Microsoft is expanding its Microsoft Research unit to a new location starting today. A new press release reveals that the division will open up offices in New York City, specifically Manhattan. The office will have 15 researchers, including three founding members who previously worked at Yahoo in its own research division.
The press release states, "The New York City lab will investigate complementary research areas: computational and experimental social science, algorithmic economics, and machine learning, along with information retrieval." It added, "The new researchers will engage in large-scale machine learning, prediction, and online-market design. They also will develop new techniques in the fields of both computational and online experimental social science."
The New York City offices will be lead by Microsoft Research New England manager Jennifer Chayes, who will continue to be the head of that branch. Indeed, it seems that the New York City and New England branches will have at least some collaboration between the two offices. In addition, Microsoft is hoping to tie into the growing technology business community in New York City, including working with start ups and the various local colleges and universities.
With the addition of the New York City Offices, Microsoft Research will now have 13 branches across four continents.