“I’m a fighter. I believe in our people, I believe in our mission, and I believe that it should exist and must exist.” Sebastian Thrun is talking animatedly about Udacity, the $1 billion online education startup that he co-founded nearly eight years ago. His tone is buoyant and hopeful. He’s encouraged, he says over an occasionally […]
View More Sebastian Thrun initiates aggressive plan to transform UdacityCategory: open educational resources
Edtech unicorn Udacity lays off 125 people in global strategy shift
Learning platform Udacity is to axe a big chunk of its workforce — which looks to be between a fifth and a quarter — as part of a global reorganization effort, according to VentureBeat. It reports the company is cutting 125 staff from now through early 2019. We’ve also heard from a source that around 100 Udacity […]
View More Edtech unicorn Udacity lays off 125 people in global strategy shiftApoll01 wants to remake education by decentralizing the diploma
Dan Genduso spent nearly a decade working in consulting before landing on the Disrupt Berlin stage to launch his first startup, Apoll01 — a small company with a big idea about how to solve America’s expanding education crisis. First at Accenture and then at Slalom Consulting in San Francisco, Genduso focused on building out customer […]
View More Apoll01 wants to remake education by decentralizing the diplomaVishal Makhijani steps down as chief executive of Udacity
Vishal Makhijani, the long time chief executive of online education company Udacity, is stepping down as its chief executive officer, TechCrunch has learned. Makhijani first joined the company in 2013 as chief operating officer under Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder and chief executive at the time. In 2016, Thrun, the original architect of Alphabet’s self-driving […]
View More Vishal Makhijani steps down as chief executive of UdacityUdacity tackles cybersecurity with its latest nanodegree
Responding to the talent shortage and increasing demand facing the cybersecurity industry, Udacity said that it is now developing a new nanodegree focused on security. Launched at the security industry’s RSA Conference, details about the new program (including potential partners) are still sketchy (there’s little available on the information page on the Udacity’s website about the program). […]
View More Udacity tackles cybersecurity with its latest nanodegreeUdacity introduces real robots and virtual worlds to help students build skills
Udacity is hosting its annual Intersect conference this week, and the online learning platform is introducing some new programs and features for students at the event. Those include two new ways for students to practice and hone their practical skills – in both real and virtual worlds. For robotics education, Udacity is teaming up with […]
View More Udacity introduces real robots and virtual worlds to help students build skillsUdacity debuts a dedicated School of AI with three new nanodegrees
Udacity is intruding three dedicated new nanodegrees (its own accelerated learning program) in the field of artificial intelligence, which will become part of its new School of AI. AI has been a subject Udacity has taught nearly since its inception, beginning over five years ago, and the field has changed a lot since. It’s seen […]
View More Udacity debuts a dedicated School of AI with three new nanodegreesKitty Hawk begins certifying its self-flying taxis for service in New Zealand
The flying car company led by Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page is breaking cover with a new deal that will see it test its autonomous electric air taxis with the New Zealand government, with the aim of having a commercial network ready to carry passengers within as little as three years, the New York Times reports.
Kitty Hawk, which has so far only… Read More
Udacity grew its revenue over 100% year-over-year in 2017
Online learning platform Udacity had a banner year in 2017, according to a rare glimpse at the (still private) company’s financials. It revealed that it had over 8 million students in total on the platform, counting enrolments across both free and paid courses, which is a big bump from the nearly five million it counted at the end of 2016.
Despite not quite doubling enrolled students… Read More
Udacity opens applications for its Flying Car Nanodegree program
If you want to learn how to build flying cars, then your options in terms of getting an education are kind of limited. Enter Udacity, the online education platform founded by Google self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun. It’s now accepting applications for its Flying Car Nanodegree program, which it announced last year along with a new Introduction to Self-Driving engineering course.… Read More
Udacity and Baidu offer free intro course for Apollo self-driving platform
Onstage at Baidu’s CES 2018 press conference today, Baidu COO Qi Liu was joined by Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun to announce a new collaboration between the two companies. Thrun revealed that Baidu and Udacity will collaborate in a number of areas, including, “for the first time, building courses together with both a Chinese and an American company” for the online… Read More
Shernaz Daver, the CMO who helped to turn around Udacity, is leaving the company
Shernaz Daver, the chief marketing officer for Udacity, who company founder Sebastian Thrun credits with architecting the company’s dramatic revitalization four years ago, is stepping down from her position with the company. While Udacity has become a dominant force in online education, with over 53,000 students enrolled in the company’s nanodegree programs, over 18,000 graduates… Read More