DOHA, QATAR – Following the inauguration of the A. Nico Habermann Distinguished Lecture Series last year, the series continues with a public lecture by Raj Reddy, the Moza Bint Nasser University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.

In his talk, “Computer Technology in Service of Society,” Reddy will present several examples of how

Information Technology can help the 5 billion people who do not now have routine access to devices and networks.

For many of those people, access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Programming is not that important. However, technology-enabled solutions for education, healthcare, communication, information sharing, entertainment, surviving disasters, and finding jobs are critical.

Reddy was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute and the Dean of School of Computer Science from 1991 to 1999. As a Dean of SCS, he helped create the Language Technologies Institute, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Center for Automated Learning and Discovery and the Institute for Software Research. He is also the Chancellor and the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, India.

In this talk, Reddy will present several examples of how even illiterate people can use and benefit from information technology and the necessary conditions to realize such benefits.

The lecture will be held on Monday, November 12, 2012 between 12:00pm and 1:00pm at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. A light reception will follow.

RVSP at qatarcmudev.wpengine.com/rajreddy