Interview with Microsoft Asia Research Lead Zou Xin on Software Engineering, AI Learning, and Career Insights

On June 21‑23, 2019, the GIAC Global Internet Architecture Conference was held in Shenzhen, featuring over 100 experts from leading tech companies. In the lead‑up to the event, High‑Availability Architecture interviewed GIAC software‑engineering forum producer Zou Xin.

Zou Xin, currently Chief R&D Manager at Microsoft Asia Research, has worked on Outlook, Visual Studio, Bing, and Windows since 1996, contributed to AI platform development, and authored several popular textbooks such as Moving Mountains , The Beauty of Programming , and the third edition of The Method of Building – Modern Software Engineering , which is used by more than 40 universities.

When asked about his motivation for writing books, Zou explained that his first book stemmed from sharing personal experience via a blog, and subsequent books benefited from editorial support and collaboration with interns, leading to iterative updates and a third edition now in its third revision.

Regarding software engineering, Zou likened it to marathon training: disciplined planning, warm‑up, and continuous improvement are essential, even though they may feel restrictive compared to short‑run “freestyle” coding.

He emphasized that successful software projects rely on four key factors: wisely using technology, following a solid development process, experienced developers, and appropriate skill combinations. New tools like UML can help but are not silver bullets; the focus should remain on these fundamentals.

On AI, Zou described a practical learning path that starts with code, encouraging programmers to understand deep‑learning modules by reading or writing them. He highlighted Microsoft’s open‑source projects such as https://github.com/microsoft/ai-edu/tree/master/B-教学案例与实践/B6-神经网络基本原理简明教程/ for hands‑on practice, and noted that AI will become an integral part of software development rather than a disruptive replacement.

He also mentioned tools for AI model management, including OpenPAI ( https://github.com/Microsoft/pai ) and NNI ( https://github.com/Microsoft/nni ), which help teams efficiently use GPU resources and automate hyper‑parameter tuning.

When discussing personal growth, Zou advised young engineers to tackle challenging projects early, view experience as compound interest, and focus on practical learning over merely reading books, while offering a curated reading list of over 70 titles.

Finally, Zou shared his thoughts on the GIAC conference agenda, stressing a balanced mix of personal, team, micro‑ and macro‑level topics, and concluded with a reminder of the value of training, the importance of mastering core technologies, and an invitation to his book signing event for The Method of Building – Modern Software Engineering (Third Edition) on June 23.