Research Intern - IMAIS Group: Situated Intelligence and Multimodal Interaction in the Physical World
 Microsoft | |
 United States, Washington, Redmond | |
 Nov 04, 2024 | |
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OverviewResearch Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized scientists and engineers, who pursue innovation in a range of scientific and technical disciplines to help solve complex challenges in diverse fields, including computing, healthcare, economics, and the environment.The Interactive Multimodal AI Systems (IMAIS) group at Microsoft Research seeks a Research Intern to work on a project related to Situated Intelligence. The Situated Intelligence research effort aims to enable computers to reason about the physical everyday world, at human scale, and in real time, and fluidly collaborate with people in physical space. Fueled by current advances in perception, large language models, and devices, this emerging computing paradigm will generate within the next decade a new ecosystem of applications, such as systems for mixed-reality task assistance, remote collaboration, educational scenarios, social robots in homes or public spaces, intelligent factory floors, and many more. These systems require computational models for situated communicative processes anchored into reasoning about the physical context. Our work ranges from developing representations (for example, what are key variables for reasoning about turn-taking in a multiparty conversation?) to constructing inference models (for example, which of the surrounding objects is the target of my interlocutor's attention?) to decision making (for example, should I take an action now?) and all the way to execution (for example, how should I render that action in the world, given the context?).
ResponsibilitiesResearch Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world's best researchers, Research Interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Research Interns not only advance their own careers, but they also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, Research Interns are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other Research Interns and researchers, present findings, and contribute to the vibrant life of the community. Research internships are available in all areas of research, and are offered year-round, though they typically begin in the summer. For this Research Internship (summer 2025), our group in Redmond is seeking a PhD student with a passion for research on multimodal, situated interaction topics. Research Intern responsibilities will include (1) helping to develop and refine multimodal interactive systems involving egocentric sensors and other devices, (2) collecting, analyzing, and building models from multimodal data generated by existing systems, and (3) implementing and testing new techniques for computationally modeling social processes like turn-taking, engagement, attention, F-formations, etc. | |