Professor Jeremy O’Brien was recently invited to join the 17th Annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit. The Summit brings together more than 500 industry and academic researchers from around the world and provides a rare multidisciplinary opportunity to discuss major topics in contemporary computing research in a forum of thought leaders. This year’s theme focused on where and how computing can contribute to increasing productivity in our professional and personal activities. Attendees from academia and Microsoft participated in sessions ranging from virtual reality, optical networks, streaming analytics and big data infrastructure to the future of work and crowdsourced problem solving.

In particular, the workshop Jeremy attended focused on advances in quantum algorithms, quantum devices, control systems and quantum error correction and the Summit provided a chance for academic researchers and educators together with Microsoft researchers to share ideas and results around some of today’s most exciting new directions including the significant progress towards scalable quantum bits and gates. Jeremy's participation strengthens our collaborative relationship with the Quantum Architectures and Computation Group at Microsoft Research Redmond.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella headlined the opening keynote in a fireside chat. Highlighting the empowering nature of technological innovation, Nadella credited Microsoft Research for its “ability to push the envelope of fundamental research in an environment where the company is much broader than any one product, or any one technology, or one segment.”