Today at the Microsoft® Research and Innovation Fair, Microsoft Corp. showcased a number of innovations under development by scientists in the company's global research labs and with partners throughout Europe. Highlighting new projects such as a graphical programming language for robotics that is simple to teach and allows people to control robots with a Smartphone, and mobile hot spot technology that helps provide better high-speed connectivity anytime, anywhere, by dynamically combining the power from multiple wireless devices, the fair showed how collaborative innovation can fuel global economic growth and advance the state of the art in fields as diverse as mobility, security, human-computer interaction and next-generation media.

Speaking to an audience of academics and government officials at the Bibliothèque Solvay, Jean-Philippe Courtois, senior vice president and chief executive officer of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), reiterated Microsoft's commitment to creating and sustaining a vibrant information technology (IT) ecosystem, and to further supporting the goals of the European Union's Lisbon Agenda to make Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010.