that memories are not suffer from memory loss by enabling therefore have limited effectiveness. simply recited by patients by recalling them to recall previously inaccessible Microsoft Research has been SenseCam images, but actually re- memories. conducting clinical trials to evalu- membered. It appears that SenseCam Developed by Microsoft Research ate SenseCam as a memory aid for images provide powerful cues which in Cambridge, SenseCam is a specia- patients with diagnosed memory loss effect a natural recollection of the ex- lised wearable digital camera that is conditions, including those with perience, including thoughts, feelings designed to take photographs passi Alzheimer’s. Its most recent study and occurrences that are not captured vely, without any user intervention. – just concluded – was run in collabo- in the images themselves. It is fitted with a wide-angle lens that ration with Addenbrooke’s Hospital Dr Emma Berry, a clinical captures nearly everything in the and the Medical Research Council neuropsychologist at Addenbrooke’s patient’s field-of-view, providing an Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Hospital in Cambridge and the ongoing sensory “aide memoire“. Cambridge, and investigated how University of Hertfordshire, describes Despite the large percentage of SenseCam affects neurological activity in the JNNP paper the case of a the population affected by memory in different areas of the brain. woman with amnesia who has started

34 computing for health

Images recorded by a wearable digital camera with a wide-angle lens help prompt the user’s memory.

collaborates closely with researchers from other disciplines with the goal of understanding how these will impact traditional computing and change the ways in which people use and interact with computing devices. The group has a number of partnerships and collaborations with academic and medical memory experts to address specific research questions and further their understanding of to recall and review past events by ingful event within days of it happen- how SenseCam appears to give such using the SenseCam device. ing”, says Dr Steve Hodges, Principal dramatic results in improving memory The latest results suggest that Hardware Engineer & Manager at the recall. The fMRI study is a result of one using SenseCam to record and re- Sensors and Devices Group in Micro- of these collaborations. view images of past events provides soft Research Cambridge. Dr Adrian Owen, a Senior Scientist improvements in autobiographical Hodges adds: “It’s clear that at the MRC Cognition and Brain memory, even when a patient has a SenseCam has a huge potential both Sciences Unit where the patient was severe amnesic syndrome. as a memory aid and as a tool for clini- scanned, adds: “Brain imaging tech- “Until now, the neural basis for cians to better understand cognitive niques such as fMRI are now begin- our patient’s memory improvement brain functions and further advance ning to contribute dramatically to our has been unknown,” says Berry. “But the study of neuroscience. We’re really understanding of the causes of various through the results of this study, we’ve excited to be able to extend the project clinical diseases and how devastating found evidence to suggest that these to actively involve so many leading conditions such as profound memory events were remembered and not researchers and clinicians around the loss might best be tackled. This is just learned from excessive exposure world. Ultimately, if we can conclu- one very exciting example of that. Our to the SenseCam images. Our fMRI sively demonstrate that SenseCam brain scans show why this patient has study shows that when she looks at can improve memory, and thereby the such a poor memory, but more impor- the images, she not only remembers quality of life, in patients with amnesia tantly, they give us some important the event, which is incredible given and memory loss from neurodegen- new clues about how it is that Sense- the level of her amnesic syndrome, erative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Cam improves it.” n but that she activates parts of the that would be an absolutely tremen- brain associated with normal episodic dous result.” memory“. SenseCam is one of many exci For more information, please visit http://research.microsoft.com/ “We don’t know of any other de- ting projects from the Sensors and sendev vice, tool or method that is as effective Devices Group at Microsoft Research http://research.microsoft.com/ as SenseCam for people who would in Cambridge. The group works with sensecam/ ordinarily forget a significant, mean- a variety of new technologies and

35 A joint venture between Microsoft Research and the British Library is looking to address the needs of researchers as ‘extreme information users’. Going to extremes The Research Information Centre

Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President of science and the IT industry to help research project management with an the External Research Division with scientists explore their data,” says Hey. adaptable framework for managing Microsoft Research, knows what the Soon, he adds, it will be impossible to the information resources and flow in problem is. “There is a change hap- do any kind of science without compu- collaborative research projects,” pening in science,” he says. “In the tational tools – and the more advanced says Roger Barga, Principal Architect next five years, we undoubtedly will and powerful, the better for the scien- in Microsoft’s External Research collect more scientific data than we’ve tist and the science. group, describing the motivation for collected so far in the whole of human Now, a collaboration between the Research Information Centre (RIC), history.” Microsoft Research and the British the virtual research environment being The result? “Scientists won’t be Library is seeking to become part of jointly developed by Microsoft Research able to look at every piece individually the solution. and the British Library. but instead will need to use comput- “It is evident that the Internet’s “We view researchers as extreme ing tools to aid in the interpretation of Web 2.0 work style has reached information workers, who in order to vast amounts of information. There’s science. Acknowledging that, our aim carry out a project must search and a unique role right now for computer was and is to address ‘pain points’ of navigate a range of web services,

36 partnerships and people

access remote data and compute re- sents the researcher with the most The Situation Today sources, share and manage document common tasks that are to be conducted collections, and collaborate in virtual in each research project. In doing so, It should be abundantly clear teams,” Roger Barga continues. In de- it reflects a process model, providing [...] that the amount and com- signing the RIC, the collaborators have structure to the research process, easy plexity of scientific data are in- tried to match the needs of scientists access to resources, guidance and tools creasing exponentially. Scien- with technological concepts available to manage information assets, along tists have difficulty in keeping to create something new. with integrated collaboration services, up with this ‘data deluge’. It A series of new information enabling the researcher to be more is increasingly clear that, as a models have emerged which promote efficient by helping focus on the pri- consequence, the way scien- a level of social interaction that can be mary activity – the research itself. “We tists interact with the data and consumed on a contextual basis where modelled the research process as a se- with one another is under one opts in to contribute or consume ries of phases or steps. A researcher is going a fundamental paradigm content. The information models are assumed to be working on a number of shift. The traditional sequence primarily focused on blogs, wikis, so- research projects simultaneously with of “experiment > analysis > cial networks and alert functions. This other members of the team distributed publication” is changing to content is typically exposed through a around the world but connected to the “experiment > data organisa- basic web application and distributed Internet,” says Roger Barga. tion > analysis > publication” as a service, such as RSS. These mod- To this end, the RIC was designed as more and more scientific els have worked well for rapid distribu- to encompass all aspects of this data are ingested directly into tion and syndication of information on research lifecycle: a view of the vari- databases, even before the the Web and are now being harnessed ous phases of the project is provided data are analysed. within science projects. to allow the user to navigate through The Web and associ- the project, carry out specific tasks, ated technical advances will Focus on biomedicine access tools, invoke help for particular dramatically shape scientific The first implementation of the RIC areas and mark off progress against publishing and communica- focuses on the biomedical researcher, the plan. For example, an idea cre- tion over the next 14 years. as this builds on the British Library‘s ation area is provided for researchers Perhaps the greatest effect existing strength in this domain. “We to evaluate a topic, identify possible of the Web on science to date beta-tested the initial version with bio- collaborators and search for fund- has been seen in scientific medical research teams in the UK and ing opportunities; and a content area publishing or, more broadly US and in other sites around the world. is provided where users can access defined, in scientific commu- It moves beyond the existing ‘self-ser- identified content sources applicable to nication. Given that science is vice’ provision of information resources their projects. a global endeavour and that from the British Library, to a model Likewise, a number of key re- the web is arguably the most which is much more embedded in the sources have been identified as being effective global communica- environment that scientists are now relevant and incorporated into this tion medium yet devised, this working in on a day-to-day basis,” says British Library version. These were should not come as a surprise. Richard Boulderstone, Director for sourced from interviews, focus groups e-Strategy and Information Systems at and general discussions with resear Towards 2020 Science, the British Library. However, the base chers undertaken as part of projects Microsoft Research architecture of RIC is designed so that and studies in which the British Library Cambridge, 2006 it can be easily re-used for research in has been involved. other domains as well. In summary, says Richard Boul- The RIC is a workspace that pre derstone, “The Research Information >>

37 The Research Information Centre: an online portal for researchers looking for literature and sharing publications. Communication in the Microsoft Ex- ternal Research team, envisages an active ecosystem of tools and services around this platform. “We are building an open and freely available researcher-focused platform on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which will allow the community to build, share, and evolve the tools and features of the RIC, and also to leverage the rich feature set and developer community that already exists around the Office platform. “Since our driving goal is transforming scholarly communication, then closely partner- >> Centre is a networked service we’re search viable; including collaborative ing with the community – research- developing to support STM resear project-based working, analysis and ers, scholarly publishers, libraries chers at every stage of the research modelling – right the way through to and archives – will be the key to process. From integrated searching publishing and disseminating re- success,” says Wade, responsible for of relevant databases, to alerts from search findings.” managing Microsoft’s engagement on the funding bodies that make re- Alex Wade, Director for Scholarly this project. n

The Way to the Future ... • Deep Data …Yet the potential for the web to completely reshape scientific Within 5 years we should see much richer mutual linking communication – and in doing so to reshape scientific re- between journals and databases, and in a 10 or 15 year time- search itself – is underestimated. frame we will see the rise of new kinds of publications that The grand challenge for scientific communication is not offer the best of both of these worlds. merely to adjust the economics of publishing to reflect new • Discussion and dialogue realities, but rather to redefine the very concept of a scientific The meme of the moment is the “two-way web” in which us- publication. Only in this way will scientific publishing remain ers are not merely passive consumers but active participants relevant and fulfil its duty to help accelerate the pace of and tools based on these concepts will become an important scientific discovery now that we are unconstrained by many way for scientists to organise, share and discover information, restrictions imposed by print. building and extending on-line collaborative social networks. • Digital discovery • Data display As the volumes of scientific text and data continue to balloon, One of the most obvious ways in which online scientific publi- finding timely, relevant information is an increasing challenge cations can improve is to provide the reader with a degree of for researchers in every discipline. New functionality will be interactivity. provided in the online versions of papers and their relation- • Dynamic delivery ship with their print versions will be redefined. This means Online pages can be generated the moment they are re- that scientific publishing and communications will need to quested. Scientific content is ripe for personalisation, different continually adapt, and at a faster pace than in the past. n types of readers are looking for very different things, and the range of interests cannot be served with one document. Towards 2020 Science, Microsoft Research Cambridge, 2006

38 partnerships and people

Youssef Hamadi: applied mathematics researcher and top-flight scientist, directing research projects in Cam- bridge and Orsay. It’s an extraor- dinary story of a son of Berber immigrants, driven by the thirst for Youssef Hamadi: avoiding impositions. freedom. By Violette Frescobaldi No constraints Speaking in a soft voice without a trace under on this island to which his benefited from an environment full of of false modesty, Youssef Hamadi be- parents, who were illiterate, had international students who gave him gins by saying that he’s done “nothing chosen to emigrate. One of seven an inkling of “other ways of looking at out of the ordinary”. He talks about be- children, he was constantly reminded things”. ing a son of Berber immigrants from by his eldest sister – acting as a sur- Hamadi gained his doctorate in a humble background and becoming a rogate mother – of the family saying 2000 and has since published ex- researcher in applied mathematics in that “one only ever works for oneself“. tensively in high impact peer-review Cambridge, then adds with the same All the while, he felt the incessant scientific journals. humility that he doesn’t feel he has yearning to leave. Feeling hemmed in by the limita- “done very much”. Such is the para- Hamadi discovered his vocation tions of the France’s academic system, doxical story of a constraint program- at the age of 12, after a two-week the ivory tower mentality and paro- ming specialist, whose whole life has hospital stay following an accident. chialism, he decided to move on, and been driven by avoidance of all forms Quenching his boredom by reading this time it was to the Thales central of imposed choice. the French science magazine Science laboratory in Paris, where he worked et Vie, he discovered computer pro- on optimising protection systems for From Bastia to Cambridge – out into gramming. His first “get-away” was the French navy. the wide world the University of Montpellier, where All the principles of research in Hamadi grew up in Corsica, and he studied applied mathematics and combinatorial optimisation were there: speaks of how the sight of car ferries computer science, funded by the finite resources (time, power-units, leaving the port fuelled his desire to “fantastic” (to use Youssef’s words) numbers of anti-missile missiles, etc.), travel. He evokes the pressure he was French scholarship system. He also an objective (for example, protecting >>

39 Key dates " 1983 Accident – his vocation revealed to him on reading the science magazine knowing how useful his research is to Science et Vie while hospitalised society. He is currently addressing the " 1989 Leaves Corsica for Montpellier social benefits of computer program- University ming through a collaborative research " 2000 Doctoral thesis in computer project between INRIA (the French science, “The treatment of distributed National Research Institute for constraint satisfaction problems” Computer Science and Applied " 2002 Leaves for England Mathematics) and Microsoft Research, " 2003 Joins Microsoft Research going back and forth between Cambridge, starts the Constraint Cambridge and Orsay. This project Reasoning Group aims to leverage “e-science” by produc- " 2007 Starts the Adapt research project, at joint INRIA-Microsoft ing tools which will help and promote >> a ship or a region), and an optimal Research centre at Orsay, France discoveries in experimental research. solution to be reached by combining " 2009 Starts the Microsoft-CNRS Indeed, biologists can use this tech- all the relevant criteria. Yet even in chair Optimisation and Sustainable nology to optimise the study of gene this setting Hamadi’s scope for career Development at École Polytechnique, interactions, a crucial area of medical progression was limited. France research. From fundamental research Hamadi alludes to his background in Cambridge to applied research in being a hindrance to professional suc- Orsay, Hamadi appears to have struck cess in competition with the French Fundamental research, fundamental the right balance between the two elite graduates of the Ecole Polytech- challenges extremes of unbridled interest in seek- nique: “I felt I had found my way to Constraint Programming can be ap- ing new frontiers of discovery and the freedom in quite a number of respects. plied to a large number of important constraints of applied knowledge. I was determined not to have anything problems, for instance in the area of From the moment he left the imposed upon me. And I wanted to sustainable development, water island of his birth, Hamadi has been go abroad.” His first port of call was management can be optimised guided by a yearning for freedom the UK, initially Bristol, and then through constraint programs. This is and flexibility, ultimately seeking Cambridge in 2003, where Hamadi why Hamadi reckons that fundamental the opportunity “to choose what you joined the Microsoft Research labora- research in this area is critical. The want and who you want to do it with”, tory, an “international and very open” work led by Hamadi and his team has choosing rather than “being forced”. environment where he was given the a plethora of applications: from the Although freedom is an ideal he never opportunity to establish a Constraint design of programs that detect hidden loses sight of, as Hamadi sees it “pro- Programming team. “bugs” within software code, to the im- grammed under constraints”, notably His work in Cambridge involves plementation of an industrial assem- those of loyalty to and memories of developing solutions to maximise the bly line that accounts for the risk of his roots. These constraints have use of available resources in countless human error, to meeting a company’s strengthened Hamadi’s belief in posi- areas that are themselves limited by financial and environment protection tive discrimination – which he himself their own criteria. Hamadi says it was targets, configuring aircraft for major didn’t benefit from – but they have “luck, networking and opportunities” airlines or optimising the water also further fuelled his dream to see that ultimately gave him the possibility management systems in a Chinese researchers from immigrant commu- and the means to follow his dream: city, to mention but a few. nities popularise their work to school to pursue fundamental research long- Hamadi has a passion for com- students from underprivileged back- term –“a researcher’s heaven” – with- puter science, but is not a fan of grounds, in the hope that “Mohammed out losing sight of “the need to tackle gadgets or of technology for techno at the back of the classroom will say real problems”. logy’s sake; he is more interested in to himself that he, too, can make it”. n

40 partnerships and people INRIA, gateway to a complex but rich research system Frances’s premier institute for computer science is now developing joint laboratories with international companies, including Microsoft, to tackle some of the key challenges in the field. By Jean-Fabrice Delaye

Founded in 1967, INRIA, the French national institute for successfully in business like Trusted Jean Ponce: “This is pretty research in computer science and control now combines state Logic and Esterel Technologies. fundamental research priorities and innovation. Where once it saw its role as Educating about 1,000 PhD level research.” providing R&D and talent to national champions such as Bull, students among the 3,000 scientists the institute is now developing strategic relations and common active in the INRIA project teams labs with international companies such as Microsoft. With its (sometimes belonging to other eight regional centres, it is also increasing its support to SMEs public research organisations such in the extensive French network of clusters and beyond. as partner universities) INRIA is now The joint lab with Microsoft – the Microsoft Research- a flexible organisation oriented to INRIA Joint Centre – was inaugurated in 2007 on the Plateau software. Its research is organised de Saclay, near the campus of INRIA Saclay and three other around 173 project teams, committing an average of 20 top academic institutions, the University of Orsay, the Ecole members each on eight-year programmes that are evalu- Polytechnique and Supelec. It works on two main streams: ated halfway through their life. It has also filed 230 patents, software security and trustworthy computing; and computa- while its contract funding has increased to 20 per cent of its tional sciences and scientific information interaction. The Cen- annual budget of €200 million. tre currently links more than 30 researchers from INRIA and INRIA also focuses on fundamental research. For other French institutions with 14 researchers from Microsoft. example, Ecole National Supérieure (ENS) professor Jean “Both Microsoft Research and INRIA have world- Ponce is pursuing various projects in computer vision, with leading computer-science research laboratories,” notes one on 3-D imaging of urban archaeological sites, another on Andrew Herbert, Microsoft distinguished engineer and the environmental analysis of satellite images and another to managing director of Microsoft Research Cambridge. “By extract social patterns from videos. “That is pretty fundamen- combining our strengths, we have been able to tackle some tal research,” explains Ponce. “But the fact we have already of the most significant challenges in computer science.” received Microsoft INRIA labs support last October is also a “The results are already impressive,” says Michel testimony that such research may find applications.” Cosnard, chairman and CEO of INRIA. “But what is most After 20 years in the US, Ponce, who is structuring its impressive is the quality of the relationships between projects between ENS–INRIA and France’s main govern- Microsoft Research and INRIA researchers: full respect, ment-funded research organisation, CNRS, admits that the trust, and confidence.” French research system can appear complex. “But while INRIA itself reports to two masters – the Ministry of in the US research is often carried out by one professor Research and the Ministry of Industry – so it is no surprise that with their students, the French system has the advantage it has always been focused on technology transfer and appli- of being able to pool multidisciplinary talents at top level.” cations. The institute was one of the first French research bod- Tapping into such pools through its project team-based ies to systematise technology transfer in 1984, and since then organisational model, INRIA aims to be France’s gateway of its researchers have created 93 start-ups – 70 of them still choice for computer science research. n

41 Searching questions Search is increasingly becoming the main way in which people interact with information online, no matter what form it takes or where it is stored – be it on an intranet or on the Web. According to information technology analysts Gartner, by the end of 2012 more than 75 per cent of applications will use a “search/explore” field as a primary user interface. By Christina Giles

Next-generation search technologies FAST’s first product was a Web search cerned with how the user navigates a build on traditional search models engine, but it now specialises in site. “Searching should be more like a (based on ranking pages according to enterprise search – the indexing and dialogue,” says Slyngstad, “a conversa- their content and links to other pages searching of the data held by an organi- tion related to context.” on the Web) to try and produce a more sation. The data can take many forms The need to create unique user relevant and “rich” user experience. (including text, images and video) and experiences for customers is not new, Founded in Norway in 1997 out of work can be located on intranets, in emails, but it is all the more pressing as the at the Norwegian University of Science databases and file systems. Next- choice online increases. “Businesses and Technology, FAST– now a Micro- generation technologies will look to im- must try harder to attract and retain soft subsidiary and part of the Enter- prove experiences for users of Internet visitors to their site,” Slyngstad says. prise Search Group – is a key player in search and enterprise search alike. The vast amount of information avail- the development of next-generation There are three main aspects to an able has, he adds, created a demand searching. effective search, says Odd Petter Nord for a more tailored, individualised Through its Centre for Research- Slyngstad, Research Program Manager search experience. driven Innovation iAD (Information at FAST. First is what he calls “inter- The second ingredient of an effec- Access Disruptions), part funded by the action management” – understand- tive search is “contextual matching”, Research Council of Norway, FAST is ing what the user wants to get from ensuring that the search results are taking a unique approach to develop- a search to create a more interactive, relevant. Third is content analytics. ing these technologies. A collaboration personalised experience. This is simi- Essentially, this involves using particular with commercial and academic part- lar to how Amazon uses information tools to mine search results to capture ners, iAD aims to tackle the challenges from a customer’s previous behaviour, information and enhance the results you presented by a growing demand for and that of other customers, to create a get back. “It’s all about allowing people search amid an increasing amount of personalised list of recommendations. to find instantly what or who they need, digital data. An effective search is also con- instead of having to interpret search

42 partnershipspartnerships and people

It was on a trip to the States that he Norway’s open landscape – the home of high-calibre research and innovation. and Bjørn Olstad, FAST’s CTO, were inspired to launch iAD. “The movers and shakers of computer science, in terms of novelty and impact on society, go through the US academic system,” he says. “iAD is basically an American- style project running in Europe.” This model, Johansen says, produces joint projects that are defined in industry but suitable for exploration in academia. BI Norwegian School of Manage- ment is another of iAD’s academic partners. Espen Andersen, an associate professor at BI, has been involved in iAD since its launch in 2006. “At BI, we’re interested in the strategic side of new technologies, such as the business impact of search and the pat- results,” says Slyngstad. company Accenture alongside aca- terns of use.” There are other ways that next- demic partners: the major Norwegian “I’ve worked in the interface generation search can help online universities in Oslo, Trondheim and between business and academia all businesses gain value, for example Tromsø, Dublin City University, Ireland, my life,” he says. “Many development by inspiring new business models, and Cornell University, USA. “FAST projects are meant to be hosted by creating new revenue streams and always tries to retain and expand con- business – iAD is different because it increasing productivity. UK property nections to universities,” Slyngstad actually is.” search engine globrix.com is one says. “To lead the way in next-genera- Andersen says this interaction example of a search-driven online tion search we need to be connected to can help prevent technology develop- business that does not generate the brightest minds, which I think are ers getting carried away creating more revenue from advertisements but by often found in universities.” and more advanced technologies – as directing traffic to other sites. What does an approach such as he puts it “overshooting what cus Next-generation search engines this have to offer? “Ten years ago there tomers can absorb”. will not be restricted to the Internet, were strict borders between academia It can also benefit academics Slyngstad says. Search engines could and industry, but there is now a trend working in business schools. be embedded in new technologies, and for these groups to work closely to- “A lot of business-oriented research incorporated into those already in use gether,” says Dag Johansen, a profes- in business schools is very dated, – for example a satellite set-top box sor in the Department of Computer partly because few researchers that could give personalised recom- Science, University of Tromsø, Norway, have close-enough contact with the mendations according to what you and and part-time Chief Scientist at FAST. business world,” he says. And he others are watching. “Search could “The two different kinds of results – is emphatic about the benefits of a look at your behaviour every time you published papers versus new products collaboration such as iAD: “You stay pick up your remote,” he says. – both benefit society.” grounded, you have inside access iAD’s unique set-up includes me- Johansen has close links to the to industry, and you’re working on dia company Schibsted and consulting USA, particularly Cornell University. something exciting.” n

43 Optimising online services for thousands of different types of mobile phones “The phone has a unique role. While the PC is the most power ful device, the phone is the most popular device… How do we bring all the business experiences and entertainment experiences of the other devices to the phone in an appropriate way? … That’s a great opportunity for innovation from Microsoft.” - Steve Ballmer, CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference, October 2007

44 partnerships and people

In a typical month, nearly 20 million peo- meet a key business intelligence op- Developers, developers, developers! ple worldwide use the mobile versions portunity by developing a system for “The mobile browse file makes it easier of Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Live tracking which types of devices were ac- for us to build sites targeting a larger services like Hotmail. Yet the challenges cessing Microsoft services. “This system variety of current mobile devices,” said involved in providing these services for formed the basis of a reporting initiative John Stockton, RIA Developer at mobile phone users are very different that two years later is avidly used by Ascentium. “It allows us to build effec- from those for their PC-based counter- product planners across the company tive mobile experiences for our clients parts – there are more than 1,100 dif- to stay abreast of trends in the mobile while taking advantage of the unique ferent mobile phones and devices, each marketplace,” says Ben Childers, Senior capabilities of each device.” A key part of with its own form factor and individual Program Manager at Microsoft and one Microsoft’s mission is to help software capabilities. High-end models sport of the founding members of the team. developers worldwide be more produc- large screens and features such as sat- tive and create powerful solutions for ellite navigation, and hundreds of other A strategic approach their users. To that end, the GPD- devices provide their own set of specific The GPD-E team’s primary goals are to E team realised that the new device capabilities, such as video playback. staff up phenomenal engineering talent data platform could be very helpful A one-size-fits-all approach will in Europe and deliver high-quality core to third-party software developers fail to meet customers’ needs, given engineering work to meet Microsoft’s building mobile Web services using Optimising online services the sheer diversity in mobile phone key business needs. In addition to the Microsoft’s platform. The team is capabilities. Yet customising each of mobile device platform, developers also currently preparing a possible public Microsoft’s services for hundreds of work on data centre management tools release of the device platform. This for thousands of different different phones and browsers is a and services, two other projects for software will allow third-party develop- near-impossible task. Microsoft’s mobile phone business, and ers using .NET to dynamically adapt Enter Microsoft’s Global Product advanced data visualisation and analy their web sites to support thousands of Development-Europe (GPD-E) team, a tics tools. different mobile phones and browsers, types of mobile phones ”core tech” development group based “From the outset, the team’s suc- similar to how the internal platform is in Dublin, Ireland, and staffed primarily cess has been predicated upon our used by Microsoft services like Hotmail. by European software engineers. For ability to function as a true R&D organi As part of the final work on the de- the past two years, the team has been sation performing original develop- vice platform, the GPD-E team designed building a new mobile device management work, rather than an outsourcing a new reporting portal for Microsoft’s ment platform that allows Microsoft’s agency,” says Dan Stevenson, Principal business and technical staff to better online services to automatically and Group Program Manager in GPD-E. understand the mobile device market- dynamically optimise their offerings for The extensive automation and scal- place and technology. Using the portal, each user’s phone and browser, without ability investment in the mobile device Microsoft’s business analysts and soft- writing additional software. platform allowed the team to quickly ware developers can explore all of the The platform was formally released support new markets and devices. rich mobile device data in the platform, in the summer of 2008 and is now used For example, it only took a few days to including advanced reports on which by more than a dozen of Microsoft’s incorporate more than 500 new devices devices are utilising Microsoft’s online online services. The team is now wor for the Japanese market, instantly giving services, and which capabilities of those king on a version of the platform that is those customers much better experi- devices are being exercised. expected to be made available to .NET ences on Microsoft’s mobile services. “Now that most of the platform software developers worldwide, allow- The team in Dublin worked not only work is complete, our team is working ing them to use the same rich database with US-based engineering and business on several new projects in the mobile of device capabilities to adapt their own teams, and with other global develop- space which will support Microsoft’s services for mobile users. ment centres, such as a mobile software online services and Windows Mobile The Dublin-based team also helped development team in Shanghai, China. operating system,” said Stevenson. n

45 A helping hand allows Hungarian firm to fundlogistics project Since Hungary’s accession into the European Union, the number of logistics operators in the country has been growing fast. This is particularly true for the region in and around the capital, Budapest, seen by foreign operators as a hub for distribu ting goods to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The boom in the logistics sector is expected to foster signi ficant economic growth in the region.

Hungarian software developer Human- technologies, and by modernising the company with more than 600 trucks soft could see the potential of informa- industry’s IT systems, to allow it to and trailers. Encouraged by the suc- tion and communication technology leapfrog years of development. cess of the last two years, Humansoft to advance this vital sector. Specialising Although Humansoft had a plan, is now developing a version with a new in developing solutions based on it lacked the funding to take its idea map engine to offer a more graphic and Microsoft Dynamics AX, it long ago forward. This is a common barrier for “easy to use” interface. Responding started planning a Microsoft Dynamics many small and medium-sized enter- to feedback from OptimAX users, the AX solution to allow logistics companies prises across Europe. But with the help new solution will also provide enhance- to plan their routes via digital maps and of the European Union Grants Advisor ments to cover the whole logistics to give them and their customers the (EUGA) programme – established by process. ability to track deliveries. Microsoft and its consortium part- Humansoft is optimistic about the Humansoft Director András Fehér ners – Humansoft successfully applied business opportunities in spite of the says: “Hungary’s geographical posi- for funding from Hungary’s Economic current economic climate. Fehér says: tion makes us one of the top transit Competitiveness Operational “The EUGA programme has helped us countries in Europe. We wanted to take Programme and was able to start to grow and with the money from the advantage of the growing international developing software solutions in grant we were able to speed up the logistics investments in Hungary, and February 2006. development processes and ensure develop a solution we could introduce Last year, Humansoft sold the new quicker returns on our investment.” n to the international market.” Its solu- solution (named OptimAX) to a lead- For more information on EUGA, see tion aims to help logistic companies ing agricultural company in Hungary http://www.microsoft.com/emea/euga/ by organising people, processes, and as well as to an international logistics

46 partnerships and people

Windows Embedded collaborates with European businesses In February 2008, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC was created to foster product development in Europe by addressing the needs of industry partners and customers. Products developed at the MESDC are intended to tackle challenges faced by European customers, but also demonstrate ap- plicability throughout the globe.

Bill Dunlap, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, talks to FUTURES about the new centre.

What is unique about the MESDC? vehicle-to-vehicle communication, to name but two. With the MESDC, we’ve located a Microsoft development As we gain an understanding of how customers plan to team close to where partners and customers are creating utilise DES devices, our job is to determine what changes new embedded solutions. By doing this we can engage more we can make to the Windows Embedded platform to better frequently with these companies to understand their busi- enable development. As a software engineering team we ness and vision for the future. will implement these changes and make them available to In particular, we’re interested in how customers intend our customers. In this way, we really are an extension of the to network a system of embedded devices. The general term core development team back in Redmond. Depending on for this is ”distributed embedded systems” or DES. the opportunity, we might also work closely with a customer These solutions are useful across a large number on a specific, high-impact project to ensure they’re getting markets. Examples might include industrial automation and exactly what they need in the underlying operating system. >>

47 >> Why is the MESDC located in Europe? continuously evaluate whether it’s ap- can connect to other devices, the Across Europe there’s significant plicable to our specific mission. personal computer and to services innovation happening in embedded in the cloud. We’ve only begun to see systems. Market segments where you How do you see the potential of the the improvements provided by these can readily see this include automo- market for embedded systems? connected devices. Consider, for tive, aerospace, retail, healthcare and We expect the market for embed- instance, a vending machine that can energy. Of course, these aren’t the only ded devices to be one of the fastest- communicate over the Internet. Such places where embedded development growing over the next few years. a set of devices could enable centra- is occurring. Europe has well estab- Projections show that the market for lised management across geogra- lished manufacturing industries, and embedded devices will outpace that phies. The vending company can know there’s a push to improve efficiency of both laptop and desktop hardware. instantly what is selling and where. In through the use of embedded systems. We estimate that the market for con- addition, they can get alerted to which The European Union is also helping nected enterprise devices is expected machines need maintenance. The drive new research through invest- to grow by 23 per cent per year, and end result is much better inventory ment in ARTEMIS [a public–private the market for connected consumer management and this translates into partnership] and the Seventh Frame- devices is expected to grow at a rate of better profits. work Programme. 50 per cent per year. On the horizon is even more The best part about all this acti Of the 3 billion embedded devices powerful silicon, specifically those vity is that it’s easy to meet with a shipping this year, we estimate that supporting multiple processing units. variety of partners and customers. approximately two-thirds of them will These multi-core and many-core Given our mission to move the be connected to a network or manage processors will open up even more Windows Embedded platform forward ment service. Further, the use of interesting possibilities for embedded to enable DES scenarios, I can’t think connected devices in the enterprise devices. The Windows Embedded team of a better place to be located than in is expected to grow at a rate of more is working to update our platform and Europe. than 20 per cent per year. This growth tools to better build and consume ser- provides a great opportunity to work vices as well as to architect distributed The MESDC and EMIC are both located with customers across Europe to bring embedded systems. in Aachen, so what is the difference? a range of innovative, next-generation The MESDC and EMIC are comple- devices to market. Where do you want to add value? ments to one another. The EMIC team Our goal is to give software develop- is focused on pursuing collaborative What will be the trends over the com- ers and systems engineers the tools research with European partners. ing years? that will help them more easily create Their goal is to incubate ideas and The move to 32-bit processors has en- distributed embedded systems. We create technology prototypes. As was abled a wide range of new capabilities. envision improvements to the em- mentioned previously, MESDC is a There’s been consolidation of pro- bedded platform including device product development centre. We’re cessing power resulting in significant management and more reliable, safe tasked with driving innovation into the cost reductions. We’re seeing more and secure connectivity. Through the Windows Embedded platform to bet- sophisticated user interfaces being MESDC we’ll be able to understand ter support DES scenarios. The work incorporated into devices. The devices the needs of our partners and cus- we do at MESDC goes into shipping themselves are smarter so they can tomers to build out these platform products and is made available to solve more problems. innovations. Through this we can help our customers. The EMIC team freely At the same time, the devices respond to some of the key concerns share their research with us and we have become IP-addressable. They of the European marketplace. n

48 The Community Skills Technology Program provides technology skills training.

Helping people gain skills for a changing economy Sylvie Laffarge, Microsoft’s Director Community Affairs Europe, tells FUTURES that in challenging economic times, collaboration and investment in education and skills training are more important than ever.

What is the focus of Microsoft’s community investment for their work, such as the Telecentre-Europe network, which strategy? provides a learning network for telecentre staff, and the Our approach is all about technology empowerment. Through Microsoft NGO Connection online portal which provides one- the Microsoft Community Skills Technology Programme, stop access for NGOs to our technology training resources. we focus on supporting community organisations to provide And we enable Microsoft staff to volunteer at community first-class technology skills training and certifications to NGOs to apply their individual talents and innovative ideas to people from underserved populations, such as women, youth, specific challenges. senior citizens, and people with disabilities. We see this as a key pathway for people to gain new skills needed in a rapidly How do you see your programmes contributing in challeng- changing economy and be empowered in their daily lives. ing economic times? We also focus on building up the technological capacity of Education and skills are a priority area for many countries’ community NGOs so they can use technology to achieve their economic resilience strategies, and it is more important than goals and reach more people. Both aspects are clearly in high ever for governments, business and communities to collabo- demand given the current economic situation. rate closely to maximise reach and results. Technology skills are clearly essential to competitiveness and resilience in How do you bring innovation into your programmes? every sector of the economy, and also for the future transition Our investments include financial grants, software dona- to a greener economy. Microsoft is very committed to com- tions, curriculum development, employee volunteering and munity partnership and investment in technology skills, and education for NGOs. We aim to bring our product innova- our programmes are embedded in how we do business. Over tions directly into the community space, so that people doing the next three years we aim to reach 4.7 million people in Microsoft-supported IT skills training are learning using the over 3,000 Community Technology Centres with our partners latest technologies. We also work closely with our community across Europe, and I am totally confident that it is with their partners to develop and support innovative support systems help that we can make an even more valued contribution. n

49 Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva (left) examines a display at European Growth and Innovation Day.

Ready for innovation Microsoft’s European Growth protection. That requires harmonised legislation, but also, she said, the adoption of voluntary codes by industry. and Innovation Day brought Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane together policymakers and soft- Reding showed a passion for technology rarely seen outside the IT industry in her keynote address (see page 6). She ware developers in Brussels to also showed a keen interest in the exhibits, in particular those about e-health. see how the IT industry can help The day boasted an impressive line up of speakers drive innovation in Europe. and panellists, as well as Microsoft teams together with 40 partnering SMEs showcasing their latest technologies. “The Internet offers great opportunities to consumers,” There were three lively keynote speeches – those by said European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Meglena Kuneva in a half-hour keynote speech and Viviane Reding, Meglena Kuneva, the Commissioner for Con- question-and-answer session at the European Growth and sumer Protection Affairs, and one by Alexandr Vondra, deputy Innovation Day in March, hosted by Microsoft. “It has the prime minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic. potential to be one of the most empowering tools consum- But most of the day involved interactive discussions in ers have ever had.” Consumers, she said, are rapidly four break-out sessions focusing on innovation in e-health, adopting Web 2.0 behaviours – and in so doing driving building trust online, the role of intellectual property in in- forward innovation themselves. novation, and the future of online gaming. But Kuneva warned that deficiencies in the internal The debates touched on a wide range of issues. market, resulting from a “maze of different rights”, might What are the concerns of tomorrow’s software developers? slow down innovation. “Innovation and competitiveness How will the next EU presidency help in driving innovation? require a regulatory market that is predictable and accom- The roles and responsibilities of government and industry. modates and encourages new developments in goods and Will tomorrow’s spin-off company be armed to compete services,” she said, adding that consumer confidence in internationally? Internet commerce depends on a robust system of consumer Clearly, ICT is about much more than technology. n

50 TECHNOLOGY FOR A HEALTHIER EUROPE Improving quality and lowering the cost of medical care

Today´s healthcare systems are facing numerous challenges We believe it is time for a different approach. related to such areas as the aging population, the quality of the care provided, the availability of resources, and At Microsoft, we are working on technology solutions for increasing efﬁciency while keeping costs down. every area of health. We understand that health is all about the care. It is about the knowledge, services and products Concerning healthcare, Microsoft primarily believes that delivered to people by the many organizations throughout people are the key to success, whether success is measured the entire health ecosystem, including providers, payers, by healthy patients or a healthy bottom line. We consider health and social service agencies, life science organizations that knowledge can transform and improve healthcare and patients. Our innovative technology helps improve the delivery, and that technology applied to health is an way patient orders are recorded in hospitals; supports important agent of change. In every area of the health patients with the greatest variety of choice of medical care; ecosystem, organizations that develop, deliver and pay for enables pharmaceutical companies gain greater returns health products and services are increasingly challenged to on R&D investments and it empowers consumers to take provide better and safer care to more patients in less time charge of their own care by keeping track of personal health and at a lower cost. information. The core of this new approach is Knowledge Driven Health. The working environment in the health care system is overloaded with disconnected information and fragmented As we look towards the prospect of Europe’s recovery with different technology systems. At the same time, diverse and the well-being of European citizens, we look forward demands must be met from many different stakeholders, to collaborating with industry, governments, users and including government services and regulators, health payers patients’ associations to drive real change in our collective researchers, providers, patients and consumers. In the past, health care system. solving these issues with technology was expensive and overwhelming. The technology solutions available weren’t For more information : affordable and they regularly took too long to implement microsoft.com/health and then did not meet users’ needs. blogs.msdn.com/healthblog

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