News and Awards

Microsoft Research is open-sourcing its cutting‑edge 3D Holoportation technology that was used to transform healthcare by bringing doctors and patients together across vast distances. The work highlights real‑time, life‑size 3D telepresence that allows clinicians to…

As AI becomes a bigger part of everyday life, scientists are finding exciting new ways of harnessing its transformative power to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges. From designing new materials to mapping flood risks…

With our partners at Planet, our team has developed TEMPO, an AI model that estimates building density and height from Planet’s satellite imagery for every place on Earth, every three months!

Fellows are Optica members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. Francesca was elected for her pioneering contributions to the field of high-speed optical communications and optical signal processing.

Microsoft has introduced Fara-7B, a new 7-billion parameter model designed to act as a Computer Use Agent (CUA) capable of performing complex tasks directly on a user’s device. Fara-7B sets new state-of-the-art results for its…

Editing code often involves a series of small but necessary changes ranging from refactors to fixes to cleanup and edge-case handling. In February, we launched next edit suggestions (NES), a custom Copilot (opens in new tab) model that…

In VS Code, GitHub Copilot Chat can access hundreds of tools through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that range from codebase analysis tools to Azure-specific utilities. But giving an agent too many tools doesn’t always make it…

Around the world, the dangers of extreme weather are a daily reality. In 2024, extreme weather displaced or disrupted the lives of more than 800,000 (opens in new tab) people worldwide —a reminder that accurate, timely forecasts aren’t just about data; they’re about people. From farmers deciding when to plant to coastal…

AI is transforming conservation in ways that were out of reach just a few years ago. The biodiversity crisis spans continents and species, so our tools must be open, adaptable, and collaborative—able to move from…