Congratulations to Tao Xie for being honored as a Microsoft Research Outstanding Collaborator

Professor Tao Xie, the lead of the Illinois ASE group, was recently honored as one of 32 Microsoft Research Outstanding Collaborators worldwide.

In the 25 years since its founding in 1991, Microsoft Research has grown to be a worldwide symbol of excellence in computer science. Our over 1,000 scientists, engineers, and designers produce technologies that change the lives of people every day through their innovative software, systems, and designs. The Microsoft Research Outstanding Collaborator Award 2016 highlight and celebrate some of the amazing academics who have worked with us over the years.

Per Tao's biography in the Outstanding Collaborator Award Booklet (see the extracted page for Tao's biography here), "Tao Xie has collaborated with Microsoft Research (MSR) over the last decade. As a visiting researcher in the Research in Software Engineering (RiSE) group, he personally contributed a core search algorithm for the automated test generation feature IntelliTest, which shipped as part of Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Edition. Even more influential were his frequent visits to Microsoft Research in Redmond and China, which spawned dozens of collaborative projects. His students prototyped many new ideas on top of platforms and tools provided by MSR, in particular on the Pex4Fun project established by Nikolai Tillmann and Peli de Halleux. Over the years, Tao also deeply engaged with Dongmei Zhang and the Software Analytics group in China. This resulted in more than 60 joint high-profile publications in areas including automated test generation, computer science education, and software analytics."

Congratulations to Tao and our Illinois ASE!!! Such award is a recognition on the high impact that Illinois ASE has been making together with industrial collaborators such as Microsoft Research!!