A man, a plan, a new grant

Contributed by Michael Lisman:

Bill Gates' well-endowed Microsoft Research last week held its annual Latin American Academic Summit in the “Ciudad del Saber” in Panama City Panama – home to the former Clayton US Military Base and the epicenter of the Panama Canal. The conference featured speeches by President Torrijos, Gonzalo Rivas of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Rick Rashid of Microsoft Research.

Finchannel.com reports that:

During a keynote address, Rashid, who is the head of Microsoft Research’s six global research labs, announced the company’s second round of funding to the Latin American and Caribbean Collaborative ICT Research Federation (Virtual Institute). This funding of $150,000 (U.S.) will help continue the expansion of research opportunities across the region.

The LAAS in Panama City on May 14^th is the first held in a Central American country, where ICT in education issues are markedly behind the rest of the region.

Sources: Microsoft PressPass, FinChannel.com, PREAL.com, Inter-American Dialogue

Image: Microsoft (Bill Gates and Rick Rashid)