Cortana Intelligence Institute

Cortana still exists, though its seen heavy competition in recent days.   Finally some significant response, but still more research than delivery?  Impressed by what I have seen of MS AI experiments in Azure, but lets seem more practical substance.  Following.

New institute explores the future of Cortana
By Roy Zimmermann, Director, Microsoft Research Outreach

Today marks the establishment of the Cortana Intelligence Institute – a new, co-funded collaboration between Microsoft Research, Cortana Research and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, to work on next-generation capabilities for Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana.

At Microsoft, we are constantly looking for opportunities to learn from colleagues – both inside and outside of the company. Andrew Shuman, Corporate Vice President of Cortana Engineering, told me that Cortana especially needs this energy because it is such a nascent area. “Working with RMIT on the Cortana Intelligence Institute,” he said, “is an amazing chance to inject new thinking in what we build.”

Mark Sanderson is a pioneering information retrieval researcher at RMIT University and a co-chief investigator of the institute. He noted that the institute also represents a novel opportunity for RMIT’s experts in data retrieval, analysis and modeling to ensure their research is relevant to industry.

“Working collaboratively with industry is a key to ensuring our research provides practical solutions to real-world problems,” he wrote in one of our email exchanges. “We are excited that our students and researchers can work with the Cortana Research team on such high-impact research that has potential to significantly benefit so many people.”  .... " 

(URL for Institute)