Technology for Emerging Markets at Microsoft Research India
India is home both to a booming IT economy and to a large, economically poor population. While the latter benefit little from the former, there are some things that computing can do to support the needs and desires of underserved communities. The Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research India conducts research specifically to identify possible applications of technology for socio-economic development. Our approach is interdisciplinary and human-centered, with group members consisting of designers, social scientists, and technologists. In this talk, I will discuss some of our projects in technology for agriculture and education.
Given the anticipated audience at UC Berkeley, where there are significant efforts in related areas, I’d also like to use the talk as a springboard for discussion about what makes “ICT4D” unique and how we define ourselves as a field.
Kentaro Toyama is assistant managing
director of Microsoft Research India, in Bangalore, where he supports the lab’s daily operation and contributes to strategy and overall management. He also leads a group that conducts research to identify applications of computing technology in emerging markets and for international development. From 1997 to 2004, he was at Microsoft Research in Redmond, where he did research in multimedia and computer vision and worked to transfer new technology to Microsoft product groups. In 2002, he took personal leave from Microsoft to teach mathematics at Ashesi University, a private liberal arts college in Ghana. Kentaro graduated from Harvard with a bachelors degree in physics and from Yale with a PhD in computer science. He hopes to see you at ICTD2007!
