Introducing the Global Solutions Program
Since our founding in 2008, Singularity University has led 10-week long summer Graduate Studies Programs with over 523 individuals in over 70 countries. Though we have many programs, our Graduate Studies Program has long been our flagship. Last Monday, just about everyone in the SU community received an email from our CEO and Associate Founder Rob Nail, announcing a new name for that program, the Global Solutions Program. Rob’s email read in part:
Dear SU Alumni, Staff, and Faculty,
I have the pleasure to announce that our ‘flagship’ Graduate Studies Program has a new name: Global Solutions Program (GSP).
This new name better reflects the key objective: To develop technology solutions to humanity’s grand challenges that can transition into viable startups (for-profit and non-profit).
So what has changed besides the name?
A few things, but GSP continues to operate largely as it always has, and know that we spent quite a lot of time, with a great many people, iterating on program names that maintained that namesake acronym, which is near and dear to the hearts of our alumni around the world.
With GSP16, we’re still bringing 80 of the brightest leaders in the world together for 10 weeks on our campus at the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley. Those leaders will still learn how to leverage exponential technologies to build organizations that solve global grand challenges. They will continue to learn from our distinguished faculty and their peers, as well as an incredible array of speakers, mentors, and investors.
We’re also excited to announce that Dr. Nicholas Haan—a face familiar to most of our alumni—is our new Managing Director of GSP. Dr. Haan is also our faculty track chair for Global Grand Challenges, has experience as a Senior Global Program Manager for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, is involved with several startups, and sits on the regional board of directors at crowdfunder.com.
Much of our curriculum will remain as it has, but taking into consideration the in-depth feedback we receive from every GSP student, Dr. Haan and the rest of our academics team have built out a program that is more action-oriented and experiential than ever before. This means that we’re more intentionally curating a participant pool that is prepared to go all-in with their intent to turn GSP team projects into full-fledged startups.
And lastly…
We’re also announcing the GSP Launchpad. GSP, now a formal part of Singularity University Labs, is a demanding experience for everyone involved. While we are continuously, stupendously impressed by the volume of achievements our students amass in just 10 weeks, many find it exceptionally difficult to leave campus and their teammates behind when the program comes to a close. The GSP Launchpad is an optional, 8-week add-on to GSP that allows teams to continue developing their projects on campus, with housing provided.
Join us for GSP16
We’ve helped launch companies that are 3D printing in space and using drones to deliver goods in developing nations. They’re growing cultured meat products and using machine learning to predict dengue outbreaks in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the Olympics. (We’re not picking favorites, but here are some Peter Diamandis’ favorite exponential SU startups, many of which grew of out of GSP.)
GSP16 will continue to be offered to all participants completely free of charge, thanks to our title sponsor, Google, and to our many other corporate partners.
