February 15th, 2006
Negroponte steps down from MIT to pursue $100 computer
Nicholas Negroponte has stepped down as chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab to pursue his $100 computer initiative, and entrepreneur Frank Moss has been named the lab’s new director, the university said Wednesday.
Nicholas Negroponte
Negroponte left the Media Lab, which he co-founded in 1985, to devote his time to a nonprofit called One Laptop Per Child that is working to develop the low-cost laptops.
In September, Negroponte detailed the specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop, meant to improve the education of children in developing countries. That plan has gained the endorsement of the United Nations.
MIT President Susan Hockfield said that Moss’ experience in different fields meshes well with the mission of the Media Lab.
His "interests in the computer and life sciences and in technological enhancement of human capability align beautifully with the lab’s vision, and with MIT’s distinctive cross-disciplinary collaborations, which embrace not only science and engineering but also humanities and the arts," Hockfield said in a statement.
