What was Bill Gates' speech in Peking University?

On April 19, 2007, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, started his second day trip to China. Gates delivered a speech on the theme of "The Way Forward: Innovation in China" in Tsinghua University that morning, and accepted the honorary doctorate certificate awarded by Tsinghua University. The following is the full text of the speech: Dear President Gu, teachers and students in Tsinghua University: I feel very honored to receive the honorary doctorate from Tsinghua University, a world-class university. Tsinghua is a famous school with a history of one hundred years, and many outstanding scientists, business and political leaders were born here. The last time I went to your school was at 1997. At that time, I was deeply impressed by your students' talents, enthusiasm and creativity. After that, I decided to set up Microsoft Research Institute in China. Under the leadership of Dr. Shen Xiangyang, outstanding graduates from Tsinghua and other universities have helped Microsoft Research Institute succeed and made great contributions to the company. They can be seen in various international conferences. They also worked hard for the birth of new Microsoft products such as Vista. With the rapid development of computer science today, it is exciting to be a student in your school. We are just beginning to understand the amazing things that software can do. There are one billion computer users all over the world, and they are just beginning to share information. With the development of semiconductor and optical fiber technology, software can do more things: today's TV is still passive, in the future, you can download programs from the Internet, and TV will be able to communicate and interact with people; Yesterday, I visited the Rice Research Institute of China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and saw that technicians there began to use software to distinguish and classify different kinds of rice. In the future, they can cultivate high-yield and excellent varieties with less pesticides. The medical community has begun to use software to manage databases; Today's mobile phone has become our "digital wallet", which can display maps, search information online and communicate with people in the future; The appearance of tablet computer makes it possible to surf the Internet wirelessly in the classroom and record and recognize handwritten characters with computers. In this way, students can study more effectively without textbooks, and teachers can also see excellent teaching plans from all over the world. Of course, the future of software still faces many challenges: how to make it easier for users to master? How to realize artificial intelligence? But in any case, as far as computer science is concerned, we are in the most exciting era. China is developing rapidly, and making more and more contributions to the world economy and scientific and technological innovation. Microsoft is willing to help China's emerging companies grow and all China citizens enjoy the fruits of computer science progress: Microsoft has launched a project to help China immigrants, migrant workers, the disabled, especially the blind, enjoy scientific and technological achievements; Microsoft has donated money to establish five hope primary schools and five online hope primary schools; Microsoft has also established many academic exchange programs in cooperation with the government and universities in China to encourage outstanding foreign experts to give lectures in China. More than 2,000 students from 39 universities in the Asia-Pacific region worked as interns in Microsoft Research Asia, and 120 people received research grants, most of them from your university. This academic year, researchers from Microsoft Research Asia will open a course in Tsinghua: "Hot Areas of Computer Research". I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that Microsoft will set up an "outstanding visiting scholar" program in your school. In this project, Microsoft Research Asia will invite a world-renowned computer expert to give a lecture at the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science led by Professor Yao Qizhi. The first person who was invited to visit was Professor frans Keshould of MIT. In a word, I am very happy to come to your school today. Before I was awarded an honorary doctorate by my alma mater, Harvard University, I became an honorary doctor in Tsinghua. I just shared with you some possible breakthroughs in the future software field, the opportunities they bring to enterprises, and the help provided by disabled people and students. I hope you can be as optimistic as I am: as long as you can surf the Internet, you can get equal educational opportunities. Microsoft's attention to the China market is long-term. We have high expectations for your school, which is famous for its academic rigor. Let's join hands to create a brilliant future of information technology! Thank you all.