Feb. 14 Ends Illinois State's Sesquicentennial Celebration

The finale of Illinois State University’s Sesquicentennial year will take place on Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Founders Day celebration. 

Illinois State will mark the ending of the 150th year and beginning of the 151st year with a series of activities, including the 10 a.m. annual Ringing of the Old Main Bell, 1 p.m. Convocation featuring keynote speaker Ray Kurzweil and a 3:30 p.m. Founders Day reception. All events, except Convocation, will be held in the Bone Student Center’s Brown Ballroom.  Convocation will be held in Braden Audiotirum. Kurzweil will participate in a book signing after his presentation at the Bone Student Center’s Barnes & Noble Bookstore.  All events are open to the public.

The Convocation will include presentation of many University Awards, including the 2008 Distinguished Professors, Outstanding University Teachers and Researchers and Outstanding University Service Award, to name just a few.

Called “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, New York native Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, scientist, author and futurist.  At the age of 15, he wrote his first computer program while working at a summer job.  The program was distributed to researchers by IBM.  In high school, Kurzweil created a pattern-recognition software program that analyzed musical pieces of great classical composers, which led to an invitation to appear on the television program, I’ve Got a Secret.  While on the show, he performed a piano piece composed by a computer that he had built.  Kurzweil received a first prize in the International Science Fair that year followed by recognition from Westinghouse Talent Search, personal congratulations from President Lyndon B. Johnson and the awarding of the National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton.

During his tenure at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kurzweill started a company that used a computer program, Select College Consulting Program, to match high schools students with colleges.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and literature at MIT and has been awarded 15 honorary degrees.  Other Kurzweil inventions include the flatbed scanner, electric piano and speech recognition software. 

Kurzweil has authored several books on health, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, technological singularity and futurism.  He has a movie coming out this year called The Singularity is Near:A True Story About the Future and is the subject of a documentary about his life and ideas called Transcendent Man.