Called to serve: Tech, research, and positive impact

Called to serve: Tech, research, and positive impact - Microsoft Research

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In the summer of 2010, postdoc Chris White worked with a multidisciplinary team at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to determine if a new approach to data analysis could prevent violence and protect troops during the war in Afghanistan. At the conclusion of the program, the agency asked White to prove the value of his work—on the ground.

In this episode, Principal Technical Program Manager Weishung Liu talks with White, director of Catalyst Lab at Microsoft Research, about his unexpected break from academic research to help lead advanced tech operations in Afghanistan and his later decision to again work on tech with immediate, real-world implications: dark-web search tools used to help combat human trafficking. Liu and White explore the influences that led to these experiences plus the important role of problem selection in innovation and remaining hopeful after seeing the darkest parts of humanity.

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Transcript

[MUSIC]

CHRIS WHITE: I have seen a lot of really bad humanity. You know, I’ve seen terrorism and trafficking and sophisticated organized crime, you know, designed to take things from people. Designed to hurt people. And I just know that I can do something about it, you know, and that I have and that we can. And so I think that that light, you know, the light of making a difference, you know, allows me to hold and handle, you know, the dark parts.

[THEME MUSIC]

STANDARD INTRODUCTION: This is the Microsoft Research Podcast , where Microsoft researchers—driving advancement through fundamental science and technology research—explore the who, how, and what’s next in computing and AI.

[MUSIC ENDS]

WEISHUNG LIU: Hi, and welcome. I’m Weishung Liu, a principal technical program manager here at Microsoft Research, and today I’m talking to Dr. Christopher White, who leads Microsoft Research’s Catalyst Lab .

Chris has one of those careers that sounds almost made up: a Harvard postdoc, on-the-ground advanced tech lead during the war in Afghanistan, a DARPA program manager, a dark web search pioneer, and a public-good technologist. And his work has been featured in Popular Science (opens in new tab) as well as recognized with honors, including the 2016 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons (opens in new tab) .

But what I’m most interested in today is the person behind that résumé. How someone who has seen some of the worst as part of his work still comes to the office with a smile and a commitment to building tools that make the world better.

Chris, thanks for joining me.

WHITE: Thanks for having me, Wei. Nice to see you.

LIU: Yeah, good to see you, too. And so let’s get started. So I’ve known you for, I think, maybe around five or maybe six years, and now I work with you in Catalyst Lab. I love your story, and when I tell people about you, I say that you lead the newly formed Cat Lab, or Catalyst Lab, in Microsoft Research, you were a senior executive at DARPA, and you are married to an incredibly accomplished woman and scholar. And I personally think that your life story would make a very watchable Hollywood film. So when you tell your own story, though, where do you start?

WHITE: Well, you start from where you are. And where I am today is leading research at Microsoft during a period of great fear and hope about changing technology and society.

LIU: But, like, that’s now. There’s clearly lots of time from now into before, you know, the before times. So, like, tell me a little bit about the before times. Like, where were you at—I think you grew up in Oklahoma maybe. Tell me about that. Tell me about Chris White, the child.

WHITE: Well, I was nerdy. I was a nerdy Eagle Scout. [LAUGHTER] I liked to build my own computers and have local area network [LAN] parties with my friends. But I also really liked being outside. I liked being in nature and camping and rock climbing. Those were all important to me.

LIU: OK, you mentioned LAN parties. Tell me about … what did we play with our friends?

WHITE: Well, you know, we played everything. I preferred playing sports games, but I lost a lot of the other ones.

LIU: [LAUGHS] Wait, so you played like LAN party sports games, like, in basements? Like, with your … were we all in the same … ?

WHITE: Yeah. Attics. It was attics. Yeah, not basements. [LAUGHTER] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Everybody had to bring their own computer or bring their own Ethernet cable. And the more that you had your own machine that was higher powered, the better you were going to play.

LIU: So did you have the best machine?

WHITE: I had the best machine. I built the best machine. Until someone built a better machine. But it was the best for a while.

And I had a budget for it. And my family didn’t understand that the budget also included...