Recent News – Page 101

Posted on April 27, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Our commitment to privacy and security in Microsoft Teams

Almost overnight, video conferencing has become a big part of our daily life and work. A few weeks in, my team and I at Microsoft have adjusted to the new reality of seeing each other’s homes, complete with dogs, cats, and other family members. Everyone around the world is now working, learning, and connecting with colleagues, friends, and family through the power of technology. From kitchen tables to living room couches, and from home offices doubling as home schools—people are relying on Microsoft Teams to work and learn.

Businesses large and small are depending on Teams for mission-critical work. First responders are using Teams to communicate when lives depend on it. Governments are turning to Teams to move medical supplies to where they are needed most. Doctors and nurses are using it to consult with patients, and researchers are collaborating on it across continents to find a vaccine. And teachers are using Teams to teach students in entirely new ways. Important moments of human connection, achievement, and celebration have all moved online.

Now more than ever, people need to know that their virtual conversations are private and secure. At Microsoft, privacy and security are never an afterthought. It’s our commitment to you—not only during this challenging time, but always. Here’s how we’re working to earn your trust every day with Microsoft Teams.

We provide privacy and security controls for video conferences in Teams

We offer a variety of privacy and security controls to allow you to manage who participates in your meetings and who has access to meeting information.

For example, you decide who from outside your organization can join your meetings directly, and who should wait in the lobby for someone to let them in. You can also remove participants during a meeting, designate “presenters” and “attendees,” and control which meeting participants can present content. And with guest access, you can add people from outside your organization but still retain control over your data. Moderation allows you to control who is and isn’t allowed to post and share content. And advanced artificial intelligence (AI) monitors chats to help prevent negative behaviors like bullying and harassment.

When recording a meeting, all participants are notified when a recording starts, and online participants can access our privacy notice directly. Recordings are only available to the people on the call or people invited to the meeting. And recordings are stored in a controlled repository that is protected by permissions and encryption.

We safeguard your privacy by design

When you use Microsoft Teams, you are entrusting us with one of your most valuable assets—your data and personal information. Our approach to privacy is grounded in our commitment to giving you transparency over the collection, use, and distribution of your data. Far from an afterthought, privacy is deeply ingrained in our company philosophy and how we build products. Here are our privacy commitments to you.

We never use your Teams data to serve you ads.
We do not track participant attention or multi-tasking in Teams meetings.
Your data is deleted after the termination or expiration of your subscription.
We take strong measures to ensure access to your data is restricted and carefully define requirements for responding to government requests for data.
You can access your own customer data at any time and for any reason.
We offer regular transparency reports on the Transparency Hub, detailing how we have responded to third-party requests for data.

We protect your identity and account information

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), a feature turned on by your IT administrator, protects your username and password by requiring you to provide a second form of verification to prove your identity. This simple, two-step verification process is widely used in many consumer applications today, including banking, and protects you from attacks that take advantage of weak or stolen passwords.

We protect your data and defend against cybersecurity threats

As a leader in security, Microsoft processes more than 8 trillion security signals every day and uses them to proactively protect you from security threats. In Teams, we encrypt data in transit and at rest, storing your data in our secure network of datacenters and using Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for video, audio, and desktop sharing.

We meet more than 90 regulatory and industry standards

To comply with global, national, regional, and industry-specific regulations, Teams supports more than 90 regulatory standards and laws, including HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP, SOC, and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for the security of students and children.

For more information on the features we’ve built to deliver on these promises, see our detailed post on privacy and security in Microsoft Teams or refer to our Teams product documentation. And to learn more about our approach to security, compliance, and privacy across all our products, including Teams, visit the Microsoft Trust Center.

No matter how you’re using Teams at this extraordinary time to connect with the people that matter most to you for work and in life, we’re committed to continuing to learn and get better each day as we work to help you keep all your conversations private and secure.

Posted on April 27, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Looking back on an unprecedented quarter: customers embrace technology to advance industry innovation, respond to COVID-19 and plan for the future

It is predicted that by 2030, there will be a $4 trillion opportunity focused on new mobility services, as the automotive and transportation sectors converge.

This year has been unlike any other. As we welcomed the new decade, we witnessed industry-leading innovations by our customers and partners at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and National Retail Federation (NRF) conferences in January. We announced ambitious new sustainability initiatives and how we plan to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. Then COVID-19 changed everything, disrupting business as usual and forcing organizations across industries to navigate a new landscape. As we work through the effects of the pandemic together, it is incredible to see how technology is enabling our customers to be agile and maintain business continuity. We are also seeing them adapt and scale to sustain critical products and services — all while preparing for a post-pandemic comeback and the new normal.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers the opening keynote at NRF 2020, sharing his thoughts on the future of retail and how technology can help the industry transform.

Groundbreaking innovation across industries

The first quarter of calendar year 2020 began with a strong focus on what is next in automotive and our participation at CES, a global technology event. The industry is transforming at an incredible speed, quickly shaping the future of mobility and the automotive experience by using cloud, edge, IoT and AI services. Faurecia, a leading automotive technology company is using the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, Teams and Project xCloud to help people stay connected, productive and entertained while in the car. LG Electronics is working to build its automotive infotainment systems with our Azure cloud and AI services, and ZF is transforming into a software-driven mobility provider using Microsoft’s cloud services and developer tools.

At NRF, the world’s largest retail conference, Satya Nadella delivered the opening keynote, sharing ways we are working with retailers to help them better understand their customers, empower employees with digital tools, create a more intelligent supply chain through co-innovation and ultimately reimagine their businesses. During the event, Walgreens Boots Alliance announced it is piloting an immersive mixed reality training program for its employees using HoloLens 2. IKEA shared how it is deploying Microsoft Teams to more than 70,000 workers (including first-line employees) to increase productivity, and H&M shared how Azure IoT is helping propel its continued work toward a more sustainable future for the fashion industry by offering smart garment recycling bins in select stores around the world. Canada Goose, one the world’s largest makers of luxury performance apparel, showed how the company is building on the principle of the endless aisle using Dynamics 365 Commerce software to offer its entire range of products to customers without any physical stock in the store, and Home Depot bet on Microsoft PromoteIQ to help maximize the nearly 170 million monthly visitors on its e-commerce site with the PromoteIQ end-to-end commerce marketing platform. Samsung announced a new smartphone with a push-to-talk button that will leverage the new Walkie Talkie feature available in Microsoft Teams, providing first-line workers like retail employees easier ways to communicate on the job.

In February, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bosch Group and ZF Friedrichshafen signed up as steering committee members of the Open Manufacturing Platform — founded by Microsoft and BMW in 2019 — to help manufacturing companies accelerate innovation at scale through cross-industry collaboration, knowledge and data sharing.

The emergence of a pandemic

As the fight against COVID-19 continues, I am encouraged by how customers are using technology to respond.

On the frontlines, care teams are using technology to scale their triage process to address the overwhelming number of patients needing care and to ease volume in the system. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a COVID-19 assessment bot, powered by Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service running on Azure, to help organizations screen patients for potential infection and care options. These bots use artificial intelligence to help pre-screen patients and provide guidance on care plans, reducing the burden on medical professionals. Swedish Health Services built a mobile app to help hospital staff and administrators monitor resources, protective gear and ventilator use. The app syncs with hospital dashboards powered by the Power Platform emergency response solution to help manage bed count and inventory of critical supplies while sharing the information across the region to help other health professionals prepare their facilities.

Telemedicine is also enabling healthcare providers to continue delivering treatment. For example, Microsoft Teams has allowed doctors at St. Luke’s University Health Network to safely perform more than 75,000 virtual visits with patients vulnerable to the virus, while minimizing direct exposure and preserving valuable resources like masks and gloves.

In education, we are working with schools around the world to enable a remote learning system that fosters a culture of learning outside the classroom — as schools, universities, students and parents adopt the tools necessary for distance-learning models. That includes making Teams available for free for students and educators. The University of Bologna moved 90% of courses for its 80,000 students online to Teams within three days. AI is also playing a critical role in keeping students engaged and learning. The University of Sydney built an AI-infused bot using Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services that responds to students’ questions about COVID-19, providing instant answers and access to additional resources. At Case Western Reserve University, medical students are using Microsoft HoloLens to continue immersive remote learning without falling behind in classwork. In a larger-scale effort to support educators, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is launching a global e-learning initiative to minimize educational disruptions and maintain social contact. Microsoft has joined this coalition to contribute resources and technology expertise to ensure #LearningNeverStops.

In response to the COVID-19 National Emergency Declaration, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) directed the majority of its workforce to work remotely and created the Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) Environment to provide secure teleworking capabilities to millions of users across the entire department. Our continued work with the DoD will lead to the single largest tenant of Office 365 and Microsoft Teams in the coming weeks, with the speed of deployment exceeding anything before it.

A quiet Microsoft Commons in Redmond, Washington as employees work from home in the time of COVID-19.

We are working across industries to accelerate research for a cure for COVID-19 and recently announced our participation in a new consortium alongside C3.ai and top universities to apply AI toward this pandemic challenge. The institute’s work aims to slow the spread of COVID-19, speed the development of medical treatments, predict its evolution and improve public health strategies. Additionally, Microsoft joined the White House-led consortium to provide COVID-19 researchers worldwide access to the most powerful High Performance Computing resources to significantly accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. As we strive to support our customers through technology, we are also doing our part to ensure our employees remain safe while contributing to efforts to protect public health and the well-being of our communities.

Planning for the future

In recent weeks, we have shared details about groundbreaking new partnerships in the financial services sector, major league sports and consumer goods and services. BlackRock is moving its Aladdin platform to Microsoft Azure, the NBA is redefining and personalizing the fan experience through Azure and its AI capabilities, and last week, as part of our deep partnership with the NFL, Microsoft Teams and Surface were part of the technology solution that brought the first-ever virtual NFL Draft to life. Just today, The Coca-Cola Company announced it is standardizing business operations on Microsoft’s cloud to modernize how the company engages with employees and customers. In addition, in late March, we announced an agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks, a leader in fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network solutions. This acquisition, which closed last week, will allow us to evolve our work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators, while we continue to focus on interoperability and strong partnerships with suppliers, emerging innovators and other stakeholders to extend cloud-based, software-defined networking into the world of 5G connectivity.

I am deeply inspired by how our customers and partners across every industry are harnessing digital tools to navigate an uncertain landscape. While COVID-19 has disrupted lives, the resilience we see today gives me confidence that we will be prepared to build a new normal together, full of opportunity and powered by innovation and ingenuity.

Posted on April 27, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Azure confidential computing delivers new level of data protection with DCsv2-series VMs

Security and privacy are critically important when storing and processing sensitive information in the cloud, from payment transactions, to financial records, personal health data, and more. With the general availability of DCsv2-series VMs, we are ushering in the start of a new level of data protection in Azure.

With more workloads moving to the cloud and more customers putting their trust in Microsoft, the Azure confidential computing team continues to innovate to provide offerings that keep and build upon that trust. Starting with our world-class security researchers, and working closely with industry partners, we are developing new ways to protect data while it’s in use with Azure confidential computing. DCsv2-series VMs can protect the confidentiality and integrity of your data even while it’s processed.

What is confidential computing?

There are ways to encrypt your data at rest and while in transit, but confidential computing protects the confidentiality and integrity of your data while it is in use. Azure is the first public cloud to offer virtualization infrastructure for confidential computing that uses hardware-based trusted execution environments (TEEs). Even cloud administrators and datacenter operators with physical access to the servers cannot access TEE-protected data.

By combining the scalability of the cloud and ability to encrypt data while in use, new scenarios are possible now in Azure, like confidential multi-party computation where different organizations combine their datasets for compute-intensive analysis without being able to access each other’s data. Examples include banks combining transaction data to detect fraud and money laundering, and hospitals combining patient records for analysis to improve disease diagnosis and prescription allocation.

Data protection powered by Intel hardware

Our DCsv2 confidential computing virtual machines run on servers that implement Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX). Because Intel SGX hardware protects your data and keeps it encrypted while the CPU is processing it, even the operating system and hypervisor cannot access it, nor can anyone with physical access to the server.

Microsoft and Intel are committed to providing best-in-class cloud data protection through our deep ongoing partnership:

“Customers are demanding the capability to reduce the attack surface and help protect sensitive data in the cloud by encrypting data in use. Our collaboration with Microsoft brings enterprise-ready confidential computing solutions to market and enables customers to take greater advantage of the benefits of cloud and multi-party compute paradigms using Intel® SGX technology.” —Anil Rao, VP Data Center Security and Systems Architecture, Intel

Partners in the Azure Marketplace

Microsoft works directly with platform partners to provide seamless solutions, development, and deployment experiences running on top of our Azure confidential computing infrastructure. Software offerings can be discovered through our Azure Marketplace including:

Fortanix—Offers a cloud-native data security solution including key management, HSM, tokenization, and secrets management built on Azure confidential computing.
Anjuna—Delivers secure Azure instances using end-to-end CPU hardware-level encryption without changing your application or operations.
Anqlave—A valued partner in Singapore, offers enterprise ready confidential computing solutions.

“Anqlave’s proprietary, institutional-grade modern key management and data encryption solution addresses the most critical security issues we face today. With Anqlave Data Vault (ADV) secret management allows users to securely create, store, transport and use its secrets. Leveraging Azure confidential computing, allows us to make this technology more accessible to our enterprise customers and easily support their scale. Providing a secure enclave that is portable in the cloud is one the key reasons why our enterprises will prefer to host their ADV on Azure confidential computing regardless of their other cloud infrastructure.” —Assaf Cohen, CEO, Anqlave

How customers are succeeding with Azure confidential computing

Customers are already using Azure confidential computing for production workloads. One customer is Signal:

“Signal develops open source technology for end-to-end encrypted communications, like messaging and calling. To meet the security and privacy expectations of millions of people every day, we utilize Azure confidential computing to provide scalable, secure environments for our services. Signal puts users first, and Azure helps us stay at the forefront of data protection with confidential computing.” —Jim O’Leary, VP of Engineering, Signal

While many applications and services can take advantage of data protection with confidential computing, we have seen particular benefits with regulated industries, such as financial, government, and healthcare. Companies can now take advantage of the cloud for processing sensitive customer data with reduced risk and higher confidence that their data can be protected, including when processing.

For example, MobileCoin, a new international cryptocurrency trusts Azure confidential computing to support digital currency transfers. Their network code is now available in open source, and a TestNet is available to tryout:

“MobileCoin partners with Azure because Microsoft has decided to invest in trustworthy systems. Confidential computing rides the edge between what we can imagine and what we can protect. The praxis we’ve experienced with Azure allows us to commit to systems that are integral, high trust, and performant.” —Joshua Goldbard, CEO, MobileCoin

Confidential computing has proven useful for enterprise-grade blockchain, enabling fast and secure transaction verification across a decentralized network. Fireblocks is yet another customer taking advantage of Azure confidential computing infrastructure:

“At Fireblocks, our mission is to secure blockchain-based assets and transactions for the financial industry. Once we realized the traditional tech stack was not suitable for this challenge, we turned to Azure confidential computing and Intel SGX to implement our patent-pending technology. Our customers trust Fireblocks to securely store and move their digital assets—over $6.5 billion of them each month—and Azure provides a backbone for us to deliver on that promise.” —Michael Shaulov, CEO and co-founder, Fireblocks

Industry leadership bringing confidential computing to the forefront

Microsoft is not alone in bringing confidential computing to the forefront of the cloud computing industry. In September 2019, we were a founding member of the Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), which now consists of dozens of companies working to develop and open source technologies and best practices for protecting data while it’s in use. These companies include hardware, cloud, platform, and software providers.

Microsoft is also committed to the developer experience to ensure platform partners and application developers can build solutions that take advantage of confidential computing. We donated our Open Enclave SDK to the consortium, an open source SDK for developing platforms and applications on top of confidential computing infrastructure.

Get started today

Get started deploying your own DCsv2 virtual machine from the Azure Marketplace and install necessary tools. Then, run the Hello World sample using the Open Enclave SDK to begin building confidential workloads in the cloud.

Posted on April 24, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Innovating for impact: Meet the 6 Imagine Cup World Finalist teams

Demonstrating tremendous diversity in thought, our six Imagine Cup World Finalist teams offer innovation for social good in many different areas. For example, one team created a robot that can help Kenyan farmers weed their large-scale farms, eliminating the need for environmentally destructive herbicides. Another is building a tool that will make it easier for Parkinson’s patients to have a doctor’s visit, saving them time and money. These are just a few ideas from the six teams that were chosen as finalists, creating tools that change the way we see and solve problems in our world.

For the 18^th annual Imagine Cup, thousands of student teams from around the world submitted impactful tech innovations. The teams were challenged to bring life to an idea that tackles a local or global issue, using Microsoft Azure. One former finalist described Imagine Cup as the “Olympic Games of Student Technology,” providing students the chance to not only share their idea with industry professionals, but also gain a $100,000 prize and the opportunity to receive mentorship with Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella.

This year’s six finalists have created projects that touch on topics such as the environment, mental health, accessibility, and healthcare, with an overarching focus on inclusivity. Taking on the challenges they have seen in their own lives, they are bringing focus, passion, and ingenuity to our world, pushing the envelope on what is possible.

Meet the six final teams and learn more about their projects:

Team Deeptector: US, University of Missouri

Team members: Caleb Heinzman, Kolton Speer, and Imad Eddine Toubal

Projects: Deeptector.io

Team quote: “As with any revolutionary technology, as the benefits of artificial intelligence grow, so does the potential for harm. Our goal for Deeptector is to use AI to help protect the world from the harmful effects of AI.” – Caleb Heinzman, Deeptector

Their project: Deeptector.io is a web app that detects deepfakes, an increasingly common method for propagating misinformation. Using the same AI methods that generate state-of-the-art deepfakes, Deeptector aims to protect journalists and the public from the damage of misinformation. The algorithms that Deeptector uses are commonly known as deep neural networks, which train themselves to differentiate between real videos and fake ones by looking at thousands of examples of each. The team uses Microsoft Azure virtual machines, Storage, and containers, in addition to Twitter API, Python, Flask, and Pytorch.

Their inspiration: The negative consequences of misinformation within society, and Alan Turing

Who can use it? The web app is designed to be as accessible as possible for everyone.

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Team Hollo: Hong Kong SAR, the University of Hong Kong

Team members: Piyush Jha, Natalie Lee, Cameron van Breda

Project: Hollo

Team quote: “The younger generation would like to be heard and for their problems to be seen, and we’re here to help them do that.” ‒ Cameron van Breda, Team Hollo

Their project: Hollo is a digital, mental health companion and therapist, used to enhance practices by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and therapists through an AI chatbot. It leverages Big Data and AI to introduce youth to therapy and counseling practices through online gamified journaling and mindfulness activities. Data from the AI chatbots and journaling can then be collected to generate actionable findings. This scalable model aims to cut the heavy cost of mental health care for youth and supplements existing self-help techniques and therapy practices.

Why it’s important: According to the team, the current model of counseling is not reaching the younger generation. Hollo is making huge strides in becoming a product to help this generation.

Future plans: The team aims to launch within the year to place Hollo in institutions all over Hong Kong and possibly expand to other countries around Asia within a couple of years.

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Team The Knights: Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Team members: Kenneth Gicira, Michael Mwaisakenyi

Project: Weeding Bot

What’s important to The Knights? They want to highlight the problems Kenyan farmers face with weeds on a larger scale in order to bring more visibility to the issue, and how their technology can offer a solution.

Their project: The autonomous weeding bot uses AI (and four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering) to discriminate between weeds and crops achieved through cameras as sensors gathering input from the environment. The vehicle uses the cameras to navigate rows of crops. It encompasses a robotic arm for weeding in between the crop row and a ploughlike weeding tool that is dragged by the robot as it passes in between the rows of crops to remove interrow weeds. Microsoft Azure technology that the team uses includes App Services for mobile and web, Storage, analytics, and Cognitive Services.

Their inspiration: Elon Musk, solving problems on a global scale

Who can use it? The robot can be used by anybody and does not require technical skills to operate. The team made sure that the farmer needs only to place the robot at a given part of the farm, and it will do the rest.

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Team RedWalls: Tunisia, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology

Team members: Mohamed Said Fayache, Achraf Feydi, Meriem Zhang

Project: I-Remember

Team quote: “Everyone says that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease or a way to slow its progression yet. But as Robert A. Heinlein said, ‘Everything is theoretically impossible until it is done.’ Today … the only thing that can make us abandon our fight with this disease is believing that it’s incurable.” – Achraf Feydi, Team RedWalls

Their project: I-Remember is a two-part mobile application designed for the well-being of both the Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. The patient interface includes task reminders, live facial recognition, labeled photos, emergency location, and call assistance, in addition to memory games to help evaluate and train the user’s memory. The caregiver interface provides the same, but with supervisor features. The team uses Microsoft Azure Storage, containers, and Cognitive Services.

Who can use it? Anyone with a phone can download it for free.

Their inspiration: The movie Still Alice, about a linguistic professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, sparked the team’s interest in how technology can be applied to help people.

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Team Syrinx: Japan, the University of Tokyo

Team members: Jaesol Ahn, Kunhak Lee, Masaki Takeuchi

Project: Syrinx

Team quote: “Syrinx will be a device for not only laryngectomy or tracheostomy patients, but also people all over the world.” ‒ Masaki Takeuchi, Team Syrinx

Their project: Syrinx, a neck wearable EL (electrolarynx) device, restores the ability to speak for people who have lost their voices. Leveraging Azure Notebooks technology, Syrinx’s device vibrates the user’s throat to create the sound that matches the movement of the user’s mouth, then uses neural networks to learn the lost voice characteristics and restore it. Previous systems were robotic, whereas Syrinx provides both female and male voices.

Future plans: Team Syrinx plans to improve the quality of the device voice by incorporating Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, noise canceling, and making it applicable to anyone with a need or interest in this type of voice technology.

How they met: At a summer program for society-based projects at the University of Tokyo, where they set out to “solve a problem for people with a disability”

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Team Tremor Vision: US, University of Washington

Team members: Janae Chan, Drew Gallardo, and Robert Minneker

Project: Tremor Vision

Team quote: “I grew up in a rural, low-income household in Eastern Washington, where I lived with my disabled brother. A major challenge we faced as a family was driving over 150 miles to get my brother to his regular doctor’s appointments, oftentimes in terrible weather conditions. With the help of telehealth platforms, like Tremor Vision, we could eliminate the need for patients to travel vast distances for routine clinic visits and increase access to quality healthcare.” ‒ Drew Gallardo, Team Tremor Vision

Their project: Tremor Vision is a web-based tool that enables physicians to detect early-onset Parkinson’s and quantitatively track patient progress throughout a prescribed treatment plan. By using a touchscreen device connected to the internet, users send clinical results to their physician. The platform empowers patients to save the time and money required by routine clinical visits and increases a physician’s reach in screening for early signs of Parkinson’s. The team uses Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, MATLAB, and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Their inspiration: Pioneers using technology in innovative ways to contribute to human health and well-being

Why it’s important: Parkinson’s is the second most-common age-related neurodegenerative disorder. There is no standardized way of evaluating the spiral test, one of the most commonly conducted tests to detect early-onset Parkinson’s and track its progression.

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The safety of our community is top priority, and in light of global health concerns due to COVID-19, we have moved this year’s competition to a virtual format. Please join us in wishing all the teams best wishes on the final stage of competition and follow the finalists’ journey on Twitter and Instagram as they head to the World Championship to compete during the Microsoft Build digital event in May.

Posted on April 24, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

UK NHS doctors are using Microsoft Teams to get Coronavirus test results straight to their phones

NHS staff at a major hospital in Southampton are managing the surge in people arriving with Coronavirus symptoms by using technology to quickly find out who has the virus and who doesn’t.

Doctors, nurses and specialists at University Hospital Southampton have switched to receiving patients test results on their mobile phone thanks to a bot in Microsoft Teams. This has cut the amount of time it takes to discover if someone has the virus from hours to minutes.

Patients with negative test results can then be moved out of isolation units, where they are routinely placed if they show symptoms, and onto a ward, freeing up space for new people arriving at the hospital.

Previously, healthcare staff would check a desktop computer on a ward or in an office every few hours to see if test results had come in.

Dr Ashwin Pinto, a neurologist at the hospital, said: “We can now give doctors and nurses real-time data. I can get COVID-19 results, which come up on my phone instantly as soon as they are released by the lab.

“We can know where that patient is, so we can make sure they go to the right care environment and that staff are safe as well. That’s been transformational.”

University Hospital Southampton also has a notification channel to alert everyone if a staff member is found to have Coronavirus.

The bot has been created by Microsoft partner Medxnote for use in Teams, which is also being used by healthcare staff to communicate and share information, even when they are not in the hospital. Doctors and nurses can also use Teams to alert colleagues instantly if they are needed in a specific area of the hospital.

Similar bots are being used in NHS Foundation Trusts across the country, including Liverpool University Hospitals and Mid Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust.

All NHS staff were given free access to Teams to support them as they work. Doctors and nurses typically use a combination of pagers and phone calls to communicate. However, mobile phone calls took too long and were difficult to answer while working, and information that was shared was hard to record and track.

Dr Pinto said: “We realised that we needed to surface information in real time. We wanted to be able to give key information directly to the junior doctors so they could know exactly whom to see and whom to prioritise. Teams is the only product we’ve been able to use that surfaces data in a really simple format for the junior doctors and allows them to share it so they can work as a team to prioritise patients.”

Laura Robinson, Health & Life Sciences lead at Microsoft UK, said: “It is crucial that NHS staff can communicate and collaborate quickly and easily, especially in times of crisis. No matter where they are in a hospital, doctors and nurses need to send and receive information in order to offer the best care to patients. Microsoft is proud to be helping healthcare workers on the frontline of the Coronavirus pandemic.”

Posted on April 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Lucas Joppa on 50th anniversary of Earth Day: Our environmental commitments are as crucial as ever

Every Earth day serves as reminder to give thanks to the incredible benefits nature provides to people, and to recommit ourselves to building a sustainable future for us all. This Earth Day, its 50^th anniversary, is taking place in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. Quite rightly, this is a time when ensuring the immediate health and safety of people around the world is the priority issue of the moment and the year. Yet, through this crisis and beyond, we must remain dedicated to building solutions to the environmental challenges that face us all.

Five decades ago, Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from my home state of Wisconsin, had the idea for Earth Day as a way to give a voice to the rising awareness about environmental concerns. He brought together a group of diverse organizations – advocacy, religious, education and civic society – that wanted to increase awareness about the health of the planet and inspire people to live in a more sustainable way.

Now, as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, I am reflecting on the enormity of those challenges and how technology can help address them. My passion for the environment was ignited as a child exploring the woods by my home with a sense of wonder and fascination about how the natural world worked. My love of science and belief that technology provides an opportunity to move faster than environmental decline brought me to Microsoft, where sustainability is a core operating value. Now, the urgency of the environmental crisis has reached new heights and we need to rapidly address climate change to avoid the catastrophe that will come from complacency.

Senator Nelson understood that it would take collective action and purpose to reverse the harmful impacts of human activity on the environment. In the 50 years since, our environmental problems have become a global crisis needing urgent attention. In our pursuit of solutions, we should look to data, and to science. The former tells us where we are, and the latter tells us what we need to do to avert the worst social, environmental and economic impacts of a planet whose health is in rapid decline. Worryingly, the gap between the data and the science grows, and the news is grim. Of course, it is heartening that we’re seeing governments and organizations around the world increase their ambitions to address that gap, but we must all move faster and more aggressively. That is why, earlier this year, we accelerated our environmental sustainability strategy at Microsoft with a company-wide focus on four critical areas: carbon, water, ecosystems and waste. Our core strategy rests on setting ambitious goals and outlining detailed plans.

In January, we launched a bold new ambition to address our carbon footprint. By 2030, we will be carbon negative for scopes 1, 2 and 3: meaning our direct carbon emissions, emissions associated with our electricity consumption, and emissions resulting from our supply and value chains. By 2050, we will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. By 2025, we will power 100% of our business with renewable energy. And we are putting our capital to work to stimulate and accelerate the development of climate technologies with a $1 billion investment over the next four years.

Last week, we announced our plan to address the decline of biodiversity and ecosystems. Maintaining nature for the benefit of current and future generations is one of humanity’s greatest challenges; deploying technology to support this global effort is one of ours. Our new biodiversity initiative aims to put data and digital technology to work, including through an ambitious program to aggregate environmental data from around the world and put it to work in a new “planetary computer.” We will combine this and our expanded AI for Earth program with new work enabling partners and customers to use the resulting output to enhance environmental decision-making in their organizational activities. We’ll also use it to speak out on ecosystem-related public policy issues and take responsibility for Microsoft’s own land footprint.

This summer, we will share our plans on waste and this fall we will share our plans on water. As we work across the company to reduce the environmental impact of our business, we will build the technology solutions that help our customers do the same.

I had planned to spend this 50^th anniversary of Earth Day paying homage in person to Senator Nelson’s legacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s institute that bears his name – the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Those plans, like those of so many people’s plans around the world, have changed due to the COVID-19 crisis, but they have not been canceled. I will join participants from around the world, virtually, for a celebration of the impact of Earth Day. And I will help lead discussions about how we can learn from the successes and failures of the past to build a better future. Because, as the COVID-19 crisis reminds us every day, to be a healthy society we must have a healthy planet. Working together, we can have one – and technology can help us get there.

Posted on April 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Celebrate Earth Day, explore sustainability in Minecraft: Education Edition

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Minecraft: Education Edition has launched new renewable energy lessons and immersive worlds. This content is available for educators and students using Minecraft: Education Edition as well as Minecraft players on the Bedrock platform. Students can explore different energy sources, solve a town’s power problems, and design and manage a sustainable city—all in Minecraft! For students learning from home during school closures, the Lumen City Challenge and Lumen Power Challenge provide a fun way to bring Earth Day into the virtual classroom or home learning environment.

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These two new lessons were developed by EIT InnoEnergy, Europe’s largest sustainable energy innovation engine, in partnership with the Minecraft creators at Blockworks. The Lumen City Challenge invites students to manage a city’s infrastructure, which involves selecting power sources and keeping budgets balanced. As students build their ideal city, they learn the challenges of energy storage and the delicate balance between cost, power output, and pollution. In the Lumen Power Challenge, learners repair a town’s energy infrastructure including offshore wind turbines, rooftop solar panels, and a hydroelectric dam. Each of these challenges offers students a unique opportunity to use critical thinking to solve problems in-game and learn about real-world energy issues.

Anyone with a valid Office 365 Education account can access Minecraft: Education Edition through June 2020. If you don’t already have Minecraft: Education Edition, you can get started here. Access the Lumen challenges in the in-game lesson library. (For those using other versions of the game, Minecraft Bedrock players can download the maps from the in-game Marketplace where they are available for free as part of a new Education Collection through June 2020.)

For the first time since its founding in 1970, Earth Day will be celebrated mostly online with learning resources like Minecraft: Education Edition, shared by organizations around the world to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage people to act. Minecraft also supports the current need for distance learning with features and content that help keep students connected, engaged, and inspired. From the new Lumen renewable energy challenges to immersive lessons introducing topics like wildlife conservation and biodiversity, Minecraft: Education Edition provides educators and families with great options to celebrate Earth Day from home this year.

Check out the Earth Day lessons and worlds for Minecraft: Education Edition to use in your virtual classroom and explore other Minecraft distance learning resources.

Posted on April 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Now you can donate to the United Nations Foundation and GlobalGiving by playing Xbox

Everyone is looking for ways to give back, to support charities and organizations that are making a difference in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. We are so encouraged by the part Xbox gamers have already played and are energized knowing the community is continuing to make an impact.

Within the first few weeks of announcing Xbox One owners can use Microsoft Rewards points to donate to the CDC Foundation, our gamer community has come together with over a hundred thousand individual donations – an incredible showing of support for the CDC Foundation contributing to hundreds of thousands of dollars donated this month by Rewards members. We are incredibly inspired by the way the community is rallying to provide support in this time of need.

Which is why we’re pleased to announce that launching today in the U.S., Xbox One owners can now use their Microsoft Rewards points to donate to two new global foundations – the United Nations Foundation and GlobalGiving – in support of COVID-19 relief efforts.

Here’s a reminder of how it works: If you are not already a Microsoft Rewards member, sign up for free through the Microsoft Rewards app on your Xbox One or online at microsoftrewards.com and earn points simply by playing games on your Xbox. Then donate your Rewards points to your organization of choice. Hit the donation button on the Xbox One dash, or within the Microsoft Rewards app on your Xbox, to tell Microsoft you want to donate your Rewards points, then Microsoft will match your donation one-to-one. 1,000 Rewards points is equal to $1 donated.

United Nations Foundation and GlobalGiving

Xbox One owners can earn Microsoft Rewards in many different ways, including but not limited to: completing the limited time “Support A Hero While At Home” punch card, playing select new Xbox games and completing Xbox Game Pass Quests – where new members can sign up for Xbox Game Pass for only $1, renting and purchasing movies and TV through the Microsoft Movies & TV app, exploring new content and entertainment apps, and shopping through the Microsoft Store on their Xbox.

In addition to Microsoft Rewards donations, Minecraft Partners recently announced a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and their partner, Heart17, to share factual information about the coronavirus. Over the next week or so, Minecraft will be devoted to sharing important health advice from the World Health Organization via social media channels and in-game “Creepers.”

We are proud to support these organizations who are making a positive impact on the world and help empower gamers to give back by playing the games they know and love from home. You can learn more about Xbox COVID-19 relief efforts on Xbox.com. To support other causes you care about, Microsoft Rewards members can also donate points through the Give With Bing program to more than one million nonprofit organizations.

Posted on April 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

What’s New in EDU: Free resources to support engaging, accessible remote learning lessons

As you settle into remote teaching and learning, we’re devoting this episode of What’s New in EDU to sharing free resources that can support you as you lead virtual lessons, foster collaboration and engagement, and focus on accessibility.

Connect, communicate, and collaborate with Microsoft Teams

In this episode, we take a look at how Microsoft Teams, included with Office 365 Education, can serve as a great digital learning platform during distance learning. With Teams, you can create video calls and invite your entire class, set up small-group discussions, hold office hours, post assignments, and much more.

It’s easy to sign up for an Office 365 account if you don’t already have one. Students and educators at eligible institutions can sign up for free and get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and now Microsoft Teams, plus additional classroom tools. Use your valid school email address to get started today.

Professional learning through the Microsoft Educator Center

We’ve also created a learning path on the Microsoft Educator Center focused on using Teams and other free resources to support remote learning.

The first course centers around connecting with your students using Teams and additional Office 365 tools and provides ideas for establishing a remote learning plan and tracking progress.
The second course spotlights student engagement and building strong connections with help from Microsoft Teams; Microsoft Stream, the intelligent video service in Office 365; OneNote Class Notebook, an app that helps you set up OneNote in your class; and Flipgrid, which allows students and teachers to create and share videos.
The third course is focused on ensuring that the needs of students with learning differences are met. The course provides an overview of accessibility tools in Teams, Office 365, Windows 10, and other apps.

Learning Tools and accessibility

Everyone is working hard to adapt to remote learning, and as Mark Sparvell said in the video above, this may present particular challenges for students with learning differences. This is a great time to become more familiar with Microsoft Learning Tools, free resources that implement proven techniques to personalize learning and improve reading and writing for students.

These include tools such as:

Immersive Reader, a full-screen reading experience that improves the readability of content. It has a read-aloud function, enables students to tailor fonts and spacing, supports grammar and writing by identifying parts of speech, and more.
Dictation allows people to type with their voice. It’s available in Office 365 tools and can be helpful for learners with dyslexia, dysgraphia, or mobility impairments.
Closed captions help people who are hard of hearing, speak multiple languages, and who use captions to help focus and retain information. We recently rolled out a preview of OneNote that allows students to connect OneNote to Microsoft Translator captions. You simply use a Join Code and receive the captions and translation stream. This allows captions from the teacher who is speaking to flow directly into OneNote for reading, while still allowing the student to take notes.

Assessment strategies

We know you’re probably working through how to best assess student learning in this environment. Microsoft Forms can help. You can use it to easily create quizzes and surveys, and you can share Forms with your students from any browser or mobile device.

Forms has built-in analytics that allow you to see student progress immediately. For more on using Forms and creating quizzes and other assessments within Microsoft Teams, check out this You Can in :90 video.

Keeping students engaged

As Mark emphasized in this month’s episode, Flipgrid is a great student engagement tool. We’ve heard many stories from educators who are using Flipgrid as part of their distance learning strategy to coach students on reading, help them learn history and science, and even run theater rehearsals.

Students can view each other’s videos and respond to them. The latest update from Flipgrid also allows you to record your lessons and share those with students through the Screen Recording feature. This enables you to record what’s happening on your screen directly in the Flipgrid camera and guide readers through content on your device and more.

Other ideas from educators around the world include scheduling 1:1 time with students, assigning students to work together in small groups within Teams, and using tools like Microsoft Whiteboard for Education, the freeform digital canvas, to boost engagement.

For families

We know a lot of parents are asking for high-quality resources that they can use to help support their children during this challenging time. One way we’ve responded is by launching a Family Learning Center. Geared toward families with children ages 3-12, it offers a collection of free resources on topics ranging from art, coding, spelling, and more. Please share it with your students’ parents and guardians.

Taking a moment

As Mark notes in the video above, the current situation we find ourselves in is creating enormous educational challenges. The shift to remote learning has been sudden and disruptive. For teachers, remote lessons aren’t going to be the same as you planned and led when you were in the classroom with your students. And that’s okay. You’re making a big difference in kids’ lives every time you connect with them, even if it is virtually. They need you. But for you to show up for them, it’s important to take time for yourself too.

With that in mind, and because we all could use it, we’ve created a new You can in :90 video on mindful breathing led by Mark. Check it out, and consider sharing it with your students.

We love hearing from you, especially now. We value your feedback and want to know how we can help. One way to let us know what you think of this episode of What’s New in EDU, and the tools we’re highlighting, is through Twitter by tagging @MicrosoftEDU.

And if you haven’t done so already, please sign up to join our Remote Learning Community and connect with other educators and Microsoft Education experts who are sharing ideas around best practices in distance learning.

Stay safe and stay in touch.

Posted on April 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions now generally available

Since we announced Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions a few weeks ago, I’ve been uplifted by the unique and creative ways people have been using Office and other Microsoft tools to work, learn, and connect from home. From giving piano lessons over Skype to virtual family workouts at home to teachers using Microsoft Teams to read stories to their students, it’s moving to see us all adapting and maintaining connections with those who matter most in this time.

As everyone adapts to different and innovative ways of living, working, and organizing, we are here to help in that process. Today, we’re excited that Microsoft 365 has more to offer across free and premium experiences. Here are 10 ways Microsoft can help you and your family experience more efficiency, more enjoyment, and more ease—across your whole lives.

Connect with loved ones and friends over Skype—This continues to be critical in this time. Maintaining our relationships looks different for all of us. It could be wishing your friend a virtual happy birthday, setting up a weekend trivia night with family, or having a video happy hour with your neighbors. With the Meet Now feature in Skype, it’s easy to connect over video (for free) with up to 50 people in just a few clicks.

Become a better writer—Our desire and need to communicate during this time has not diminished, it has simply shifted. Quick café catch-ups are now social media discussions, and chats with coworkers are IMs. This is where Microsoft Editor can be a huge help. Now available as a browser extension in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, Editor offers writing assistance whether you are relaying a story on Facebook, writing an email to your child’s teacher, or posting on Twitter. Across the web, Microsoft Editor is your virtual assistant to help you write more clearly and concisely.
Discover resources for your family, job, and schooling—There are thousands of free and premium templates available for you to use across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, many of which are very relevant today. With kids learning from home, we’re proud to offer a variety of Home Learning templates like alphabet flash cards, a reading log in Word, or multiplication tables in Excel. When you’re looking for ways to connect with your kids and family at home, we have Family Activity templates including an animal doodle coloring book in PowerPoint and Sudoku puzzle solvers in Excel. For those working from home, or on the hunt for their next job, we offer wide range of Presentation templates as well as Resume and Cover Letter templates.
Multi-task with ease—The Play My Emails feature in Outlook can be a lifesaver for those with a lot going on. Taking the dog on another walk? Fixing an afternoon snack for the kids? Have your emails read aloud to you so you can multitask effectively. And in this home/work/life blend we are all experiencing, it’s as important as ever to stay on top of your schedule. Outlook allows you to share calendars (so you can coordinate schedules with family members) and add calendars (so you can plan around important events).
Keep a handle on your to-dos—For most, our homes are now a hub for much more than what they used to be. They’ve become our workspace, classroom, cafeteria, gym, and living area. Our realities and locations may have shifted, but that doesn’t mean we can’t remain organized. With Microsoft To-Do, you can create the grocery list and share it with your spouse so they can order it. You can make a task list for the kids to check-off before time on their Xbox. You can share workout routines with friends. Whatever you need to accomplish, we’ve got you covered.

Craft standout presentations—PowerPoint has always been a wonderful tool to help you get your ideas across. Now, as we share more information and ideas with each other digitally, a strong presentation can make all the difference. Using intelligent technology, PowerPoint Designer offers beautiful layouts, rich animations, cinematic motion, 3D models, and modern icons to bring your presentation to life with a few clicks. Your subscription unlocks access to over 8,000 beautiful images and 175 looping videos, plus 300 fonts and 2,800 icons to create high-impact and visually appealing documents.
Become a top-notch presenter—While we might not be standing in conference rooms or on stage for the time being, many of us are still presenting to live audiences on a daily basis. It could be a formal performance on a live stream to many, or simply talking through a document on a video call with your colleagues. Either way, verbal communication is a vital skill—as well as something many folks wish they were better at. Presenter Coach uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help your speaking. It aids with pacing, filler words, and speaking suggestions. Now, you’ll also get real-time feedback as the AI analyzes monotone speech and speech refinement—giving you tips on variation, grammar and phrasing.

Share special moments and keep up connections—Do you have some cute photos of the Easter Egg hunt that took place around the living room? The grandparents would love to see them. Maybe you had a birthday celebration and want your friends to see the incredible cake your boyfriend baked? With 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage for Microsoft 365 subscribers, you can store these photos and any other files, as well as share them with others, with the knowledge they are always secured and backed-up.
Get peace of mind when tech issues arise—Our homes have grown into bigger tech hubs with family members working and learning from home. With your Microsoft 365 subscription we’ve got your back with ongoing technical support for Windows 10 and all included Microsoft 365 apps readily available through chat or phone.
Learn, meditate, manage, create and control—With a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription comes access to incredible partner apps and services through free, limited-time offers. Find mindfulness with Headspace, create with Adobe, and learn new skills with CreativeLive. You also get access to TeamSnap, Bark, Experian, and Blinkist.

On the horizon, we have even more exciting news to debut. Money in Excel* will soon allow you to manage, track and analyze all your money and spending in a single place. Also, in Excel, you will be able to make sense of your data with informative and interactive visualizations of everything from food to movies to Pokémon**. Also coming soon is the Microsoft Family Safety App, which empowers families in a variety of ways with both free and premium offerings, including managing screen time across Windows PCs, Android, and Xbox. There will also be new features in Microsoft Teams that make it easier to connect, organize, and collaborate with family and friends.

Today is just the first step in delivering new features and value that helps us all navigate life. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions are generally available today worldwide, with additional benefits added over time.

*U.S. only, subscription required.
**English only, subscription required.