Microsoft founder Bill Gates is expected to attend a conference on information and communication technology to be held in Doha in April next year. The Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar will host the third International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD). Bill Gates, who is transitioning from company chairman into a full-time philanthropic role, has agreed to deliver a keynote address at the conference. ICTD is the premiere conference for innovating technology accessible and relevant to developing communities. It is a multidisciplinary forum for academic researchers and practitioners designing computing technology solutions for developing economies. "This conference is one of the most important new directions for computing. By hosting the ICTD conference here in Doha we can get the Middle East and Qatar more involved in this emerging field," said M Bernardine Dias, assistant research professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The conference presents state-of-the-art research by technical and social scientists, with original, peer-reviewed papers and a poster session, as well as keynote addresses by leading scholars in the field. Of the six billion people in the world, four billion are at the base of the economic pyramid, living on less than $2 a day. A lot of such population is represented in Qatar, and these are the people who can benefit greatly from the research and innovations of the ICTD community, said Dias. UC Berkeley in California and Microsoft Research in India hosted the first two conferences. Both events attracted more than 200 scholars from around the world. Dias expects having the conference in the Middle East, as well as having Bill Gates as a speaker, will draw an even larger crowd in 2009. The two-day conference will open on April 17, 2009. Gates will give the keynote address on April 18. Dr Hessa Al Jaber, Secretary General of ictQATAR and Kentaro Toyama, Assistant Managing Director of Microsoft Research India, will attend as honorary chairpersons. The organising partner of the conference is ictQATAR, and the Qatar National Research Fund is a platinum sponsor. All sessions of the conference will be held at Carnegie Mellon's new building in Education City. The Pen

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