March/April 2004
News

Bradford invited to Microsoft Longhorn launch

Staff from the University's Department of Computing were specially invited to attend the international launch of the next generation Microsoft Operating System in Los Angeles.

Professor Peter Cowling and John Mellor travelled on a specially chartered jet along with members of the European press to the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003.

Professor Peter Cowling (right) and John Mellor travelled on a specially chartered jet along with members of the European press to the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003.

They joined colleagues from six other UK universities at PDC 03, which was opened by Chief Software Architect for Microsoft, Bill Gates, and attended by over 7,000 delegates. As well as showcasing the new Windows OS - codenamed Longhorn - the conference was an opportunity for Peter and John to meet with Microsoft personnel who develop, manage and use the next generation of Microsoft software.

The Department of Computing is a member of the 'Microsoft Academic Alliance', which provides access for staff and students to Microsoft development software and technical support.

A number of undergraduate projects are also using the latest Microsoft .NET development environment to provide solutions to supply chain problems for local industry.

Peter said: "The conference was an excellent opportunity to get a good overall understanding of the new technology and meet with key contacts at Microsoft.

"We attended specialist breakout sessions on 'Longhorn', which is expected to become available to the public in 2005. The new system introduces a host of new features and design principles and the sessions provided a good insight into the total product package.

"We can now feed back that information, as appropriate, into the undergraduate and postgraduate modules taught in the Department."

16 April 2004

next

top of page