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 U is not an accredited four-year university, but is instead intended to supplement traditional educational institutions. It offers the Graduate Studies Program (GSP) annual ten-week summer course located at NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley.

   The program is for top graduate and postgraduate students worldwide to learn about the various exponentially growing cross-disciplinary technologies (biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, medicine, etc.).

   The inaugural 2009 class was limited to 40 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. The low acceptance rate and high demand for entry has allowed Singularity University to assemble some of the smartest people on the planet, dedicated to solving the world's most pressing problems.

Academics

The University offers 10 different academic tracks, each chaired by one or more experts in the field:

• Futures Studies and Forecasting (Ray Kurzweil, James Canton, Jim Dator, Paul Saffo)
• Policy, Law and Ethics (Tara Lemmey, Robert Taylor)
• Finance and Entrepreneurship (David S. Rose)
• Networks and Computing Systems (Bob Metcalfe, Kevin Fall)
• Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (Daniel Reda)
• Nanotechnology (Ralph Merkle, Robert Freitas, Jr.)
• Medicine, Neuroscience and Human Enhancement (Daniel Kraft)
• AI, Robotics, and Cognitive Computing (Neil Jacobstein, Raj Reddy)
• Energy and Ecological Systems (Sunil Paul, Michel Gelobter, Dan Whaley)
• Space and Physical Sciences (Dan Barry, Chris Boshuizen)

   Other faculty members and advisors include Will Wright, Tom Byers, Vint Cerf, Aubrey de Gray,Christopher deCharms, Peter Norvig, Sebastian Thrun, Daniel Kammen, George Smoot, Pete Worden, and Matt Mullenweg.

Marco