Jim Fruchterman, Benetech: Smart Bombs to Reading Machines f...

2007-05-18 14:00:00 - 2007-05-18 00:00:00

Jim Fruchterman

Benetech - President, CEO, Founder

Smart Bombs to Reading Machines for the Blind

Friday, May 18, 2007

2:00 PM

Engineering 2 Building, room 180

Abstract:

What do smart bombs and reading machines for the blind have in common?

They both use the same underlying technology to do their jobs. Jim

Fruchterman, engineer, high tech entrepreneur and now social

entrepreneur, traces his journey from learning about pattern

recognition for military uses, to building the leading Silicon Valley

company making optical character recognition for reading documents, to

starting a deliberately nonprofit tech company to make reading

machines for the blind. Benetech is now using academic, military and

commercial technology to help human rights groups, environmental

groups and people with disabilities get the technology tools they

desperately need. Jim is a strong advocate for encouraging the

technology and business communities to realize the socially beneficial

applications of their innovations, not just those that make the most

money!

Biography:

A technology entrepreneur and engineer, Jim Fruchterman has been a

rocket scientist, founded two of the foremost optical character

recognition companies, and developed a successful line of reading

machines for the blind. He is now a leading social entrepreneur

through his deliberately nonprofit technology company, Benetech.

Benetech concentrates on applying technology to human rights and

literacy for people with disabilities. Fruchterman has won numerous

awards for his work, including the 2006 MacArthur Fellowship and the

Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2004 and 2006. He was named

a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of 2003, which has included attending and

speaking five times at the World Economic Forums in Davos,

Switzerland. Fruchterman believes that technology is the ultimate

leveler, allowing disadvantaged people achieve more equality in

society.

Hosted by Assistant Professor James Davis