[Dotnet-sscli] Rotor, SemiWorks, and Technology Transfer

["Jim Miller (COM+)" <jsmiller@microsoft.com>]

Title: Message

(Feel free to forward....)

 

Folks,

 

The product team for the Common Language Runtime (CLR) has been thinking very seriously about the best way to incorporate good ideas from the research community into future releases.  As you can imagine, there are serious considerations that we have to address before accepting direct contributions of code into a commercial product that Microsoft would then be committed to support for seven to ten years.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I'll be talking to folks about it this month both at the upcoming workshop in Cambridge (UK) and the "faculty summit" in Redmond (US).

 

After considerable study of the issue, and discussion with a number of people who have tried this kind of effort in the past, we've come up with a model we'd like to try.  It involves working with researchers who have mature ideas that they have already explored and believe would be beneficial to a large community.  The CLR and Rotor product teams are creating a technology transfer team that can take on the major challenge of applying ideas that have been prototyped using the Rotor code base.  The code name for this team is "SemiWorks" based on the mechanism used in the chemical industry for this kind of technology transfer ("works" is a technical term for the physical building that produces a chemical).

 

The idea is that we'd solicit specific proposals for ideas ready to be tried.  The SemiWorks team would provide technical assistance in building the prototype if assistance is needed, but would primarily be available for consulting as the research team creates the prototype.  As the prototype nears completion the SemiWorks team helps evaluate it and determine if the idea is workable in a commercial implementation as well as the best approach to create the product.  If the project proceeds, the SemiWorks team would work with the rest of the CLR product team to build a commercial version in consultation with the researchers.

 

Clearly there is much more detail involved here.  We are actively looking for someone (preferably from the research community) who can help us flesh out the details, find the first few ideas, and make the entire activity viable and self-sustaining.  Here's a job description for such a person, that has been posted at Microsoft. It is important to note that the success of this effort depends critically on the fact that all of the people involved in it are contributing members of the product team. The position described here is to be about 25% working with the research community in general, 25% establishing and supporting technology transfer projects through the SemiWorks team, and 50% handling regular product group features and activities.  The job would be a full-time, permanent position based out of Redmond, Washington.  If you know of anyone who might be interested, please put them in touch with me or have them apply directly through the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com.

The Common Language Runtime provides a secure, high-performance, platform for development and deployment of components and applications written in a wide variety of programming languages.  In order to meet these goals the team works directly with the programming language research community and internal compiler and languages teams to incorporate their suggestions and feedback into the product design.  As part of our continued commitment to language innovation, we have provided resources for a technology transfer team that can help move features that have proven useful to the research community and internal compiler teams into shipping product.

 

We seek a full-time Technical Program Manager to ensure that the CLR remains the most innovative multi programming language runtime in the industry.  The role is divided into four roughly equal areas of activity: 1) participation in research projects, conferences, and Microsoft and academic community events; 2) consulting with internal compiler teams; 3) selection, architecting, and prototyping of programming language innovations to consider for productization; 4) and coordination across the CLR team of the productization process itself. 

 

A successful candidate will have high visibility in the external computer science research community, interpersonal skills to deal with both that community and the Microsoft product development community, and a deep passion around the transfer of experimental technology into product.  The position will require significant travel, as well as an ability to work closely and coordinate with internal groups including MSR University Relations world-wide, all four MSR Research Labs, product marketing, and other product development teams.  We expect the candidate to become a leader within our product unit, engaging on many fronts to help us balance innovation with prudent product development.  The candidate must have a PhD in Computer Science or related field, or a minimum of eight years industry experience at the cutting edge of software technology interacting with the research community.

--Jim