Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Singularity University Summer Program Year 3: Helping Billions of People With Exponential Technology

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Abstract:
What do you want to study in school? Try "Saving the World". Now in its third year, Singularity University's Summer Graduate Studies Program (GSP) has begun. For ten weeks (June 18th - August 27th) students from all over the globe will gather in the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley to hear lectures from leaders in cutting edge technology. They will use that learning to form teams and build new projects aimed at helping billions of people in the next decade. Singularity University is trying to do what so many of us technophiles hope can be done: leverage the latest and greatest science to change the world for the better. Learn more about the GSP in the videos below. I can't wait to see what fruits of labor this latest crop of students will yield by summer's end.

Singularity University Summer Program Year 3: Helping Billions of People With Exponential Technology

Mountain View, CA | Posted on June 22nd, 2011

Though SU hasn't released videos of Friday's opening ceremonies, the following montage from GSP '10 gives you a great idea of the grandiose goals and altruistic attitudes that fuel Singularity University.

Singularity University - Opening Ceremony GSP '10 from Matt Rutherford on Vimeo.

Like previous years, GSP '11 will focus on ten ‘tracks' of technology: AI & Robotics, Nanotechnology, Networks & Computing Systems, Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Medicine & Neuroscience, Futures Studies & Forecasting Policy, Law & Ethics, Finance Entrepreneurship & Economics, Energy & Environmental Systems, and Space & Physical Sciences. The lecturers they have lined up to discuss these tracks are pretty amazing, people like Dan Barry, Vint Cerf, and Ralph Merkle. Likewise they match lectures with real world experience by touring through the big name companies that are already shaping emergent technologies. Places like Google, Cisco, Autodesk, Kicklabs, Zynga, and Willow Garage. As students build their understanding of exponential trends in technology, they then find ways to harness those advancements to enact lasting changes in one of five target areas: food, water, energy, space, and "upcycle" (basically reclaiming global waste for productive ends). If humanity can innovate in these areas, we'll have a lasting shot at improving and securing life for billions of people.

The team projects at GSP often form the basis for new companies, some of which have gone on to real success and many more which are too brilliant not to be successful (or copied) in the near future. Part of what makes this strong history of entrepreneurship possible is the incredible people who form the student body of SU. As we've discussed before, the GSP classes tend to be filled with absurdly talented people who have impressive careers and life stories before they even step onto campus. SU freely admits that aim to recruit the most extraordinary people they can. It fits. After all, SU is really aiming to educate a new generation of leaders in their view of the future.

And Singularity University continues to expand its scope. Their executive program on medical interests, FutureMed, was a success this year and will be repeated next year as well. They've branched out into the international arena with classes offered remotely in Brazil, and with a new alliance with the World Expo. In the video below, SU President Salim Ismail describes SU's partnership with Expo 2015 to be held in Milan, Italy. (He also gives a pretty great overview of what the GSP is all about.)

We here at Singularity Hub send our fondest wishes and the best of luck to the matriculating Singularity University Class of 2011. Work hard over these next ten weeks, guys. But don't worry, we aren't asking much of you: just save the world. Easy, right?

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About Singularity University
Singularity University is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, Singularity University hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. Singularity University is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley.

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