We are free to choose our own areas of work, but are not uninfluenced by what is done at Redmond. For example, we don't work in graphics or in natural language understanding. We do work, however, in adaptive systems and statistical learning theory, although they have a strong crew at Redmond there. This is because we were able to get individuals who are of extreme value to the company. It is largely for this reason that research is done in the same area in several places - for example the sun never sets on Microsoft vision research.
Statistics runs as an intellectual thread through much of our work.
In information retrieval we work on extension from text to sounds and images. We're starting work in operating systems and hardware, and putting together a group in security. We're now 45 researchers, increasing 10-15 a year. University people considering joining us hear that we want to regard ourselves, and be regarded, as part of the intellectual scene in computer science research. We realize that most research is done by other people.