Leading technologists, social entrepreneurs, researchers, business executives and humanitarians from around the world to participate in SU Graduate Studies Program
Mountain View, Calif. (June 21, 2012) – During the week of June 25-30, Singularity University (SU) will host prominent business, research and philanthropic leaders from around the world to take an in-depth look at Humanity’s Global Grand Challenges – the cornerstone of study for SU’s intensive Graduate Studies Program.
The guest presenters are well known experts in the fields of education, energy, environment, food, global health, poverty, security and water, and they will be discussing with students the immediate and long-term needs and current global initiatives in each of these areas.
“The mission of Singularity University’s GSP is to equip and train students to become high-impact innovators,” said CEO Rob Nail. “The personal interaction of students with these leading global figures is essential to their understanding of the environment in which they will be designing and implementing solutions, and importantly learning to scale their projects.”
Eighty students from 36 countries have come to Singularity University’s Silicon Valley campus this summer to identify and use rapidly accelerating technologies to find solutions to humanity’s Grand Challenges. At the end of the 10-week program, SU students develop 10⁹+ Team Projects through the use of exponentially advancing technologies to address Humanity’s grand challenges and positively impact the lives of a billion people in 10 years.
SCHEDULE OF SPEAKERS (Monday, June 25 – Saturday, June 30, 2012) – Closed Session, with approved Media only, see below to coordinate.
MONDAY: Opening Overview Session
Speaker: Shushmita Ghosh (India), President Emeritus, Ashoka Foundation
TUESDAY: Education and Global Health
Education: Vicky Colbert (Colombia), Prasad Ram (India), Pablo Orduna (Spain)
Global Health: William Haseltine, Madhura Bhat (India), Amy Lockwood
WEDNESDAY: Energy and Environment
Energy: Paul Werbos, Harrison Dillon, Bob Freling
Environment: Stewart Brand, Peggy Shepard, Hunter Lovins
THURSDAY: Food and Water
Food: Yassir Islam (India), Jeff Dykstra (Canada), Pat Brown
Water: Jean-Michel Cousteau (France), John Oldfield, Susan Murcott
FRIDAY: Security and Poverty
Security: Kenneth Geers, Nathaniel Manning, Scott Sherman
Poverty: Iqbal Quadir (Bangladesh), Daniel Wordsworth, Kevin Starr
SATURDAY: Convergence and Synthesis
Convergence: Jerome Glenn, John Smart (Canada), Esther Dyson
Closing: Thor Halvorssen (Venezuela), Human Rights Foundation
EDUCATION
Personalized lifelong learning for all, from early childhood to remedial and continuing education, empowered by connectivity and shrinking barriers of language or location
ENERGY
Reliable clean energy for diverse needs, from families to factories, and from fields to skyscrapers, creating an essential foundation for health, education, transportation and business.
ENVIRONMENT
Sharing solutions for healthy, sustainable environments, from remediation to preservation at local-to-global scales.
FOOD
Transforming a sector which is the primary source of income for billions and must supply the needs of another two billion in the next decades.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Closing gaps, speeding discoveries, effectively applying today’s knowledge around the world
SECURITY
Designing reliable and predictable physical, financial, social and informational infrastructures; and protection from immediate dangers to people and infrastructure
POVERTY
Living standards have increased significantly in the past two centuries, but many people still live in extreme poverty – unable to access resources they seek to address their problems
WATER
Focusing on safe, reliable water and access to sanitation, accounting for regional differences and types of use, from rural to urban and agriculture to industrial
Media is invited to attend the Global Grand Challenge Week sessions. Please contact: Diane Murphy (diane@singularityu.org), or Tracy Nguyen (Tracy@singularityu.org) for more information and to make arrangements in advance.
