Speaker
Plenary Speakers
Dr. Sebastian Thrun

Dr. Sebastian Thrun

Chairman and Co-founder
Udacity

Dr. Sebastian Thrun is an adjunct Professor at Stanford University and pursues research on robotics, artificial intelligence, education, human computer interaction, and medical devices.

Dr. Thrun founded Google's self-driving car team, after winning the DARPA Grand Challenge. Together with Peter Norvig, Thrun developed the first global MOOC with 160,000 students enrolled. Google Scholar ranks Thrun's publication h-index #14 worldwide in all of computer science.

Dr. Thrun also founded Google X, where he founded Google Glass among many other projects. He was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and the German Academy of Sciences at age 39.

Dr. Thrun founded and sold a number of tech companies, including Udacity (valued at over $1B) and KittyHawk. Fast Company named Thrun the fifth most creative person in business, and Foreign Policy touted him Global Thinker #4. He won numerous awards, including the Max Planck Research Award.