Washington University's Yixin Chen receives prestigious Microsoft award

Working with Washington University School of Medicine radiation oncologist Joseph O. Deasy, Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology, Chen is applying the algorithm to reduce the complexity of radiation therapy by letting multiple steps in procedures unfold rapidly and efficiently, minimizing tissue damage.

Similarly, Chen's technology can be applied to NASA software so that the decision procedures that rovers and satellites might do in two hours now could be executed in just 30 seconds.

"The goal of the Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship is to promote the use of computing in all kinds of fields," Chen said. "This involves interdisciplinary collaborations.

"My work reveals that there are strong structures underlying the constraints in real-world problems and that, by exploiting such structures, many previously intractable problems can, in fact, be solved efficiently. The goal is that, by reducing the computational complexity of nonlinear optimization, we will develop fast and robust decision-making tools and significantly extend the ways that computing can be used in medical, scientific and engineering applications."

New faculty is the lifeblood of the computer science field, according to Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research.

"They (new faculty) bring a lot of the new ideas; they bring a lot of new excitement and new technologies into the field, Rashid said.

Microsoft Research recognizes, however, that until young professors can build a reputation, they typically struggle to secure adequate funding for their research work, hence the need to nurture outstanding young faculty members early in their careers.

"What we’re trying to do," Rashid explained, "is make sure there’s a really healthy ecosystem, that we’ve got great people going into the field of computer science, becoming professors, and then themselves producing great students that are going to keep the field going into the future."