Deborah Bach
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@MSFTNews. Former @seattlepi, @baltimoresun. Canadian, sailor, cat person. I have three passports; not a spy. Opinions are my own.
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Articles by Deborah Bach
RetroChimera: New research advances AI-assisted molecule synthesis
Scientists have become increasingly skilled at designing molecules that could become new medicines, advanced materials or catalysts. Determining how to make those molecules in a lab, however, remains a highly complex task in drug discovery and other areas of chemistry. Researchers from Microsoft Research and collaborators including GSK and Novartis, two global companies at the forefront of developing new medicines, have developed an AI model called RetroChimera to help address that challenge.
Accenture is rolling out Copilot to a workforce the size of Denver. Here’s how they’re doing it.
For Accenture’s marketing organization, Copilot has become part of the daily creative and communications workflows. Jason Warnke leads Accenture’s global Marketing + Communications Experiences (M+Cx) team of writers, designers and video producers supporting marketing and communications efforts. Maintaining a consistent approach at that scale, he says, has long been a challenge. “One of the things that’s massively important in a global organization like ours is consistency of message,” says Warnke.
TBT: Three Sheets NW: Spring Surprises in the San Juans
We pulled into Rosario Resort on a gloriously warm Thursday afternoon and saw something we hadn’t expected to see — an almost empty marina. I walked up the dock as a group of geese and goslings swam in the shallow water beside it, stillness hanging in the air. This was Rosario as we’d never experienced it before, tranquil and fragrant, the promise of summer just around the corner. We’d encounter similar scenes over the two weeks in early May we spent poking around the San Juan Islands.
Every Child applies data, digital marketing - and most of all, empathy - to recruit and support foster families
When the pandemic hit Oregon, Every Child Oregon launched My NeighbOR, a program for community members to meet needs directly expressed by foster parents, from baby equipment and clothing to groceries and furniture. Oregonians were eager to help. “We got so much response, so many volunteers and donations and people interested in becoming foster parents during that time,” says Luke Goble, The Contingent’s vice president of research and insight.
Could AI help save one of the Pacific Northwest’s most vulnerable animals?
On a cool morning in early summer, Zhongqi Miao stands behind a tree in the Asian small-clawed otter exhibit at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo tinkering with a small camera hidden among the leaves. The Microsoft AI for Good Lab scientist’s focus is on Little Frei and Connor, the two furry residents clambering over rocks and swimming in a pool, because they’re similar in size and shape to Pacific martens — an animal that has perplexed conservationists for years.
Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 Twenty years ago, I couldn’t have imagined myself as a sailor, much less an editor at Good Old Boat magazine. I grew up near Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the world’s great boating cities, with landlubber parents whose water adventures mostly consisted of renting paddle boats at a KOA campground.
View From Here | Good Old Boat
Issue 150: May/June 2023 It wasn’t two-foot-itis, but bluewater-itis, that sent us on a search for a new boat more than a decade ago. The desire for a seaworthy cruiser launched a quest that would take us across state and international borders, lead to hope and frustration, fuel a grand adventure, and stretch out for several years before we found the right boat. When this all started, we had an Islander Freeport 38C that my husband, Marty, had been living on for several years when we met.
In Praise of Off-Season Sailing
Issue 152: Sept/Oct 2023 As we approached the marina in downtown Poulsbo, trees clad in brilliant orange, gold, and red leaves along the town’s waterfront came into view. It was a spectacular fall weekend years ago, and we’d brought a couple of friends along to enjoy a sailing trip to the picturesque town on Washington’s Liberty Bay. I can’t remember what we did that weekend or what we ate, but I distinctly remember the crispness of the air and the lovely softness of the autumn light.
How universities are tapping students and AI to fight the growing threat of cybercrime
This post originally appeared on Microsoft’s Source site and is republished here with permission. Universities, one of the most popular targets for cybercriminals, are employing a new tool in the fight against cybercrime – their own students.
‘Swiss cheese by design’: Why schools and universities are a prime target for cybercriminals
Over winter break in December 2023, Tam Nguyen got a call from an unexpected source – the Department of Homeland Security. As the chief technology officer for Orange Unified School District in California, Nguyen was understandably skeptical. But the man provided details that verified he was phoning about a computer owned by the school district.
How universities are tapping students and AI to fight the growing threat of cybercrime
Universities, one of the most popular targets for cybercriminals, are employing a new tool in the fight against cybercrime – their own students. Over the past few years, universities and colleges around the U.S. have been increasingly hiring students and training them to become analysts in their security operations centers, known as SOCs. Students work alongside full-time employees on tasks like reviewing incident reports, hunting for cyberthreats and investigating suspicious online behavior.
Three Sheets NW: Destination Tacoma
On the list of great destinations for a weekend cruise on Puget Sound, Tacoma might not immediately spring to mind. But that didn’t deter us when we found ourselves without plans for the Labor Day weekend. The forecast was calling for sun and high temperatures, and we were itching to get out on the water. We were in the mood to go somewhere with dining options and interesting sights, where we could stretch our legs on a long urban walk.
Canadian Tire uses AI to take the friction out of buying tires
Erin Gates does a lot of driving. Three of her four children play ice sports in the winter and the family skis, so Gates, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, is often driving on highways and to out-of-town tournaments. She drives in snow, through slush, and in icy conditions. Gates bought a used minivan a while back and needed good winter tires for it, but the process of trying to choose the right ones was overwhelming.
‘The only way’: How Copilot is helping propel an evolution at Lumen Technologies
The marketing teams faced a near-impossible challenge: Create a website or brochure and social media posts for a product, all within 40 minutes. This was no regular work assignment for the employees at Lumen Technologies. The products were made up — indestructible clothing for parents, an inflatable car, a dream recorder — and the teams were relying on Microsoft Copilot to spark some quick creativity.
From bioscience to skin care, startups are harnessing AI to solve problems big and small
It started with a trek to one of Europe’s most remote areas. Fascinated by the biodiversity of the world’s less-explored environments, biologists and explorers Glen Gowers and Oliver Vince spent a month on an ice cap in Iceland in 2019 undertaking what is believed to be the world’s first fully off-grid DNA sequencing expedition. Using solar power alone, the team spent a month sequencing DNA from microorganisms living in an area with both ice and a hot spring.
AI ‘for all’: How access to new models is advancing academic research, from astronomy to education
In early 2023, Professor Alice Oh and her colleagues at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) realized they needed to address the quickly growing interest in OpenAI ChatGPT among KAIST’s students. ChatGPT – a tool developed by OpenAI that runs on large language models and generates conversational responses based on people’s prompts – could lead to students taking shortcuts in their work but might also offer educational benefits, they reasoned.
OCBC’s new generative AI chatbot is boosting the bank’s productivity across departments and locations
In her job at OCBC’s contact center in Singapore, Denise Law must respond to what are sometimes convoluted, lengthy emails from customers. Sifting through those emails, figuring out what customers need and writing effective responses can take considerable time for Law, who also manages the center’s chatbot for personal banking inquiries.
#TBT: Revisiting a Legend — R.M. “Tolly” Tollefson - 48° North
He is one of the Northwest’s most enduring and prolific boat builders, whose cabin cruiser designs can often be seen traveling the waters of Puget Sound more than a half-century after they were first launched. R.M. “Tolly” Tollefson, who turned 100 on January 24, 2011 and was celebrated at a party in Port Ludlow, is a legend among generations of boaters. The founder of Kelso, Washington-based Tollycraft Yachts, Tolly, as he’s known, was a carpenter turned boat builder.
How data, AI and a breakfast burrito helped Denver’s Choice Market chart a future course
For Choice Market, valuable data that will help inform its next generation of convenience stores was wrapped up in a seemingly unlikely place — a breakfast burrito. The Denver-based company’s burritos, made from a proprietary recipe that includes house green chili and comes in a vegan version, have long been one of its best-selling items.
How a small city in Iowa became an epicenter for advancing AI
For the past few years, Microsoft has been powering the future of AI from a cluster of datacenters located amidst sprawling farmlands and rural roads in Iowa. Iowa is home to an Azure supercomputer Microsoft built for artificial intelligence research company OpenAI to train breakthrough AI models capable of assisting with an increasing range of tasks, from analyzing documents to writing and debugging computer code and helping plan vacations.
Three Sheets NW: Princess Louisa Inlet
We sat on our boat on a Friday in mid-July, dejectedly eyeing the weather forecast. The weather had been perfect for the three weeks we’d spent in the Gulf and San Juan islands since leaving Bainbridge Island in late June, so the forecast of heavy rain the following Monday was an unpleasant surprise. Our plan for that day, and the main goal of our five-week cruise, was to finally get to a place we’d never seen but had heard so much about — Princess Louisa Inlet.
How Truveta is using data and AI to improve patient care and save lives
The team of researchers sought answers to an important question: How often do women in the United States who have preeclampsia — high blood pressure during pregnancy — also experience heart failure, and does race factor into the situation? Fewer than three weeks after launching their study, the researchers at Truveta, a collective of U.S. health systems, uncovered a startling finding: Black women are twice as likely to experience preeclampsia-related heart failure as white women.
‘A unique form of hope’: Tiny nonprofit Footprint Project is bringing cleaner energy to disaster response
As a tornado headed their way in December 2022, Will Heegaard and Jamie Swezey crouched in the bathtub of their New Orleans home, anxiously listening to weather reports. The storm narrowly bypassed their neighborhood near the city’s fairgrounds but barreled through several parishes in the region, causing catastrophic damage to homes and businesses. That night, Heegaard and Swezey quickly got to work deploying solar-powered resources to the hard-hit city.
Faster data, faster car: How BWT Alpine F1 Team aims to lead the Formula 1 tech race
Midway through the Dutch Grand Prix, radio traffic between 20 Formula 1 drivers and their busy crews buzzed with the usual chatter about lap times, tire conditions and pleas to “push now” – a frantic wall of sound rivaling the powerful engines roaring around the track. But precisely 59 minutes and 27 seconds into that Sept.
Haleon harnesses Microsoft’s Seeing AI technology to make health product information more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision
For Marc Powell, a seemingly simple trip to the store to buy medication or other consumer health products is often an onerous, complicated undertaking. Powell, who is blind, usually must ask a store employee to help find what he needs and then read the information on the packaging to him, which can feel intrusive. At home he’ll ask his partner, who has partial sight, for help, but the print is sometimes too small for her to read.
The NBA launches a first-of-its-kind new app experience for fans, driven by the power of data
More than two years ago, the NBA set out to transform the way fans engage with the league and its teams and players. Their vision was to offer a truly personalized experience – where each fan’s interests would drive the content they receive. On Tuesday, the NBA announced that their vision had become a reality earlier this month with the reimagined NBA App, powered by a new integrated digital platform built in partnership with Microsoft, the league’s cloud and AI partner.
With their transit ride-share pilot, MARTA and Georgia Tech give passengers a 'first-mile, last-mile' solution
When LaQuetta Ferrell learned about MARTA Reach, an on-demand pilot ride-share service in Atlanta, she eagerly started using the service that same day. Ferrell’s commute to and from work had become a slog. She was getting up at 4:30 a.m. on weekdays to catch a bus and train to get to her job in downtown Atlanta by 7. She had to walk uphill and several blocks to the bus stop, wearing a brace for a worsening knee issue.
After a devastating cyberattack, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians became a technologically advanced nation Original
On a narrow, twisting road in the Great Smoky Mountains, a young woman lost control of her small car in the middle of the night. Her Ford Fiesta careened off the pavement and smashed into a tree. Despite wearing a seatbelt, the woman was severely injured by the impact and needed urgent help. She was only about 10 minutes from her home in the valley town below, Cherokee, North Carolina, where word of the crash soon reached paramedics.
Wolverine Worldwide and its portfolio of popular brands tap the hybrid cloud to be fleeter of foot in reaching customers
Maybe you lace up in Saucony before crushing your run. Or perhaps you pull on HYTEST work boots before conquering another day on the job. Either way, you know your shoes. You know exactly how your favorite kicks cushion your feet in the cold, hard world. Now the people behind those popular brands – plus 11 other brands owned and licensed by Wolverine Worldwide – are getting to know you a bit better too.
Procter & Gamble’s CIO believes passion is contagious. His latest passion: digitally remaking the 185-year-old company
At age 17, Vittorio Cretella left school to enlist in the Italian Army, eager to work with missile and radar systems. Now truth be told, what he really wanted as a gung-ho teenager was to fly helicopters. Problem was, the Italian military required chopper pilots to be 18. So, facing that stern rule, Cretella simply tweaked his ambitions. He donned his Army fatigues and immersed himself in a new mission: learning all he could about electronic engineering.
With GitHub, Canadian company TELUS aims to bring 'focus, flow and joy' to developers - Transform - Microsoft
Deborah BachMay 16, 2022 Katie Peters could have used an advocate as she embarked on her tech career. In her first year at the University of British Columbia, Peters’ computer science classes were split almost evenly along gender lines. But most of her female classmates soon switched majors, and by Peters’ final year there were typically only two or three women in those classes. She felt increasingly isolated and was uncomfortable asking for help.
With their HoloLens 2 project, Microsoft and Volkswagen collaborate to put augmented reality glasses in motion
Imagine putting on a pair of augmented reality glasses as you head out in the morning and get into your vehicle. As your self-driving car takes you to your destination, you get holographic displays of traffic information, weather conditions, shopping recommendations and architectural highlights along the way. And as the day dawns, you can use holographic controls in front of you to adjust the interior temperature to your liking.
‘EQ trumps IQ’: How AT&T and Microsoft partner to help businesses innovate
Everything began with a phone chat. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully placed the world’s first telephone call – a quick communication that confirmed his invention and, eventually, created the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. You know it, no doubt, as AT&T. Headquartered in Dallas, AT&T is becoming a cloud-first company.
Grieving parents who lost son to ALS get a powerful Christmas surprise Original
While visiting over Thanksgiving, my mother spotted the perfect Christmas tree at a nursery near our home on Bainbridge Island in Washington. “Oh, look at this tree!” she exclaimed, holding it out for me to see. “I wish I could take it home.” It was indeed perfect — a noble fir with branches ideally spaced for hanging ornaments, a pin-straight branch at the top stretching skyward for a star, its fresh, woodsy fragrance hanging in the misty November air.
Novartis empowers scientists with AI to speed the discovery and development of breakthrough medicines
Here’s a cooking story unlike any you’ve heard before. That’s because the chefs are chemists, the ingredients are molecules, and the main course is a new medication designed to defeat illness. At least, that’s Luca Finelli’s snackable description to explain in simple terms how scientists at Novartis are searching for breakthrough medicines powered by artificial intelligence (AI), part of a collaboration with Microsoft to get medicines to patients faster.
Using Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities, Peloton develops live subtitles for members who are deaf or hard of hearing
That day in early February was for David Wolfe Rose like all the Christmases at once, like getting a new kitten, like every special day bundled into one. Rose had readied a room at the back of his house in preparation for the delivery. That morning, he eagerly waited. Soon two men arrived, put together Rose’s new indoor stationary Peloton Bike and showed him how to use it. Rose was, well, beyond elated. “It was like getting married again,” he says. “If I’m honest, it was like having another baby.
With Azure, the US Army Corps of Engineers gains a ‘powerful tool’ for storm modeling
After almost two decades of working on coastal protection and restoration efforts in Louisiana, Carol Parsons Richards knows all too well the destruction hurricanes can cause. A coastal resources scientist manager for the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Richards also realizes how critical storm modeling is to help prepare for a future made unpredictable by climate change.
Lumen’s Paul Savill shares his view from the edge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Lumen Technologies is having a big year. The company was born in September 2020, when telecommunications company CenturyLink announced a rebrand to Lumen Technologies and brought to the forefront a focus on furthering human progress through technology. Lumen, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, builds on a long networking legacy by providing businesses with an interconnected global fiber network infrastructure, edge cloud capabilities and security, and communication and collaboration solutions.
In Oklahoma, a ‘mad rush’ for vaccines soon faded. How more residents are once again booking shots.
Vaccinations are climbing in Oklahoma, offering a promising shift in the fight to curb COVID-19 after months when the Sooner State’s immunization rate lagged near the bottom nationally. While health officials in that state and across the U.S. are still working to achieve vaccination goals, experts see some hope in the latest numbers.
Climate change demands intelligent buildings. Here’s one way to make them smarter.
You rise at 7 a.m. Your schedule shows just one appointment for the day, at noon. Immediately, you head out to your car, start the engine and let it run until it’s time to go. Hours later, you depart for that errand and return home. Now it’s 1 p.m. but you decide to keep your car humming until dark. After all, you may need to venture out again. And hey, you’re only mimicking the carbon-belching behavior of each office tower, shopping center and apartment complex in town.
‘Imagine a world where … ’: Urban Air Adventure Park is inventing new ways to play
Michael Browning Jr. smiled at his little world of joy. The amusement park he’d conceived was coming to life. He’d placed a roller coaster here, some bumper cars there and, in the middle, a café to dish up slices of pizza. Browning could even hear his “guests” squeal with delight. Once upon a time, that whole, happy scene existed only on a young boy’s computer screen, all part of a simulation game called Rollercoaster Tycoon that had stirred Browning’s imagination.
Humana is working to end food insecurity – 14 meals at a time | Transform
Gwen gazed down at her last remaining dinner, a mug of chicken broth. Days had passed since she’d tasted a real bite of food. Her pantry was empty. Even worse, Gwen was stranded alone. She had no family near her Tennessee home. She couldn’t drive due to her failing eyesight. And she feared that catching a ride to the market with a friend would expose her to COVID-19. So she sipped broth. Then the phone rang. To Gwen, the call seemed out of the blue. It wasn’t, but the timing was perfect.
U.S. Army to use HoloLens technology in high-tech headsets for soldiers
In 2019, as part of a new effort to develop advanced technologies to enhance situational awareness and capabilities for soldiers, the U.S. Army invited Microsoft engineers and other employees to a military base in North Carolina for a series of weeklong mini boot camps. The Microsoft team learned about navigating on the ground, maneuvering in the dark and communicating in the field.
Mind games: How gaming can play a positive role in mental health
As a child, John Kieswetter played video games with his younger sister and two cousins who lived nearby as often as he could. Kieswetter kept playing into adulthood and became even more passionate about gaming. He enjoyed playing with friends and meeting new friends through gaming. Gaming was a community, and gamers were his people. Kieswetter is now an Xbox Ambassador who loves helping other gamers.
“You can actually feel like you’re in the same place”: Microsoft Mesh powers shared experiences in mixed reality
For years, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté received countless proposals for virtual reality technologies, but they couldn’t match the magic of his intensely visual and mesmerizing live performances. Now, with a new platform provided by Microsoft, he’s rethinking that. On Tuesday, he appeared at Microsoft’s Ignite digital conference via holoportation, which uses 3D capture technology to beam a lifelike image of a person into a virtual scene.
Essential IT: How Duval County Public Schools shifted to remote learning – in just three days | Transform
This is the third in a series profiling IT executives who helped guide their organizations through the COVID-19 pandemic and toward recovery. In Florida, spring break was nearly over, and Jim Culbert hadn’t slept much for days. Unfortunately for Culbert, chief information officer at Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, that exhausting stretch was anything but a beach party.
This 'smartphone for surgeons' could be the future of operations
Hololens, created by engineer and Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman, is being used as a new tool during operations. Hololens is operated with hand gestures and voice commands, allowing surgeons to call up much more information than would previously have been available to them. It can also be used in training and to allow colloboration between multiple surgeons - even if they're not in the operating theatre.
Essential IT: How Providence uses data to care for COVID-19 patients
This is the second in a series profiling IT executives who helped guide their organizations through the COVID-19 pandemic and toward recovery. B.J. Moore knew he had to stick to his gut. He had just made a crucial choice as the new chief information officer at Providence, one of the nation’s largest health systems, spanning 51 hospitals and 1,085 clinics in seven Western states. But his choice was getting some pushback.
Essential IT: How Unilever embraced risk to cultivate a remote workforce – and cleaner hands | Transform
This is the first in a series profiling IT executives who helped guide their organizations through the COVID-19 pandemic and toward recovery. Bobby Ford holds a very serious job, in a very serious time. He protects the data at Unilever, a company that employs 155,000 people and produces hundreds of iconic brands, including Vaseline, Dove and Ben & Jerry’s.
HoloLens project enables collaboration among surgeons worldwide
One day in mid-December, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Bruno Gobbato walked into an operating room in Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil, put on a HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset and prepared for surgery. Joining him remotely were fellow surgeons Professor Thomas Gregory, who was tuning in from Paris, and Dr. John Erickson, who is based in New Jersey.
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