Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli visits MIT in support of assistive technology and global poverty reduction
“Imagine a 6-year-old kid about to start school. The kid has only known his local village, the local fields,” Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli said at MIT on Friday. “This is a place that kid would have imagined was close to the stars. That kid, of course, was me.” Bocelli, who became blind after a childhood accident, visited MIT in support of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation’s (ABF) funding of research on assistive technologies for the blind and for reducing global poverty.Speaking through a translator, Bocelli described the origin of his partnership with MIT: “It was born here in Boston two or three years ago, when, after a concert, I met Professor Munther Dahleh. We discussed the idea to create a device that could act as a substitute for the eyes. The answer I got from Professor Dahleh was, ‘Yes, we can.’”While admitting that this research may help him personally, Bocelli said...