Bill Gates Caps Final University Lecture Tour with Carnegie Mellon Visit
Carnegie Mellon is the last stop on Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' final tour of several nationally-recognized universities. Mr. Gates' lecture, "Bill Gates Unplugged: On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Giving Back" is open to all members of the Carnegie Mellon community.
Who: Bill Gates
What: "Bill Gates Unplugged: On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Giving Back"
When: Thursday, February 21, 2008, 4 p.m.
Where: Rangos Hall, University Center
Watch: To watch the lecture, click here
Background
As founder, chairman, and former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates revolutionized personal computing in the digital information age. Since 1975, Microsoft has pioneered many of the software solutions that have transformed our world, including MS-DOS, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox.
In July 2008, Mr. Gates will step aside from his role as Chairman at Microsoft Corp. to pursue greater philanthropic endeavors with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission it is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.
Microsoft is one of the university's top corporate supporters, partnering with Carnegie Mellon in many ways. More than 300 university alumni currently work at Microsoft offices around the globe, including Corporate Vice President Harry Shum (CS 1996 (PhD)) and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Education Products & Solutions Technology Policy and Strategy, Anoop Gupta (MCS 1982, 1986). Carnegie Mellon is home to the Microsoft Research-sponsored Center for Computational Thinking, launched in March 2007 in an effort to stimulate collaborative research and educational partnerships.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Gates Center
With a lead gift of $20 million, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made possible the Gates Center, one of two groundbreaking buildings that will create Carnegie Mellon's new School of Computer Science Complex. The Gates Center will be the home for undergraduate computer science, with classrooms, collaborative work spaces, study rooms, and student organization spaces—all designed to achieve at least a LEED Silver rating for sustainable building.
Carnegie Mellon currently has 12 undergraduate and graduate students who are Gates Millennium Scholars. This program was established by the Gates Foundation in 1999 to support higher education for outstanding minority students with significant financial need.
With assets totaling close to $40 billion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is guided by the principle that "every life has equal value." In the United States, the Foundation seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to education and opportunities to succeed; the Foundation also is a major force in global health care and development.
In 2001, in recognition of its extraordinary philanthropic commitment, the Gates family was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, an award presented by a consortium of organizations founded by Andrew Carnegie, including Carnegie Mellon.
