NASA Ames helps Singularity University get off the ground

Imagine attacking world hunger from an Artificial Intelligence or robotics standpoint, or clean water from the perspective of a nanotechnologist.

For nine weeks starting at the end of June, a select group of graduate and post-doctoral students from around the world will gather at NASA Ames Research Center to study a variety of the world’s deep challenges, with major financial backing from Google Inc. and a variety of tech leaders from Silicon Valley.

The hope for Singularity University, as the institution is known, is that new companies and technologies will be created by the synergy of the cross-disciplinary curriculum.

Mountain View-based Google Inc. provided $250,000 to get the school up and running. Other sponsors at the $100,000-plus level include David Rose, CEO of Angelsoft and managing partner at Rose Tech Ventures; Reese Jones, founder of Netopia Inc., a Motorola Inc. company; and Sonia Arrison, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

Google spokesman Andy Pederson said the company became a corporate founder of Singularity because the university’s mission fits well with Google’s — and it’s in Google’s own backyard.

“It’s a good culture fit with people in the valley and people at Google, who like space and technology and pushing the boundaries,” Pederson said.

Palo Alto resident Keith Kleiner, Google’s former manager of hardware operations who now runs The Haymar Fund, and wife, Mariela, invested more than $100,000 to help get Singularity University off the ground.

“These technologies are booming and exploding, and we’re all concerned about where all this stuff is taking us,” said Kleiner, who also runs the blog singularityhub.com. “These are ideas that deserve thought and attention, and Silicon Valley is the proper place for this to take place.”

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• AI & Robotics
• Enhancement
• International
• Social Justice
• Nanotechnology

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