Singularity University
Encyclopedia
Singularity University is an academic institution in Silicon Valley
whose stated aim is to "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."
Running contemporaneously with the International Space University
, Singularity University is not an accredited four-year university, but is instead intended to supplement traditional educational institutions. It offers an annual ten-week summer course intended for graduate and post-graduate students and ten day programs for senior corporate executives and senior government leaders. The first Graduate program began in June 2009, with full tuition costing US$25,000 (although a majority of the participants were provided full or partial scholarships). The inaugural 2009 class was limited to forty fellows chosen from over 1,200 applicants. Eighty graduate and postgraduate students were accepted for the graduate course beginning summer 2010 from a pool of 1,600 applicants.
Other faculty members and advisors include: Tom Byers
, Vint Cerf
, José Corderio, Marc Goodman, Aubrey de Grey
, Christopher deCharms
, Tim Ferriss, Terry Grossman
, Daniel Kammen
, Bruce Klein, Larry Brilliant
, Bob Metcalfe, Matt Mullenweg
, Peter Norvig
, David Orban
, Daniel Reda, George Skidmore, Larry Smarr
, George Smoot
, Sebastian Thrun
, Pete Worden
, and Will Wright.
Neil Jacobstein was appointed President in October 2010.
Corporate founding partners and sponsors include NASA
, Google
, Nokia
, Autodesk
, IDEO
, LinkedIn
, ePlanet Ventures, and the X-Prize Foundation.
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
whose stated aim is to "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."
Running contemporaneously with the International Space University
International Space University
The International Space University is a private university founded in 1987. The University currently offers three degree granting programs — Master of Science in Space Management, Master of Science in Space Studies and Executive MBA — in addition to a non-degree-granting Space Studies Program.The...
, Singularity University is not an accredited four-year university, but is instead intended to supplement traditional educational institutions. It offers an annual ten-week summer course intended for graduate and post-graduate students and ten day programs for senior corporate executives and senior government leaders. The first Graduate program began in June 2009, with full tuition costing US$25,000 (although a majority of the participants were provided full or partial scholarships). The inaugural 2009 class was limited to forty fellows chosen from over 1,200 applicants. Eighty graduate and postgraduate students were accepted for the graduate course beginning summer 2010 from a pool of 1,600 applicants.
Subjects
The University offers 10 different academic tracks, each chaired by one or more experts in the field:- Futures StudiesFuturologyFutures studies is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of...
and Forecasting (Ray Kurzweil, Paul SaffoPaul SaffoPaul Saffo is a technology forecaster based in Silicon Valley. A Consulting Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, Saffo teaches courses on the future of engineering and the impact of technological change on the future...
) - PolicyPublic policyPublic policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
, LawLawLaw is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and EthicsEthicsEthics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
(currently empty) - FinanceFinance"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
and EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...
(David S. RoseDavid S. RoseDavid Stuart Rose was an American politician and was twice elected mayor of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving from 1898 to 1906 and from 1908 to 1910....
) - NetworksComputer networkA computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
and ComputingComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
Systems (John GageJohn GageJohn Burdette Gage was the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems, where he is credited with creating the phrase "the network is the computer." He served as Chief Researcher and Vice President of the Science Office for Sun, until leaving on June 9, 2008 to join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a...
, Brad TempletonBrad TempletonBrad Templeton is a software architect, civil rights advocate and entrepreneur. He graduated from the University of Waterloo....
) - BiotechnologyBiotechnologyBiotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
and BioinformaticsBioinformaticsBioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...
(Raymond McCauley, Andrew Hessel) - NanotechnologyNanotechnologyNanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
(Ralph MerkleRalph MerkleRalph C. Merkle is a researcher in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics...
, Robert Freitas, Jr.Robert FreitasRobert A. Freitas Jr. is a Senior Research Fellow, one of four researchers at the nonprofit foundation Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto, California. He holds a 1974 Bachelor's degree majoring in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and a 1978 Juris Doctor degree...
) - MedicineMedicineMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and NeuroscienceNeuroscienceNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
(Daniel KraftDaniel KraftDaniel Kraft, M.D. is an NIH funded faculty member affiliated with Stanford. He was on clinical faculty with the UCSF pediatric bone marrow transplantation service and serves as the medicine track chair for Singularity University where he is also executive director for the FutureMed executive...
, Michael McCullough) - AIArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, RoboticsRoboticsRobotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
, and Cognitive Computing (Neil Jacobstein, Raj ReddyRaj ReddyDabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy , a Turing Award winner, is one of the early pioneers in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University for over 40 years. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute at CMU...
) - EnergyEnergyIn physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
and Ecological SystemsEcosystemAn ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
(Gregg Maryniak) - SpaceSpaceSpace is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...
and Physical Sciences (Dan BarryDaniel T. BarryDaniel Thomas Barry is an American engineer, scientist, and a retired NASA astronaut. He was a contestant on the CBS reality television program Survivor: Panama-Exile Island...
)
Other faculty members and advisors include: Tom Byers
Tom Byers
Tom Byers is a professor at Stanford University in the United States. He concentrates in the area of high-technology ventures and serves as the faculty director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program....
, Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
, José Corderio, Marc Goodman, Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging and co-author...
, Christopher deCharms
Christopher deCharms
Christopher deCharms is a serial entrepreneur, neuroscientist, social entrepreneur, author, inventor, and currently founder and CEO of Omneuron, a life sciences company focusing on novel magnetic resonance imaging technologies, and founding executive director of NPO, the Non-Profit President's...
, Tim Ferriss, Terry Grossman
Terry Grossman
Terry Grossman is an American physician, scientist, author. He is involved in fields such as nutritional and anti-aging medicine.Grossman is the founder and medical director of Grossman Wellness Center in Denver, Colorado....
, Daniel Kammen
Daniel Kammen
Daniel Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley and a climate advisor to the Obama administration. He is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, for their...
, Bruce Klein, Larry Brilliant
Larry Brilliant
Lawrence "Larry" Brilliant is an American physician, epidemiologist, technologist, author, and the former director of Google's philanthropic arm Google.org. Brilliant, a technology patent holder, has been CEO of two public companies and other venture backed start ups. From 1973 to 1976, he...
, Bob Metcalfe, Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg
Matthew Charles Mullenweg is an online social media entrepreneur, web developer and musician living in San Francisco, California. He is best known for his development of the free and open source web software, WordPress...
, Peter Norvig
Peter Norvig
Peter Norvig is an American computer scientist. He is currently the Director of Research at Google Inc.-Educational Background:...
, David Orban
David Orban
David Orban, is an entrepreneur, visionary, and analyst of the global high technology landscape who was born in Budapest in 1965.Currently, Orban is Chief Executive Officer of dotSUB, a US-based technology platform and services company that powers captions and translations as subtitles in any...
, Daniel Reda, George Skidmore, Larry Smarr
Larry Smarr
Larry Smarr is a physicist and leader in scientific computing, supercomputer applications, and Internet infrastructure.He received both his BA and MS at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and received a Ph.D...
, George Smoot
George Smoot
George Fitzgerald Smoot III is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and $1 million TV quiz show prize winner . He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on COBE with John C...
, Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun is a Research Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory . He led the development of the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and which is exhibited in the Smithsonian...
, Pete Worden
Pete Worden
Simon P. Worden, Ph.D. is Director of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Before joining NASA, he held several positions in the United States Air Force and was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is a recognized expert on space issues...
, and Will Wright.
Programs
The University offers three kinds of academic programs:- Graduate Studies Program - a ten-week summer program for 80 students running once per year(Tuition US$25,000)
- Executive Program (10 days) - a 40-student program running about 3 times per year (Tuition US$15,000)
- Specialty executive programs, like FutureMed 2011, with a concentration on a particular area of interest.
Organization
Singularity University is overseen by a Board of Trustees.- Ray Kurzweil, Co-Founder, Chancellor & Trustee
- Peter H. Diamandis, Co-Founder & Chairman
- Michael SimpsonMichael SimpsonMichael Simpson or Mike Simpson may refer to:* Michael Simpson , record producer and member of the electronic group Dust Brothers* Michael Simpson , footballer...
, Founding Trustee - Robert D. RichardsRobert D. RichardsRobert D. Richards is a Canadian-born space entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, Inc., a U.S. company awarded a $10M commercial lunar contract by NASA and a competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZE...
, Founding Trustee - Salim Ismail, Executive Director & Trustee
- Sonia Arrison Senkut, Trustee
- Barney Pell, Trustee
- Reese Jones, Trustee
- Jeff Kowalski, Trustee
- Naveen JainNaveen JainNaveen K. Jain is a business executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder of InfoSpace, Intelius, and Moon Express. In 2000, Forbes ranked Jain 121 on their list of 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of 2.2 billion dollars....
, Trustee
Neil Jacobstein was appointed President in October 2010.
Corporate founding partners and sponsors include NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Autodesk
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, IDEO
IDEO
IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,...
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
, ePlanet Ventures, and the X-Prize Foundation.
External links
- singularityu TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
feed - Official site