MICROSOFT LIFTS DOOR TO GARAGE
Invites public innovation
A new lab for developers, creators, artists and makers to pursue their passion projects is set to open in Microsoft’s office in Cambridge, a place the company hopes will become a hub for innovation and collaboration between employees and the brilliant minds in Kendall Square.
“We’re going to open up the floodgates to see what’s out there,” said Linda Thackeray, director of The Garage in Microsoft’s Cambridge office, which will be officially unveiled today. “It’s really meant to be a place where not only Microsoft employees can come down and experiment and create, but really where the community can come and collaborate.”
A 15,000-square-foot space, the Garage is fitted with everything from 3-D printers to sewing machines; virtualand mixed-reality headsets to laser cutters. The Garage is meant to recreate the feeling of a scrappy startup trying to find its way.
“The Garage is meant to be very humble, scrappy, lean, pure energy,” said Jeff Ramos, general manager of Microsoft’s Garages around the world. “It’s meant to say how do we put ourselves into an entrepreneurial mindset where we really apply our own energy into our projects.”
Located in Microsoft’s New England Research and Development center — NERD for short — the Garage is the company’s first that is open to the public. Some of the art adorning the walls was made by local artists with the tools in the maker-space. The Garage includes plenty of seating and places to hang out, and features a small coffee shop called Clippy’s Coffee Shop, an homage to the legendary virtual paper clip that was eager to lend a hand.
For Microsoft employees, the Garage is meant to be a place where they can throw themselves at projects without having to worry about getting approval from their boss.
“It’s a place where you can take a passionate idea and move it forward without having to have a conversation with your supervisor and put together a business plan,” Thackeray said.
Projects born out of Garages around the world include an app that uses artificial intelligence to narrate what a smartphone camera is seeing to visually impaired users. Another project used AI to build a platform hospitals and doctors can use to communicate with patients, including automated symptom checkers and health plan information. The Garage has locations in Vancouver, Israel, India and China.
The company hopes the heavy concentration of companies and top tech talent in Kendall Square will lead to unexpected collaborations. Already, Microsoft has had conversations with Formlabs, a 3-D printing company based in Somerville, and Jibo, a local home-robot company. Along with more formal arrangements, local developers will be able to drop in and work on projects — as long as a lab manager is around.
“Will we be inspired by projects we see people bring here and motivated to play a role? Absolutely,” Ramos said. “Everyone is capable of having a great idea.”