Driving Innovation in MEA: Microsoft Experience (Part II)

1. Driving Innovation in MEA: Microsoft Experience (Part II) Tarek Elabbady, PhD Director of Cairo Microsoft Innovation Center

2. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

3. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

4. Microsoft experience Part (I)

5. Microsoft Experience (Part I)

6. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

7. The Global Economy "It is pure idiocy that Congress will not open our borders -- as wide as possible -- to attract and keep the world's first-round intellectual draft choices in an age when everyone increasingly has the same innovation tools and the key differentiator is human talent.“ Thomas Friedman

8. Intellectual Property Patent Applications per $1bn of GDP, 2007 estimate Source: World Intellectual Property Organization

9. Innovation in the Global Economy • Research and Science & Technology activities have become more internationalized, in line with the increasing globalization of value chains. • The economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are taking further steps in many areas of the knowledge economy. • Public policies fostering innovation through new instruments such as R&D tax relief and reinforcement of industry-science linkages. Source: OECD Directorate for Science, Technology, and Industry

10. The Internet • Past: Create & Compute at the core; then broadcast to the periphery • Future: Massive data generated at the periphery; novel systems & architectures; distributed core of high-end computers Topological view of the Internet

11. Next Innovation The next innovation will come from Science leveraging IT and new computational resources

12. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

13. Applied Research • Global economy presents opportunities for applied and specialized research: • Closer to problem spaces • Traffic, Population controls • Closer to industry clusters • Oil & Gas, Marine, Mining, Tourism • Regional, cultural, and social dimensions • Hajj, Languages, Heritage and Animal Preservation • Computer Science is taking more applied form at large universities • Cyber Center at Purdue University$1 bnfund Y2010

14. Challenges in MEA • No Specialization: • Missing strategic planning (see Gov. role) • No steering from regional research funding (e.g. EU, NIH, NSF) • Teaching activities are dominating over research activities at most of the region universities • Education systems hinder independent thinking. • Good graduates are not necessarily good researchers • Technical managers are rare; • Entrepreneurs (a necessarily components for applied research) are even harder to find • No serious venture capital investments in IT • No clear exit strategy for VC investments

15. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

16. Microsoft’s IP Ventures team • Responsible for spinning out technologies from our research labs and development centers worldwide.  • Microsoft contributes IP, world class researchers, technology and PR support.  • Partners with VCs & entrepreneurs to form new ventures.  • In exchange for IP investment, Microsoft takes equity stake in the companies we work with and actively work with the management teams to help them succeed.

17. Closed 6 transactions thus far – 3 in Europe and 3 in the US: •  Wallop (www.wallop.com) – Social networking and event planning • Zumobi (www.zumobi.com) – Advertising-sponsored mobile widget platform • Skinkers (www.skinkers.com) – Real-time, peer to peer content distribution

18. Outline • Recap Part I of the Microsoft experience • Trends: globalization & computation tools are opening new windows for innovation • Applied research the opportunity and the challenge • Microsoft IP Venture team • Governments role to support applied research and innovation

19. The Government Gear • R&D tax relief • Push for specialization through • Developing and promoting nationwide IT strategy • Drive academic curriculum reforms to promote more independent thinking among universities graduates • Contribute to a regional research strategy • Build ties between specialized science labs and industry • Steer up venture capital activities (not financial aid) • Provide a nurturing environment for startups (physical facilities, capacity building) • Build viable statistics and industry information

20. Dr. Hazem AbdelAzim The Egyptian Government Model

21. Backup

22. Computational Power Moore Law, #Transistors Doubles Every 18 months Edhol Law, bandwidth Doubles Every 9 months Storage Doubles Every 12 months Records Sorted per Second Doubles Every 12 months GB Sorted per $ Doubles Every 12 months 2010 1995 2000 2005

23. Edinburgh Glasgow DL Newcastle Belfast Manchester Cambridge Oxford Hinxton RAL Cardiff London Southampton Distributed Cores & Data UK e-Science Grid ‘[The Grid] intends to make access to computing power, scientific data repositories and experimental facilities as easy as the Web makes access to information.’ Tony Blair, 2002