A dozen winners of Microsoft’s Live Labs Search request for proposals will share $500,000 in funding for their work in Accelerating Search in Academic Research.
Microsoft culled the field of more than 180 applicants down to a neat dozen selections of projects from the academic arena. Programmers from the US and abroad will work on an assortment of general research projects pertaining to machine learning, information retrieval, social software, and other topics.
As part of the deal, the program winners will have access to extensive data logs from MSN, and a version of the MSN software development kit with a higher allotment of queries than customary for their projects.
One participant whose proposed project title, “The Truth Is out There: Aggregating Answers From Multiple Web Sources,” makes a nod to the X-Files described the benefit of the data access in Microsoft’s statement:
“It is very difficult to access large volumes of real data,” said recipient Amlie Marian of Rutgers University. “Being able to work on a large excerpt of real search query logs, including per-query search result click-through, will be a very valuable resource to understand how users search and access information.”
Microsoft said each of the selected projects “demonstrated unique, novel and innovative approaches to advancing the state of the art in the highly competitive Internet search arena.” The $500,000 funding will be parceled out in amounts ranging from $25,000 to $50,000.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
