Microsoft to add ‘Academic Researcher’ to Cortana’s curriculum vitae

Cortana has been praised for her ability to keep you better connected to your family and friends with people-based reminders, she has made a name for herself with her predictive capabilities, and soon, she’ll present you with academic search results that will help you ace your essays. You are probably well aware of the fact that referencing Wikipedia is a big no-no in the academic community, so Microsoft is prepping Cortana to become a “researcher’s dream assistant.”

Powered by the Microsoft Academic Search engine, the virtual assistant/heroine will gain the ability to follow the works of specific researchers that interest you, in addition to tracking conferences that you may wish to attend. Users will be also able to take advantage of Cortana’s Notebook feature for finer control over how much academic content she should track for them, further enhancing her abilities as a research assistant.

“Since the academic audience is an important user segment and a source of innovative suggestions and feedback, we are announcing the new development during the Faculty Summit to broaden our engagements with this community.” Says Microsoft’s Kuansan Wang emphasizing the importance of the academic community to Microsoft Research.

It will be interesting to see how Cortana is received in the academic world and whether or not she’ll be the next big thing for students and researchers alike.