From his deep technical roots as a principal researcher and founder of the Communications, Collaboration and Signal Processing group at MSR, through his tenure as Managing Director of the lab in Redmond, to his current role as Distinguished Engineer, Chief Scientist for Microsoft Research and manager of the MSR NExT Enable group, Dr. Rico Malvar has seen – and pretty well done – it all.

Today, Dr. Malvar recalls his early years at a fledgling Microsoft Research, talks about the exciting work he oversees now, explains why designing with the user is as important as designing for the user, and tells us how a challenge from an ex-football player with ALS led to a prize winning hackathon project and produced the core technology that allows you to type on a keyboard without your hands and drive a wheelchair with your eyes.