CITRIS Distinguished Speaker Series: James Fruchterman

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!

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.