Singularity University
Google will provide $ 3 million ($1.5 million annually for the next two years) to help fund qualified and selected candidates to SU’s flagship Graduate Studies Program (GSP) – a 10-week immersive experience that educates and empowers the best minds to use exponential technologies and the power of entrepreneurship to solve the world’s greatest challenges such as poverty, energy, water, security and healthcare.
Singularity University (SU) announced the new multi-million dollar agreement with Google aimed at breaking down barriers to technology innovations by creating opportunities for a more diverse group of entrepreneurs from around the world.
This funding will help to better ensure a diverse selection of applications to the GSP program, regardless of their ability to pay. It is the first in a series of announcements by SU to eliminate economic, ethnic, gender and multi-generational barriers that persist in the technology sector.
By eliminating the cost, people who might not otherwise have the means to participate, will be able to attend and make a major difference. Examples of projects from previous years include: designing a sustainable, coordinated and community-led landmine detector; a smart, sensored beehive monitoring systems to help beekeepers fight colony collapse disorder; an unmanned aerial vehicle to ferry medicine and other goods to remote places such a rural Africa; and a way to use scaled-up mining industry technologies to capture value from tons of e-waste that is landfilled or incinerated annual around the world, in fact, containing billions of dollars’ worth of precious and base metals.
Bibak (pronounced be back), a team of women from 2014 GSP is creating thriving communities through landmine detection. There are over 100 million land mines affecting 1 billion people and they cost less than a cup of coffee to manufacture. Making these areas healthy and habitable again has a major impact on the world.
Bibak – creating thriving communities through landmine detection
The Bibak team made a pledge to ensure that every person living in a post-conflict area should live a life free from the ever-present fear of landmines. This team, with members from Italy, Australia and Peru created the Bibak “podtector”, an effective and inexpensive landmine detector that can be assembled on site and delivered in a way that is sustainable, coordinated, and community-led.
Matternet
Matternet, a team project from #GSP11, had the vision to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to ferry medicine and other goods to remote places, such as rural villages in Africa where people often have to walk 20 miles or more to a clinic to receive treatments as simple as blood tests or pills. With Matternet, UAVs will carry the payloads for a substantially lower cost than ground transportation.
SU has empowered individuals from more than 85 countries to apply exponentially growing technologies—artificial intelligence & robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology & digital fabrication, networks & computing systems and medicine & neuroscience—to address humanity’s grand challenges: education, energy, environment, food, global health, poverty, security, space and water.
“The specific public benefit purpose of [Singularity University] is to improve life by advancing exponentially growing technologies, providing education about those technologies, and developing companies that leverage those technologies.” – Singularity University 2014 Impact Report
About the Graduate Studies Program
The Graduate Studies Program (GSP) convenes future leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world in a 10-week collaborative experience to develop team-based technology solutions to widespread global challenges. During the GSP, participants are challenged to design a sustainable global solution to positively impact one billion people by leveraging exponential trends, innovation, and the power of entrepreneurship.
About Singularity University
Singularity University’s (SU) mission is to educate, inspire and empower a generation of leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges. Since 2009, SU has hosted entrepreneurs, industry leaders and government officials from more than 85 countries and has prepared both individuals and organizations for exponential technology changes through a series of events, conferences and education programs. SU’s Founding Corporate Partners include Genentech, Autodesk, Cisco, ePlanet Ventures, Google, Kauffman Foundation and Nokia.
To learn more, visit www.singularityu.org
by Dan Charobee, MBA
Summary provided by Lauren Saie