{"id":5281,"date":"2014-07-16T21:22:34","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T20:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2014-07-16T23:01:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T22:01:41","slug":"geeking-out-at-microsoft-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/07\/geeking-out-at-microsoft-research.htm","title":{"rendered":"Geeking out at Microsoft Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join the Microsoft Technical Community Council (MTCC), which is described as “a<\/span>\u00a0group of external IT professionals influential in the IT Pro world, who are engaged and interested in sharing their opinions and meet once a month via a Lync call”. \u00a0Basically, the Council is an opportunity for Microsoft to gain feedback from IT Pros with real-world experience of implementing Microsoft technologies\u00a0and for those involved to understand a little more about the road ahead.<\/p>\n

After some frantic NDA-signing, I was privileged to join the MTCC for a face-to-face meeting yesterday at Microsoft Research in Cambridge<\/a>. \u00a0Last time I visited\u00a0Microsoft Research, they were on a different site, on the outskirts of the city, and some of the stuff I heard about, quite frankly, blew my mind. \u00a0I was under NDA than (as an MVP) and under NDA again yesterday, so still can’t talk about what was discussed\u00a0but the Microsoft Research website<\/a>\u00a0showcases some of the projects that have made it from the labs into the real world and describes the current areas of research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We didn’t just learn about Microsoft’s Research operations though – there were other sessions – and the day also gave me\u00a0a chance for me to meet with some of\u00a0the people I’ve known for years but sort of lost touch with whilst\u00a0my work was focused less on Microsoft and more on IT\u00a0strategy – as well as to connect some faces to names – either from Twitter or, in once case, from my customers!<\/p>\n

We also had rather a lot of fun, geeking out with Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer<\/a>\u00a0– a former Microsoft Research project described as:<\/p>\n

“A rapid prototyping platform for small electronic gadgets and embedded hardware devices. It combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics using a kit of hardware modules, and quick physical enclosure fabrication using computer-aided design.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul Foster<\/a>\u00a0(@PaulFo<\/a>), whose antics I’ve written about before (on a home-made Surface table, among other things<\/a> – and\u00a0on PhotoSynth and Community Games<\/a>)\u00a0led us through an exercise more commonly carried out with school children, using Visual Studio with Visual C# Express and .NET Gadgeteer<\/a>. \u00a0Using modular kits we were soon building simple digital cameras, before going on to add\u00a0LED indicators, current sensors, motion detection, etc. –\u00a0with a drag and drop design surface and a few lines of C#. \u00a0Even though I left it to the guys from Content and Code to crack out the\u00a0code (I’ll do the infrastructure piece and plug things together!), I would confidently say that even I<\/em> could have written the code that was required and it’s a very accessible way to get children doing something real with electronics.<\/p>\n

Myself, @WesHackett<\/a> and @bathawes<\/a> getting to grips with .NET Gadgeteer at today’s #MTCC<\/a> meeting pic.twitter.com\/oghYSEKE8x<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) July 15, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n