Press Release: 2010 Graduate Program Announced, Applications Accepted Through March 15

February 22nd, 2010

Singularity University (SU) announced the dates for the second year of its Graduate Studies Program (GSP), and a 200% class size increase to accommodate 80 of the top students from around the globe. In addition, SU is pleased to announce the availability of numerous full and partial scholarships for the GSP.

“The past year has demonstrated tremendous global challenges, and demonstrated a significant shift in the zeitgeist for exponential and accelerating technologies,” said Dr. Ray Kurzweil, co-founder and chancellor, Singularity University. “Exponential technologies, such as nanotechnology and robotics, have the scale to meet the demands of the current and coming global challenges. Singularity University fosters students’ understanding of these accelerating technologies to create a better and more productive world.”

Ten Weeks of Study, A Lifetime of Innovation

The Graduate Summer Program is a ten-week interdisciplinary curriculum designed to facilitate understanding, collaboration, and innovation across a broad range of carefully chosen scientific and technological disciplines whose developments are exponentially accelerating. In addition to lectures and workshops with world-class leaders, students can also participate in hands-on excursions to leading Silicon Valley labs and companies, Zero G sub-orbital flights, and exposure to NASA’s many technologies. Concluding with a challenging group project to positively affect humanity’s grand challenges, the Graduate Studies Program will begin June 19 and end with Closing Ceremonies on August 28.

Ray Kurzweil during a GSP-09 SessionNewly designed for 80 graduate and post-graduate students, participants in the summer program are chosen based on their level of expertise in individual “tracks,” demonstrated entrepreneurial and leadership skills, and their commitment to addressing and solving important issues facing our world. Taught by the leading minds in their respective fields, the Graduate Studies Program tracks include: future studies and forecasting; policy, law and ethics; finance and entrepreneurship; networks and computing systems; biotechnology and bioinformatics; nanotechnology; medicine, neuroscience and human enhancement; AI and robotics; energy and ecological systems; and space and physical sciences.

“The biggest issues facing the world today, such as the financial crisis, swine flu and aspects of climate change, are all rooted in accelerating and exponential factors,” said Sonia Arrison, Board Member at Singularity University and Senior Fellow at Pacific Research Institute. “The Graduate Studies Program is an excellent opportunity for graduate and post-graduate students to enhance their traditional academic work with an interdisciplinary deep dive into groundbreaking innovations and disruptive technologies that can address these exponential factors, and provide an ‘over-the-horizon view’ so as to better manage and navigate them. Based on the early work of the inaugural GSP class, we expect the effects of GSP graduates to be far-reaching and positively affect humanity’s challenges.”

Becoming a Student of Singularity University’s GSP-10

The Graduate Studies Program is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study and exchange knowledge and information with the leading minds of today, and the leaders of tomorrow. Students and graduates also become part of Singularity University Network (SUN), enabling on-going connections with the community of other students, faculty, and staff – a valuable business resource.

Applications are now being accepted for the second Graduate Studies Program, and demand is high for the limited number of spots still available. A number of full and partial tuition scholarships are available to qualified students. For more information and to apply, please visit http://singularityu.org/programs/graduate-studies-program/.

Graduate Studies Program on a Site Visit

Press Release — “Geek is the New Black”: SU Sponsors “She’s Geeky” UnConferences

February 5th, 2010

Demonstrating its commitment to a broader, women-focused initiative, Singularity University (SU) — the academic institution with the goal of preparing the next generation of leaders to address “humanity’s grand challenges” — recently became a Corporate Sponsor of She’s Geeky, a series of national technology unConferences for women. With the sponsorship, SU underscores its continued commitment to supporting and advancing women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as well as raising awareness among young women about the STEM “cool factor.” SU kicked off its sponsorship with the She’s Geeky unConference held on January 26, 2010 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Susan Fonseca-Klein, Shawna Pandya (GSP-09 Alum), and She's Geeky organizers

Shawna Pandya (GSP-09 Alum), with SU's Susan Fonseca-Klein, Nhu Anh Can, and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom at the the January 26 She's Geeky unConference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

“During the past decade, some of the most significant advancements and job opportunities have come from the STEM fields,” said Susan Fonseca-Klein, VP of Operations and Founding Architect at Singularity University. “This growth is accelerating, and is expected to do so through this decade and beyond. With She’s Geeky, SU has the opportunity to support women as they create and harness the latest innovations. We can also encourage young women’s interest and education in STEM fields, showing them that being a ‘geek’ can lead to a better and brighter future – like Marissa Mayer as the first female engineer at Google. Geek really is the new black, as they say.”

She’s Geeky hosts unConferences across the US to give women in STEM technologies an opportunity to get together to learn from each other, and discuss the unique issues they face in their respective fields. Following the successful and well-attended Bay Area conference in January 2010, additional conferences are planned throughout 2010.

“This sponsorship is just the first formal step in our initiative to support women in technology. In Singularity University’s inaugural year, women represented over a third of the Executive and summer Graduate Studies Programs, respectively,” added Fonseca-Klein. “As we continue progress on our initiative, we fully expect to increase those numbers, and expand our engagement with the women in technology community.”

5 Tips to Winning a Hack-a-thon Competition

August 7th, 2009

On July 31st, a group of Singularity University students and I decided to attend iPhoneDevCamp at Yahoo HQ – for an impromptu field trip. Our goal: to gain first-hand experience of the rapid pace of innovation in Silicon Valley. And maybe build a cool app to enter into the hack-a-thon competition. The result was an app called “Gettaround” (www.gettaround.com).

iPhoneDevCamp

20,000 lines of code, 2 days, and just 4 hrs of sleep later, our app won the “Best Money Making App” category (sponsored by Mobclix) in the hack-a-thon. Here is a short clip of our presentation for the judges:

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