Microsoft Solver Foundation at TechFest 2009

Microsoft TechFest 2009 kicks off next week here in Redmond, and I am pleased to be representing Solver Foundation along with my teammate Lengning.  If you don't work for Microsoft, then you may not have had much exposure to TechFest. TechFest is important from Microsoft's perspective because it shows off the innovations that Microsoft Research continues to pump out.   For me, "it's personal": I've been attending TechFest as a curious employee for years, but this is the first time that I get to be in the booth, talking about the stuff I work on. 

On Monday, Lengning and I will be setting up our booth and preparing for the week.  On Tuesday, researchers from academia and the press will be reviewing some of the demos, including Solver Foundation.  Wednesday and Thursday the full floor will be opened up to Microsoft employees.   Friday I take a nap ;)  It's kind of a festive atmosphere, and a geek's dream.  Lots of cool hardware, deep algorithms, and interesting problems.  Tuesday is going to be interesting because it will be the first time that I will be talking with the press about Solver Foundation.  I will be faced with the challenge of trying to explain Solver Foundation in a nontechnical way without resorting to facile generalities or buzzwords.  It's a very good thing to be forced to do that once in awhile!  Maybe I'll post my best and worst soundbite of the week here, who knows...

I'll be posting some of my impressions and experiences from TechFest over the next week.  I hope to see some coverage of Solver Foundation out there on the web too.  If you're a Microsoft employee then drop by our booth on Wednesday or Thursday of next weeks for some cool demos and conversation.  If you're not, I'll try to give you a flavor of TechFest via this blog.