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Applied Sciences

Steven Bathiche

CVP/Technical Fellow

Steven Bathiche
Steven Bathiche

Steven Bathiche founded and leads Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group (ASG), an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and A.I. researchers in the Windows and Devices organization who are evolving the computer into a more natural and capable companion to help people achieve their intent.  Under his direction, ASG develops innovations that remove barriers, reduce friction, and extend ability through breakthroughs in multimodal input (voice, vision, touch, gesture) and A.I. (edge, cloud, hybrid).

Recognizing the need for responsive intelligence at the edge, Steven championed the integration of neural processing units (NPU’s) into the Windows PC architecture, now formalized in the industry-realigning Copilot+ PC specification.  His team developed the models that power dozens of A.I. features in Windows 11 including Voice Focus, Paint Cocreator, Live Translation, Intelligent Noise Suppression, Eye Contact, Semantic File Search, and Windows Recall.

He envisions a future shaped by agent-first computing, where users engage naturally with a personal agent that orchestrates other specialized agents and resources to fulfill users’ requests, and is actively developing technologies that bring this vision closer to reality.

Steven holds degrees in electrical engineering (Virginia Tech) and bioengineering (University of Washington).

A lifelong inventor, he has spent decades pushing the boundaries of human-computer interaction.  As a graduate student, he created the Mothmobile—a hybrid robot steered by a moth’s neural signals—that drew worldwide media attention.  During a summer internship at Microsoft in 1997, he invented the world’s first consumer device to use inertial sensors for gesture control—the Sidewinder Freestyle Pro game controller.  Ever since, he has remained at the forefront of innovation, blending insights from diverse fields to elevate the user experience.

In 2001 he coined the term “surface computing” to describe a new class of device that he conceptualized—the Surface table—which was the first augmented-reality multi-person device to use multi-touch and object recognition.  He later co-invented display-integrated camera technology, making Surface Table 2.0 the world’s first computer-vision-based large flat-panel computer.

That work spawned the present line of Surface tablets, laptops, and new form factors, for which ASG continues to be an innovation engine.

Beyond hardware, his cross-disciplinary expertise in software, display tech, algorithms, and sensing has shaped Microsoft’s device strategy.  But his proudest achievement is building ASG, a group now comprising more than 240 specialists across labs in seven countries.  United by a culture of creative freedom, they collaborate across fields and disciplines to solve difficult problems holistically.

Steven holds more than 120 patents.  A Microsoft Technical Fellow and a SID Fellow, he has been recognized as an innovator by Discover, IEEE, and Virginia Tech.  He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and a distinguished lecturer, and his work has been featured in both technical publications and popular media.

Steven enjoys playing basketball, spending time with his wife and daughters, and applying a researcher’s passion to his quest to brew the perfect cup of coffee.

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