[Just Launched] Two new Nanodegree programs!
Today is a landmark day in Udacity’s history, as we proudly announce two new offerings focused on the future of smart transportation:
Intro to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree program
These new programs were announced this morning at TechCrunch Disrupt SF by Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun. When asked to detail Udacity’s interest in launching an introductory program for aspiring self-driving car engineers, Sebastian had this to say:
“We got almost 50,000 applications for the advanced Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program, which makes Udacity — in terms of educating self-driving car engineers — bigger than all universities combined. But we also found than many people wanted to be part of it that didn’t have the prerequisites. So we wanted to get to those people we couldn’t admit into the program, and say, look, here’s something you can do to get admitted. You need to learn about machine learning, about basic control theory, about math, and about object oriented programming. Then, when you get this chunk together, you have the basis to enjoy yourself in the more advanced, career-driven Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program.”
And here is Sebastian on the subject of flying cars:
“There’s no reason to be stuck in traffic anymore when we can fly. With a flying vehicle, I would make it from Palo Alto to San Francisco in 10 minutes and pay 50 cents in electricity costs. People say it’s a decade away, it’s two years away honestly. There’s no technical reason it can’t be done, it’s much more a societal reason.”
These two new programs were also announced on the main Udacity blog: Sebastian delivered the Intro to Self-Driving Cars announcement here, and Nicholas Roy (Professor, MIT. Founder, Project Wing X) made the Flying Car announcement here. (Nick is one of our partners in building the Flying Car Nanodegree program, and we’re so excited to have him as part of the expert team developing this pioneering curriculum!)
The Intro to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree Program
Here is Sebastian from his blog post:
“Our new Intro to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree program lets anyone with minimal programming experience taste the thrills of building self-driving cars. We empower you to understand the essentials of programming a self-driving car: from machine learning to object-oriented programming to probabilistic robotics. When you graduate from this program with your very own Nanodegree credential in hand, you won’t quite be an expert (yet). However, you will have experienced what it means to build self-driving cars, and hopefully will engage in a path of learning that will forever change your life. You will get guaranteed admission into the advanced Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program upon completion.”
And here he is announcing the 400 scholarships that Lyft will be funding for the program!
“Lyft will fund 400 scholarships for the “Intro to Self-Driving Cars” program over the next year. The scholarships will be used to promote diversity and provide economic opportunity for students who might otherwise be unable to access this exciting area.”
And finally, a personal exhortation from Sebastian, to you:
Self-driving cars is a field of vastly growing opportunities, but with an alarming shortage of talent. Be this new talent and enroll.
The Flying Car Nanodegree Program
As mentioned above, Nicholas Roy is one of the experts helping to build this pioneering program. Nick is the Bisplinghoff Professor in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Along with Sebastian, he is joined by Raff D’Andrea (co-founder of Kiva Systems), and Angela Schoellig (professor in the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies) to round out our team of curriculum experts. Here is Nick on his colleagues, and the program, from his blog post:
“Sebastian’s contributions to autonomy are of course well-known, and his latest work with Kitty Hawk offers an especially compelling integration of cutting-edge technologies. Raff for his part brings to the table a combination of technical virtuosity and artistic sensibility that is both rare and remarkable in this field. Angela’s recent applications of motion planning, control, and learning algorithms to self-driving vehicles represent exciting new advancements in performance, safety and autonomy. I am tremendously excited to work with these amazing colleagues to help students around the world engage with the deep and technical questions in the domain of safe and reliable autonomous flight.”
A TechCrunch article today noted the following about the new Flying Car Nanodegree program:
“This (program) should produce Nanodegree holders with skill sets that can scale to match the opportunity — from practical applications today in areas like commercial drone asset monitoring, to a future where short-range autonomous cargo and even passenger transportation is a viable real world tech.”
Please visit Udacity today, and find out how you can help power the future of smart transportation! As Sebastian said in his announcement, “I dream of a world where transportation is safe, fun and accessible to all. I can’t do this alone. Let’s make this a reality together.”
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This post was written by Christopher Watkins, Senior Writer, Chief Words Officer, Udacity
