REDMOND, Wash., June 25, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today demonstrated its commitment to fostering academic innovation by awarding grants to colleges and universities around the world. The company announced that 77 colleges and universities from more than 25 countries have been awarded Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded with grants totaling $1.7 million to fund new research projects and curriculum development based on Microsoft® Windows®
Embedded platforms. The grants were awarded by Microsoft University Relations in conjunction with the Microsoft Windows Embedded Academic Program (WEMAP), a free program that provides academic educators and researchers with access to source code, development tools and support for the development of projects.
Today’s Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded announcement is another step in Microsoft’s strong alliance with academia in turning ideas and research into reality. Microsoft will host a Windows Embedded Academic Developers Conference to help jump-start learning opportunities and build a worldwide community for grant recipients and other members of the academic community.
“We received a tremendous quantity of remarkable proposals from the academic community for research projects and curriculum development based on the Windows Embedded platforms. Winners were selected for their outstanding examples of creativity and innovation,”
said Douglas Leland, director of University Relations at Microsoft Research.
“From robotics to wireless and ubiquitous computing, there is a great deal of activity in the device space. As more and more powerful computing devices develop, making fundamental contributions to the future of technology, our mission at Microsoft is to help promote that innovation and make software easily accessible to empower the next generation of engineers.”
To participate in the Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded, more than 120 colleges and universities worldwide submitted more than 130 research and curriculum proposals that included use of either Windows CE .NET or Windows XP Embedded. Grant recipients were selected based on a variety of criteria, including scientific merit, novelty, innovation and public accessibility to the results of the work.
Academic Developer Conference Provides Hands-On Training
In addition to today’s announcement, Microsoft also announced that professors and doctoral students from more than 80 universities and colleges around the world will attend an Embedded Academic Developers Conference June 26–27, 2003, at Microsoft’s Redmond Campus. The conference was created to enable the academic community to gain technical knowledge about the Windows Embedded family of products, including Windows CE .NET and Windows XP Embedded. The conference will include hands-on sessions and discussions concerning all aspects of embedded development to help promote ideas for curriculum and research projects and better enable grant winners to get their projects quickly under way.
Windows Embedded Academic Program Fosters Innovation
The Windows Embedded Academic Program is available to colleges, universities and academic institutions worldwide. It enables new curricula such as courseware and research projects by providing academics with the Windows Embedded Academic Curriculum License (WEACL), which permits access to more than 2 million lines of source code through the Windows CE Shared Source License. In addition, WEACL provides development tools and support that enable users to collaborate on projects easily via the Windows CE .NET Shared Platforms Program as well as access to Microsoft Official Curriculum materials for both Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE .NET. WEACL enables engineers to create projects and modify code for development, testing and evaluation purposes only. More information about WEMAP can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/partners/academic/weacl/default.aspx .
Continuing Academic Alliance and Innovation
Today’s Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded announcement is another step in Microsoft’s strong alliance with academia in turning ideas and research into reality. In February the company announced the recipients of the annual Microsoft Research (MSR) University Relations Innovation Excellence research grants, awarded to 25 schools around the globe to enable them to conduct research in different areas of emerging technology. More information about the MSR University Relations program can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/collaboration/university/.
Shared Source Initiative
The Microsoft Shared Source Initiative is a balanced approach that makes source code more broadly available while preserving the intellectual property rights that sustain a strong software business. The Shared Source Initiative framework supports a spectrum of programs and licenses offered by Microsoft, including the Windows CE Shared Source Program. The Windows CE Shared Source Program is available via the Web for free download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/ce/tools/source/default.asp (connect-time charges may apply).
About the Microsoft Windows Embedded Family
Microsoft is the worldwide leader in providing adaptable and scalable platforms for building the next generation of 32-bit, connected devices that enable rich applications and services. Microsoft Windows Embedded is a family of operating system software for use in embedded devices such as automated teller machines (ATMs), consumer electronics, gateways, industrial controllers, kiosks, mobile handheld devices, point-of-sale terminals, set-top boxes, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones and Windows-based thin clients. The Windows Embedded family of operating systems consists of Windows XP Embedded, which delivers the power of Windows XP Professional in componentized form for flexible development of reliable and advanced devices, and Windows CE .NET, an advanced, real-time operating system for small-footprint devices. Each of these operating system platforms includes powerful development tools for rapid development of customized devices. A core license with an estimated retail price of $3 (U.S.) provides the rich capabilities of Windows CE .NET 4.2 for creating low-cost commercial and consumer devices. A free, noncommercial distribution license for Windows CE .NET 4.2 enables developers to share device images at no cost to foster innovation and collaboration. More information about the Windows Embedded family of operating systems can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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“Our research programs require technology platforms that are flexible, scalable and reliable. Microsoft’s Windows CE .NET and Windows XP Embedded meet these requirements, and are exceptional platforms for our Autonomous Robotics Research.”
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Hod Lipson
Assistant Professor
Cornell University
“By using Windows XP Embedded, I am able to use a modern, carefully designed operating system kernel to test process scheduling. This will enable us to really study the behavior of scheduling policies that address the needs of embedded systems. With the new academic programs that Microsoft Research and the Embedded Device Group are offering, I’m able to get the answers I need for my research much faster than before.”
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Gilles Muller
Full Professor
Ecoles des Mines de Nantes/INRIA
“We are using Windows CE .NET to expand our work on ubiquitous embedded applications. As these kinds of applications begin to have a major impact on our daily lives, knowing how to support reliable and economically feasible development and verification processes will be critical. Working with a real-time operating system like Windows CE .NET ensures that our research will have usefulness in real-world situations once it is completed.”
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Victor Braberman
Professor
Department of Computing
FCEyN, University of Buenos Aires
“Innovative research programs using the latest technology available are an important focus at Harvard. Microsoft’s funding will help us further our research on sensor networks and will enable us to build a sensor network structure using Windows CE .NET.”
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Margo Seltzer
Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engineering
Harvard University
“At UNICAMP, we use Windows Embedded technologies as a solid basis for a number of our research programs to develop theoretical thinking and exploration of computing. Using Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE .NET we hope to figure out a variety of ways to optimize embedded operating systems for different kinds of hardware. The Windows Embedded Academic Program enables us to get access to the kind of deep technical information we need to enable this kind of research to be successful.”
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Rodolfo Jardim de Azevedo Professor
Institute of Computing
UNICAMP
“Our university is located near HsinChu Science-Based Industrial Park — the heart of the IT industry in Taiwan. Companies look for our consulting in the start-of-the-art technology, and many of our students go out to work in the park. The Windows Embedded Academic Program and the Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded allow us to build more opportunity for exploration of the Windows CE .NET architecture and enable us to teach and share the findings with our students and industrial partners.”
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Yeh-Ching Chung
Professor
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
“At Peking University we are planning an embedded systems curriculum and labs, and have set a goal to become a leading university in this field in China. Microsoft’s Embedded Academic Program and the Innovation Excellence Awards for Windows Embedded grant gave us the opportunity to not only conduct research on the Windows CE .NET platform but to expedite the pace to meet our goal.”
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Zhong Chen
Professor and Dean of the School of Software
Peking University
“We are developing a graduate course on embedded systems. Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE .NET will be used to foster collaboration and promote learning about computing that is relevant for today and into the future.”
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David Fuller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Computer Science
Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile
“As handheld devices become more popular in our society, the issues of power management become more and more important. The Windows CE .NET operating system enables us to carry out the experiments required to test our theories, and it will help substantiate our claim that applications have an impact on energy consumption, and the Windows Embedded Academic Program makes it easy for us to find the information we need to be successful in our research.”
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Heonshik Shin
Professor and Head of the School of Computer Science and Engineering
Seoul National University
“Windows CE .NET is increasingly prevalent in the embedded systems design space. I am very keen to expose our students to industry-leading technology and have started to incorporate Windows CE .NET into our teaching program.”
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Simon Moore, Ph.D.
Lecturer
University of Cambridge, England
“In our Distributed Control Lab, the Windows CE-based Pocket PC enabled us to create advanced programs centered around real-time robotics and process control systems. Focusing on interconnecting middleware and devices, we plan to advance our work with new hardware and customization options. We’re adding Windows CE .NET to our laboratory because of its real-time characteristics and support for .NET with the Compact Framework.”
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Andreas Polze, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Potsdam
“The real-time capabilities of Windows CE .NET make it an interesting platform for our research in architecture-neutral real-time systems. We also will take advantage of collaboration with the Windows Embedded online community for access to a wealth of information and people with whom we can share our ideas and issues related to our work.”
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Andy Wellings
Professor of Real-Time Systems
University of York
