President’s Speaker Series focuses on innovation in education

The President’s Speaker Series at California State University, Monterey Bay continues March 27 when Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University visits campus.

With the theme of “Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education,” the series will focus on the challenges facing higher education in an era of increased demand, changing demographics and declining state support.

Globalization and accelerating technological change require that our nation raise the educational level of its citizens. To do so, colleges and universities will need to adopt new educational approaches and technologies to serve more students without increased resources while maintaining quality.

The speaker series will bring nationally recognized leaders in education theory, innovation and policy to campus to discuss these issues.

Dr. Thrun is a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford, where he also serves as the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. His research focuses on robotics and artificial intelligence.

He is the co-founder of Udacity.com, which is using the rapid increase in the availability of high-bandwidth Internet service to experiment with the delivery of high quality university-level education at a low cost.

His talk will start at 3:30 p.m. in the World Theater, followed by a question-and-answer session. The World Theater is located on Sixth Avenue near A Street. Driving directions and a campus map.

The community is invited to this free event. No tickets are necessary, but reservations are requested. Please RSVP by March 22 by calling Jeannie Lopez at 582-3530, emailing jealopez@csumb.edu or going online at csumb.edu/pssRSVP.

The series continues on April 25, when Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, visits campus.

The speaker series is in keeping with Cal State Monterey Bay’s role as a community resource, providing forums for thoughtful and provocative discussions that can impact thought and action on issues important to our community and our nation.