Presentation of the Microsoft Research-INRIA Joint Centre

The Microsoft Research-INRIA Joint Centre was founded by INRIA (the
French National Research Institute for Computer Science and Applied
Mathematics), Microsoft Corporation, and the Microsoft Research
Laboratory Cambridge. The Centre's objective is to pursue fundamental,
long-term research in formal methods, software security, and the
application of Computer Science research to the Sciences.

In April 2005, François d'Aubert, the French Minister for Research,
Gilles Kahn, Chairman of INRIA, and Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive
Officer of Microsoft Corporation, signed a memorandum of understanding
and announced the creation of a joint laboratory in France. In October
2005, François Goulard, the French Minister for Research, Gilles Kahn,
and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, signed a framework agreement.  A
new laboratory was created on the Plateau de Saclay, near the campus
of INRIA Saclay, University of Orsay, Ecole Polytechnique, and
Supelec.  Three research projects on Formal Methods and Security were
launched in May 2006.

The official inauguration of the Joint Centre took place at Supelec on
January 12, 2007, in the presence of Eric Boustouller, Chairman of
Microsoft France, Michel Cosnard, Chairman of INRIA, Andrew Herbert,
Managing Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Rick Rashid,
Senior Vice President of Microsoft-Head of Microsoft Research.

The research programme at the Joint Centre is presently divided into
two tracks.  Track A, Software Security and Trustworthy Computing,
comprises three projects: Mathematical Components, Tools and
Methodologies for Formal Specifications and for Proofs, and Secure
Distributed Computations and their Proofs. Track B, Computational
Sciences and Scientific Information Interaction, comprises four
projects: Dynamic Dictionary of Mathematical Functions, ReActivity,
Adaptive Combinatorial Search for E-Science, and Image and Video
Mining for Science and Humanities.

Track A is focused on the application of mathematics to increasing the
security and reliability of software and computing systems through
formal specifications, tools for verification, and theorem proving or
computer assisted proofs. These areas of research rely on a long
history of cooperation between researchers at INRIA and Microsoft
Research through conferences and exchanges of researchers and
Phd/postdoc students. The tools used are mainly the ones of
Mathematical Logic and the Theory of Programming Languages. Track A
addresses new specification and proof techniques for distributed
systems and Web services; it also treats formal proofs of mathematical
theorems, such as the Four-Colour theorem or the Odd Order theorem,
whose proof complexity is at the limits of current prover technology
to handle.

Track B focuses on new software tools and applications for effective
management, analysis of, and interaction with, increasingly highly
complex scientific data. This relates to the areas of computer
algebra, data visualisation, vision, computer human interfaces,
constraint programming and evolutionary algorithms.  This research
track extends the Microsoft European Science Initiative (ESI), focused
on enabling and accelerating ``new kinds'' of science and computing:
new fields emerging at the intersection of computer science and the
natural sciences.

The Joint Centre aims to have 30 permanent researchers on
site. Presently, it benefits from the collaboration of 25 researchers
from INRIA and other French academic institutions, and 14 researchers
from Microsoft Research.

The Joint Centre is based on the strong French tradition of
mathematics and engineering, the international stature of French
academic institutions, and the excellence of research at INRIA and
Microsoft Research. It demonstrates INRIA's and Microsoft Research's
shared vision for the importance of computer science research in the
sciences and the global economy. And, crucially, it is a commitment to
open, academic research: the ideas, technologies, publications, and
software produced by the Joint Centre are all publicly available.