It’s been a busy month at Singularity University in terms of our interactions with Washington.  Yesterday, Dr. Dr. Bobby Braun, NASA’s Chief Technologist, spoke at a joint NASA Ames/Singularity University event which is introducing SU’s approach to exponential technologies to the local community.  Dr. Braun referenced an open letter he wrote to college students country-wide and spoke eloquently about this Administration’s commitment to leveraging technology to address Grand Challenges.  (His letter is a must-read.)

Three weeks ago, I was invited to Washington DC to participate in a 1.5 day conference put on by USAID, the $20bn development arm of the State Department.  Dr. Rajiv Shah, who heads up USAID, declared their commitment to using Science Technology & Innovation (STI) to address Grand Challenges in Development and demonstrated it by gathering 60 thought leaders from government, philanthropy, technology and development to discuss it.  The event was co-sponsored by Dr. John P. Holdren, Science Advisor to the President, and ended with a State Dinner with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who reiterated their commitment in her address to the conference attendees.

Dr. Rajiv Shah - Credit: USAID/Bethany Egan

Since leveraging technology to address global issues is our constant focus at Singularity University, we’re thrilled with these outcomes.  When we compared USAID’s draft list of Grand Challenges to what our students have studied and produced in their Team Projects, there was a 90%+ overlap.

One of the central structural questions about government that keeps us up at night is the following: “how do regulatory frameworks keep pace when technology is accelerating away from us?”  An approach to Grand Challenges which acknowledges and accounts for technology and innovation is necessary, but not easy.  Many organizations have been trying this for decades with little success.

Along with our Graduate Studies Program, we also run 9-day Executive Programs for government leaders and business executives (our next program is Oct 13-22nd) where we explore how disruptive technologies will create billion dollar opportunities (and threats).  Our last program was considered a resounding success.

We’ve had the luxury of a greenfield approach in thinking about how to address Grand Challenges with technology and have evolved this model with the top thinkers in the world along with the visionary ideas of our co-founders Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil.  What’s exciting is that our government, which is traditionally slow to adopt new models, is fully engaged and implementing this approach.

It makes all of us at Singularity University highly optimistic about our future.

Salim Ismail
CEO & Executive Director
Singularity University