$250 Million Gift To Create Institute For Cognitive Disabilities.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bill Coleman, founder and chairman of BEA Systems in San Jose, and his wife Claudia, a former manager at Hewlett-Packard, have donated $250 million to the University of Colorado. The cash gift, which is to be paid over five years, is believed to be the largest ever made to an American public university.

The donation will be used to fund the study of technological advances for people with cognitive disabilities such as Down Syndrome, autism, Alzheimer's disease, or the aftermath of stroke. The university, which has promised to at least match the endowment, plans to establish the University of Colorado Coleman Institute of Cognitive Disabilities.

Coleman said that he and his wife, who have a niece with special needs, understand the benefits and the promise new technologies can offer people with cognitive disabilities: "We have witnessed the challenges this population faces every day with problem solving, reasoning skills and understanding and using language. I passionately believe that we as a society have the intelligence and the responsibility to develop technologies that will expand the ability of those with cognitive disabilities to learn, to understand and to communicate."

The Institute's activities will begin with a partnership between CU's Boulder campus (www.colorado.edu) and the CU Health Sciences Center campus (www.uchsc.edu). As the Institute develops, all four CU campuses, which also include CU Colorado Springs (www.uccs.edu) and CU Denver (www.cudenver.edu), will be involved in the Institute's work.