http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=3696
Two Palo Altans win 'Genius' fellowships by Molly Tanenbaum and Don Kazak Palo Alto Weekly Staff Uploaded: Tuesday, September 19, 2006, 11:43 AM Two local professionals who study and create practical technologies to fly planes safely and help the blind read have been commended for their work with MacArthur "Genius" fellowships, it was announced Tuesday. James Fruchterman -- chairman and founder of Palo Alto-based nonprofit, The Benetech Initiative -- was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur fellowship for his work creating affordable technology devices to help the visually impaired. Claire Tomlin, a Stanford University professor of aeronautics and astronautics, won the fellowship for helping to develop methods for analyzing hybrid control systems and applying the results to aircraft flight control and collision avoidance. They are two of only 25 people to receive the award this year. Trained as an electrical engineer, Fruchterman, 47, built a reading machine for the blind using pattern-recognition technology intended for smart bombs. Already he has been using his award for good purposes: Tuesday, he contributed a $1,000 challenge grant to KQED. Fruchterman has plans for how he'll spend his next year. "The one thing I'm certain I want to do is get my book written, which I've been dreaming about doing for five years," he said. He plans to write about how the tech community can use its money, skills and creativity to do more to help the world. "We've gotten rich off of the whole planet, and we kind of owe it to do more for everybody," he said. Since developing the reading machine, Fruchterman has ventured into other socially conscious technology projects that address human rights and the environment through large-scale data analysis. The biggest recent project has been Bookshare.org, a Web-based library of scanned books for the visually impaired and those with learning disabilities to download. The MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a "genius award," includes $500,000 and goes to people who "have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." It is awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
