[PRL] Fwd: Programming Languages and Tools at Microsoft Research

[Matthias Felleisen]

Several Microsoft researchers have my name on the "dear" list. So, here 
is an invitation to think about MSR as a potential summer job. As with 
Sun's offer, I find three aspects particularly interesting: (1) test 
and verification efforts, (2) language constructs for improved 
productivity (I know Dave and I am not sure what he means with that), 
and (3) software contracts. I urge you to think seriously about a 
summer in a research lab in industry. With a PhD your most likely 
interesting employment opportunities will be (1) an academic research 
and teaching position, (2) a teaching position, or (3) an industrial 
research position. To find out what industrial research labs are like, 
the first two summers are your best opportunity -- unless you're 
working on a paper/project already.

In case you're interested, talk to me first. Mitch and Will and I will 
meet soon to find out how many PhD students we can support this summer 
and whom we will support. Note: the deadline for the MSR position is 
early Feb.  We will coordinate our efforts in a timely fashion.

- Matthias



Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Jim Larus" <larus at microsoft.com>
> Date: Mon Jan 12, 2004  12:36:41 PM US/Eastern
> To: <matthias at ccs.neu.edu>
> Subject: Programming Languages and Tools at Microsoft Research
>
> Dear Matthias,
>
>  
>
> Ben Zornand I wanted to let you know about some exciting changes and 
> new research opportunities at Microsoft Research.  
>
>  
>
> We have long been part of the MSR Programmer Productivity Center 
> (PPRC), which is both Microsoft’s internal tools group and the part of 
> Microsoft Research that performs research on languages, compilers, 
> tools, and performance. Recently, Jim and I have become assistant 
> directors of Microsoft Research and are increasing our research 
> efforts in these areas.
>
>  
>
> Our goal is to dramatically improve software development, quality, and 
> performance. To achieve these ends, we are reexamining the fundamental 
> assumptions and practices of software development. Software needs 
> stronger mechanisms for isolation, more effective approaches to 
> specifying correct and incorrect behavior, and new ways to detect and 
> recover from errors.  At the same time, performance remains a critical 
> issue that is exacerbated by increasing memory latency and processor 
> concurrency.  To achieve these goals, we are starting a new project 
> that spans the existing, historical boundaries between compiler, OS, 
> runtime, and tools research.
>
>  
>
> This ambitious research program will be built on collaboration between 
> strong research teams.  Inside PPRC there are groups actively pursuing 
> research in many different areas:
>
> • 	Tom Ball(tball at microsoft.com) leads the Testing, Verification, and 
> Measurement group - TVM performs research on testing and measuring the 
> reliability of complex software systems. Current focus problems 
> include automatic test generation, testing of modified programs, 
> visualization of software change, and dynamic inference of behavior. 
> (http://research.microsoft.com/tvm/)
> • 	Trishul Chilimbi(trishulc at microsoft.com) leads the Runtime Analysis 
> and Design group - RAD focuses on runtime systems and analyses 
> including hybrid static-dynamic approaches to designing innovative 
> tools and architectures that enhance software reliability, resilience, 
> performance, and security. (http://research.microsoft.com/rad)
> • 	Manuvir Das(manuvir at microsoft.com) leads the Scalable Program 
> Analysis group – SPA believes that regular use of a variety of 
> automated tools will become a necessary component of day to day 
> software development practice. The goal of the SPA group is to invent 
> and build the program analysis engines that will drive these 
> tools. (http://research.microsoft.com/spa/)
> • 	Sriram Rajamani(sriram at microsoft.com) leads the Software 
> Productivity Tools group - SPT does research in writing and enforcing 
> partial specifications about programs, new methods to find concurrency 
> errors in programs, and new methodologies for designing software aided 
> by such tools. (http://research.microsoft.com/spt/)
> • 	David Tarditi(dtarditi at microsoft.com) leads the Advanced Compiler 
> Technology group - ACT studies programming language implementation and 
> design.  We are interested in compilers, runtime systems, and language 
> design, with an emphasis on language features that improve programmer 
> productivity, program performance, and reliability. 
> (http://research.microsoft.com/act/)
>
>  
>
> In addition, we work closely with other groups in Microsoft Research, 
> including:
>
>  
>
> • 	Wolfram Schulte (schulte at microsoft.com) leads the Foundations of 
> Software Engineering group – FSE’s research focuses on technologies 
> for modeling and verification, mainly using a new contract 
> specification language for .NET and a new breed of static analysis, 
> test case generation and runtime-verification tools. 
> (http://research.microsoft.com/fse/)
>
>  
>
> Organizationally, our potential impact in Microsoft has increased 
> significantly when PPRC’s Director, Amitabh Srivastava, recently 
> become the Vice President of Development in the Windows Core OS team.  
> As such, we have an unprecedented opportunity to conduct fundamental 
> research and, at the same time, influence and improve software 
> development at the world’s largest software company.
>
>  
>
> Please tell your best students about the research opportunities in 
> these groups and let them know that we are encouraging applicants 
> (both full-time and summer interns) to send their application 
> materials as soon as possible, preferably by,February 15, 2004.   
> Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce 
> diversity.  For more information about full-time and intern 
> employment, please visit:
>
>  
>
> http://research.microsoft.com/pprc/pprc-recruiting-2004.aspx
>
>  
>
> If you have any questions or would like more information, please don’t 
> hesitate to contact us.
>
>  
>
> Jim & Ben
>
>  
>
>  
>
> P.S.  Microsoft Research has an extensive summer internship program.  
> You can find out more about it by visiting 
> http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/jobs/internships/redmond.aspx
>
>  
>
> P.P.S.  PPRC builds the tools that Microsoft uses. These tools are 
> built by Research Software Design Engineers (RSDEs) and PPRC is hiring 
> students with strong development skills and a desire to see ideas 
> through to practice, in addition to a background in the research areas 
> above. For more information about the jobs, visit 
> http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/jobs/fulltime.aspx
>
>  
>