Microsoft launches The Garage – India at its Hyderabad campus

Microsoft has announced the formal opening of the Microsoft Garage in Hyderabad. The Garage is a resource to Microsoft employees that supports experimentation and encourages problem solving in new and innovative ways, ultimately empowering people to achieve more.

The Garage facility at the Microsoft India Development Center in Hyderabad was inaugurated by Sri K. Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Government of Telangana, in the presence of Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana; Jeff Ramos, Partner Director, Microsoft Garage; Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice-President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited; T.K. Rengarajan, Corporate Vice-President, Artificial Intelligence & Research (AI&R), Microsoft Global; and Reena Dayal Yadav, Director, Microsoft Garage – India.

The Garage is a platform for Microsoft employees that supports and encourages a culture of experimentation, working together across organizations and technology to explore ideas and build prototypes, adding value to existing products. Equipped with the state-of-the-art and modern facilities, the 8,000 sq. ft Garage India has been built to support teams from across the company for their various projects.

It has three dedicated lab sections – a Hub for hackathons and workshops, a Makerspace and an Advanced Makerspace with electronic Workbench, 3D Printers, Laser Cutter, PCB milling machine for creating prototypes; a Reality Room dedicated to working in the space of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on Deep Learning.

Some of the compelling projects that got their start in the Microsoft Garage in the recent past are:

· Seeing AI: An app for visually-impaired people that narrates the world around for them. This project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text, currency, colour, and objects.

· SMS Organizer: An app created for the Android OS that organizes, categorizes and customizes the user’s SMS inbox, helping them focus on categories of messages that are important to them.

· Favourite Lock Screen:  A unique lock screen app created for the Android OS that provides users with daily HD wallpapers and news about their favourite celebrities and interests.

· Kaizala: Mobile app and service designed for large group communications and work management. Kaizala makes it easy to connect and coordinate work through an organization’s entire value chain, including field employees, vendors, partners, and customers wherever they are.

Speaking at the launch, Sri K. Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Government of Telangana, said, “Telangana is fast evolving as the hotbed for innovation. We are really glad that Microsoft has chosen Hyderabad as the location for The Garage in India. Along with our recently announced collaborative platform TWorks and platforms like Microsoft Garage, Hyderabad will transform into a hub for prototype development and ideation, making the city a crucial centre in India’s drive towards the industrial revolution 4.0. We hope to see some amazing design technologies and prototypes being developed in collaboration between these platforms, right here in our state.”