Archives for 2007
Five times Fola Adeleke-Adedoyin interviewed for an internship. He finally got it, and ultimately, his blue badge.
By Brian Donohue
Growing up in Nigeria, Fola Adeleke-Adedoyin didn’t even see the Internet or a Microsoft product until he was 15. Once he did, he knew he wanted to pursue a technology career. He had no idea, though, how much pursuit it would entail.
A middle-class background, solid academic skills, and competitive swimming talent gave him the opportunity to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. Fola worked on a four-year degree in systems and computer science. Each year, Microsoft visited the historically black campus to interview for internships and full-time positions. Each year Fola showed up, hopeful, but left empty-handed.
Others might have given up, but Fola didn’t. Now he sits in a Sammamish, Washington, office, wearing a blue Microsoft badge and a well-earned smile about his application developer job.
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“Your kid’s dead and they brought him back to life,” a parent says of MS-covered autism treatments. April is Autism Awareness Month.
By Aaron Halabe
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that one in every 150 children in the United States has an autism disorder. This neurological condition puts many children into the shadows of life by limiting their ability to speak or form relationships.
Microsoft U.S. employees’ children affected by autism disorders can receive life-impacting treatments. Providers include the University of Washington’s Autism Center, which specializes in a behavior-modification treatment called Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA).
The disorder once debilitated Eric Brechner’s son, Peter. Now 11, Peter is one of many who have dramatically improved after years of ABA treatments.
‘He Disappeared Right in Front of Us’
A vibrant and happy baby until he was one and a half, “[Peter] then disappeared right in front of us,” said Brechner, a director in Engineering Excellence. Before treatments began, Peter did not speak or recognize anyone around him.
“He became an inanimate object and we lost him.” Brechner choked up as he characterized the impact of five years of treatments. “I mean your kid dies, right? Your kid dies. How else do you describe it? Your kid’s dead, and they brought him back to life. I don’t know what else to say.”
Brechner and a handful of other Microsoft parents composed a group who wrote letters to company executives years ago, seeking coverage to help underwrite the cost of ABA treatment, which can run $25,000 a year. After years of research and program evaluation, the Benefits team in January 2001 made Microsoft one of the first U.S. firms to provide related coverage. The benefit is available in the U.S. only.
“It was a case of us really becoming educated about autism, determining the most effective treatment … and researching how to incorporate this into the Benefits program,” said program manager Mark Stoppler.
‘It’s Arduous, but It Works’
The treatment transformed Peter from a child whom Brechner described as “an ornament in the living room” to a highly functional boy who speaks, plays with friends and attends regular public school without an aide. “Most people don’t know he has autism. It’s amazing. He’s a real success story.”
The ABA approach focuses a child’s attention in a structured, intensive, one-on-one process. Brechner offered the example of teaching a child to say “thank you.” “You give them a prompt – ‘What do you say?’ The kid says ‘thank you’ and you reinforce it by saying ‘Good job. You’re welcome.’ It’s a very structured approach: situation, prompt, response, reinforcement. That’s ABA.”
The approach is applied to other behaviors such as conscious looking, imitation, and speech. “It’s arduous, but it works,” Brechner said.
It also worked for Kris Tibbetts’ second child, Noah, now five and a half. Diagnosed at age two, “[Noah] never developed any speech on his own,” Tibbetts said. He acted out violently and regularly injured himself and others.
“He couldn’t cope with the frustration of not being able to communicate with us,” said Tibbetts, a lead Office product planner.
‘A Poster Child for Early Intervention’
The family pursued speech and occupational therapies, but once Noah began ABA therapy, “we saw dramatic improvement” – less aggression and dangerous behaviors, Tibbetts said. Therapy taught Noah to speak; helps him deal with emotional responses; and enhances his social skills, including initiating and sustaining conversations and play with peers. The boy, now considered on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, is poised to be in a mainstream kindergarten class in the fall.
“At this point, I consider Noah a poster child [for] early intervention. The earlier you start, [and] the better and the more intensively you implement the ABA therapy, the better.”
Although Microsoft does not mandate a bottom- or top-end age limit for its autism coverage, the number of patient visits does have a limit. Stoppler said ABA, when designed as an intensive treatment program, is “most effective” when children start at as early an age as possible. Tibbetts pointed out, though, that children with more severe autism may continue with ABA well into their teens or beyond.
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Microsoft rises to the occasion – twice – as the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honors its streaming-media and 3D platforms.
By Julie Evans
Originally published by MSW, May 2007
The awards – one for streaming-media contributions and one for Microsoft Direct 3D versions 9 and 10 – were handed out Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
“It is a testament to the breadth of technology of Microsoft that in one evening, they receive a classic technical Emmy for their contributions to streaming architecture and an award for their contribution to game technology for the DirectX environment,” said Seth Haberman, who chairs the academy’s video games and technology panel. “It would be hard to imagine two technologies more impactful to today’s consumers.”
In his spare time, a program manager builds an application that lets his family track his whereabouts over the Internet. The cell phone app showcases Microsoft technology.
By Laurie Rowell
What do you do in your spare time? Over a four-week span, Nagi Babu Punyamurthula built an application that turned his cell phone into a beacon that beams his location to an Internet map.
Matching the clear simplicity of the concept, he named the application Where Am I. He envisions families using it to keep in touch with a parent or child or rescue workers using it to find lost or missing persons. Future iterations will turn phones into social networking devices and display nearby points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, and parks.
What started out as a hobby project quickly grew in scope, and now Punyamurthula hopes to make it a Windows Live service.
In June I had a 7:30am meeting with some of the guys from the Applied Games research group. The crew was visiting from Cambridge, where they’re based, and despite jetlag and the ungodly hour (seriously, guys: 7:30 breakfast meeting? Gleargh.) we had a hilarious time.
So, WTF do they do? Well, according to their website, Our mission is to leverage the methods of approximate probabilistic inference for addressing relevant applications both in recreational games and in abstract decision games played in the real world. This means these guys make their living thinking of everything as a game … and they certainly seem to have way more fun than the average researchers.
They’re working on some cool super-secret stuff with Bungie and figuring out ways to apply their game-brains to typically un-fun stuff like online advertising. They taught me a few German phrases (quotienfrau!) and I taught them what “Brouhaha” means. (Ah yes: a noisy response to stimulus! Of course.)
“Beyond 9:30am or so, nothing is typical (which is something I love working at Microsoft).” Read the whole post.
This “disappearing office” prank was shown at the company meeting in 2007.
So there’s this anonymous Microsoft blogger who goes by the name of Mini-Microsoft. He’s been around for ages, grumping about Microsoft and offering his cranky advice about how the company could be improved. Mini’s gained a lot of credibility as an MSFT watchdog, and was recently featured in Business Week.
I love Mini (every enormous global company should have an anonymous bitchy blogger — seriously!) and recently added him on Facebook.
It was over on Mini’s Facebook page that I found this awesome wall posting:
Hey Mini,
I wanted to let you know that I am a recently hired level 59. I am a top student from a top program (which of course means SHIT until I start seriously producing for the company).One of the main reasons I chose Microsoft over my other extremely gratuitous offers was because of your blog. Yes, I understand one of your overall messages involves frowning upon my entrance because I’m initially another face in the crowd who initially may not add much to the bottom line. Yes, I understand your blog magnifies and makes public many operational problems at MSFT. Yes, I understand your blog has caused many potential hires to be scared. But when I read mini-microsoft, I get excited, because I realize the problems you write about are solvable and more important they are worth solving because of the potential this company has.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is…. Thank you….
I love this! I firmly believe that the best way for any company (MSFT included) to attract smart, awesome folks is to be honest and forthcoming about its shortcomings and weak points — after all, those are the areas of the company that theoretically need the brightest superstars and problem-solvers, right?
So Mini — I salute you! Thanks for being the crabby voice that no-one wants to hear, but everyone listens to.
