Talks@Tech hosting Bill Gates

Three years in the making, a new Georgia Institute of Technology speaker series, Talks@Tech, will host its first event this month with Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.

On Tuesday, Nov. 20, Gates will address Georgia Tech students by video from Seattle, speaking for 5-10 minutes before opening the floor for an extended live question-and-answer session. Watch it here live beginning at 6 p.m. EST.

“Mr. Gates has such an incredible background in science, technology, humanities and the arts,” John Miller was quoted in a release. Miller is a fourth-year industrial and systems engineering major spearheading the Talks@Tech project. “His experiences founding Microsoft and creating the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide insight for the innovative, intellectual and ambitious students at Georgia Tech.”

Miller and his fellow organizers hope to use Talks@Tech to engage the community through distinguished speakers and topical conversations that go beyond lectures, providing a place for discussion-based learning.

“We want students to be engaged in conversations that they would otherwise not be able to have,” he said.

The Talks@Tech initiative was born out of a student-led effort, with faculty and staff providing guidance along the way through a steering committee. The group also hopes to organize and centralize various prestigious speakers around campus at talks.gatech.edu.

- The Georgia Institute of Technology contributed to this story