Vision benefit to feature futurist Ray Kurzweil via hologram

Tickets are available for the "2008 ROPARD Children's Vision Award Ceremony" on May 31 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Artificial vision researcher Mark Humayun, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Southern California, will be honored as the recipient of the 2008 Children's Vision Award. The event will benefit ROPARD, The Association for Retinopathy of Prematurity and Related Diseases, and include dinner, along with an interactive, holographic keynote address by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil (pictured above).

"We're truly honored Dr. Humayun has agreed to join us for this special evening and it's only fitting that the keynote address by futurist Ray Kurzweil will be delivered via a hologram," says Michael T. Trese, M.D., Beaumont Hospital ophthalmologist and medical director of ROPARD."It is hoped the outstanding contributions of these two gentlemen will lead us closer to a world without blindness."

Dr. Humayun, associate director of research, Doheny Eye Institute, USC, will be honored for his work as a leader in the field of artificial vision and recognized for his lifelong efforts to help the blind see. Since its inception in 2000, Dr. Humayun is the fifth recipient of the ROPARD Children's Vision Award.

Keynote speaker Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, visionary, futurist, philosopher and author. He created the first machine capable of reading print to the blind. His Kurzweil Reading Machine, developed over three decades ago, has recently been replaced with the Kurzweil-NFB Reader, the world's first handheld optical character recognition reading system.

Tickets to attend the dinner and keynote address are $150 each. Cocktails begin at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30 p.m. and the keynote address at 9 p.m. Tickets for the keynote address are $50 for general admission and $30 for students. 

For further event information, including tickets and sponsorships opportunities, call ROPARD toll-free at 1-800-788-2020 or go to www.ropard.org.

Founded in 1990, ROPARD is the first organization in the United States dedicated to eliminating the problems of low vision and blindness in children caused by premature birth and retinal disease. ROPARD's primary goal has been the funding of clinically relevant research to understand, treat and prevent retinopathy of prematurity and related retinal diseases. It established a pediatric retinal rescue lab at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. For fifteen years, children from around the world have traveled to Beaumont seeking treatment.