Technological advancement has always been driven by the need to solve real-world problems, whether social or scientific. Today, computing research and technology continue to provide novel approaches to meeting such challenges. From using analysis to assist with development and algorithms for handling elections and detecting malware, to the potential of the digital home and natural user interfaces, software is experiencing rapid change, and being at the heart of that change is tremendously exciting. With the expansion of the Internet and increased use of social media; malware detection, crowdsourcing, and social search are major topics that are coming to the fore.

The 2012 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit unites academic researchers; educators; and Microsoft researchers, product group engineers, and architects to explore these and other new opportunities and challenges in computer science research.