Sebastian Thrun, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Udacity

• The motivations and influences in launching the Udacity project
• How Udacity aims to solve the real problem of  “access” to higher education
• The competitive landscape and business strategy for Udacity and other MOOCs
• The metrics used to assess Udacity’s performance
• Eye on trends:  MOOCs will complement as opposed to replace the traditional university learning, which provides a fundamentally different experience to students

 Sebastian is the CEO and cofounder of Udacity, a for-profit education company offering massive open online courses or MOOCs. Prior to his time at Udacity, Sebastian was a Google VP and Fellow, where he was involved in the creation of Google Glass, the driverless car initiative, and Google Street View. Among his academic posts, Sebastian has been a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.

Sebastian led development of the robotic vehicle Stanley, which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and which has since been placed on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

In recognition of his contributions, Sebastian was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and also into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2007. Fast Company selected Sebastian as the fifth most creative person in business in the world.