MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – July 26, 2017 – Singularity University SU, a global community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to help solve humanity's grand challenges, has announced the creation of eight new community chapters, bringing the total of SingularityU Chapters worldwide to 73 in 45 countries.
New SingularityU Chapters have been formed in Cordoba, Argentina; Bordeaux, France; Athens, Greece; Trivandrum, India; Monterrey, Mexico; Lagos, Nigeria; Moscow, Russia, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Chapter Renewals include São Paulo, Brazil, San Jose, Costa Rica; Tel Aviv, Israel; Mexico City, Mexico; Madrid and Sevilla, Spain.
In 2016, SingularityU Chapters hosted 190 events around the world, attracting more than 13,000 participants focused on employing local technological innovation to improve the quality of life in their communities and around the world. The SU Q3 Chapter application process remains open from July 26 - August 23, 2017 for innovators to join in the SU mission by establishing a SingularityU Chapter. To learn more about the application process, go to su.org/chapters/apply.
“SU facilitates its global ecosystem through our chapters, which understand the benefits of advancing exponential technologies,” said Dharmishta Rood, Singularity University’s Director of Community Leadership. “Through events hosted by SingularityU Chapter leadership teams, together with individuals of diverse professions—entrepreneurs, policy makers, designers, academics, and business and NGO leaders—we are able to assemble experts in one room to advance the use of technology in medicine, learning, security, energy, and even the development of outer space. Participants in these local communities share SU’s mission to help solve humanity’s greatest challenges through the use of technology.”
Two Chapter licenses, Mexico City and São Paulo will begin on September 11, 2017, as current leadership teams continue to hold the license until September 10th. A member of the current Mexico City Chapter team Vivian Lan, is stepping into the role of Summit Director for the SingularityU Mexico Summit, scheduled for November 2017. All other existing chapters will see renewals take place today, July 27th, 2017.
SU opens applications for new chapter submissions every quarter. At least one member of the proposed Chapter leadership team must have participated in an SU activity, including the SU Executive Program, SU’s signature summer Global Solution Program (GSP), and/or SU Ventures, as well as have been inspired to empower innovators in their local communities. Chapter leadership teams represent a diversity of perspectives and experiences and demonstrate community building skills that align with overall SingularityU Chapter goals.
SingularityU Cordoba Chapter in Argentina
Denise Henry, Felipe Moyano, Horacio Caceres, Humberto Sahade, Ignacio Ghiorzi and Laercio Simões
“Creating a Chapter in Cordoba is great for our entrepreneurship ecosystem and its stakeholders because we will help to create a peer-to-peer connection with the SU Global Network. In this way, our business community will be in contact with a plethora of exponential ideas, and disruptive ways of creating abundance. This will be of great benefit for the Province,” said Chapter leadership team member Horacio Caceres.
SingularityU Bordeaux Chapter in France
Aidan O’Brien, Bertrand Bussac and Sebastien Bruhat
“After having been in Bordeaux for a year now, I really believe that there will be a willingness to learn about these exponential technologies and organizations and their potential impact. I am convinced that if we can move quickly, then this knowledge will help differentiate and grow the whole region,” said Chapter leadership team member Aidan O’Brien.
SingularityU Athens Chapter in Greece
Ioannis Iliadis, Niki Siropoulou and Yannis Mourgis
“With a new SingularityU Chapter, the Athens community will gain a window to the future and share it with our community, providing an opportunity to best prepare for an abundant future on both a local and global scale,” said Chapter leadership team member Niki Siropoulou.
SingularityU Trivandrum Chapter in India
Anoop Thomas, Ashok Panjikaran, Binu Koshy, Deepu S Nath, Jayasankar Prasad, Saji Gopinath and Varun Geethamony
“The pace of technological disruption and our inability to be prepared to use it for the benefit of humanity, was a key driving force for me while at Singularity University to be the change we want to see in the world. It’s not about a single technology, domain, or industry, but the amalgamation of them that is requisite for this to happen. There needs to be a purpose and a platform, which I believe SingularityU Chapters can enable. It was also surprising that India didn’t have an active Chapter, and there isn’t a better location than Trivandrum which doesn’t boast of a single competency, but has a well-balanced environment of technology, aerospace, medical and other competencies,” said Chapter leadership team member Binu Koshy.
SingularityU Monterrey Chapter in Mexico
Eduardo Valdez, Luis Portales, Luis Ávila, Manuel Alejandro Sánchez and Pamela Serna
"We are very inspired to share a common platform for these discussions that will define a purpose for the growing community in Monterrey. The conversations that will arise in the events should definitely involve all the key actors so we can create the vision of the future of our city together,” said Chapter leadership team member Pamela Serna.
SingularityU Lagos Chapter in Nigeria
Aima Nwafor-Ohiwerei, Eno Ekanem, Ferdinand Ademifere, Idris Bello and Uly Ogwah
“The next decade for Africa will be the decade of exponential technologies. From every indication, Africa has all the ingredients for becoming a hub for exponential technology, and creating a local chapter in our city will help drive the conversation in a very constructive way to enlighten people, encourage collaboration, encourage projects, and stimulate interests that will open up the city of Lagos,” said Chapter leadership team member Ferdinand Ademifere.
SingularityU Moscow Chapter in Russia
Alexandra Engovatova, Ekaterina Vainberg, Eugeny Kuznetsov, Jin Kolesnikov and Vera Dadasheva
“I absolutely share SU’s vision of the world and actively use SU principles in my own work, which has had a positive impact on the results. Connection to the SU network of international leaders, greater awareness of the latest tech trends (especially, exponential ones) will create a stronger community within our ecosystem,” said Chapter leadership team member Ekaterina Vainberg.
SingularityU Montevideo Chapter in Uruguay
“Participating in the Singularity University GSP program opened my mind to the incredible future exponential technologies will enable and the importance of preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators for this future. Through the SingularityU Chapter, we will continue to share the excitement about exponential technologies among SU alumni as well as promote the capabilities of these technologies in our local community of entrepreneurs and innovators," said Chapter leadership team member Pablo Salomon.
SingularityU São Paulo Chapter in Brazil (license starting September 11th)
Bárbara Olivier Conrado Schlochauer, Daniel Stanczyk, Moema Schlochauer, Pedro Englert
“There are many communities in São Paulo - startups, universities and other academic institutions, and corporations that still don’t have access to the content and the provocation that Singularity University offers. Hopefully, our São Paulo Chapter will be a hub of knowledge, experiences, and impact,” said Chapter leadership team member Conrado Schlochauer.
SingularityU San Jose Chapter in Costa Rica
Alicia Chong, Priscila Chaves and Roberto Sasso
SingularityU Tel Aviv Chapter in Israel
Asaf Kindler, Eliav Shaked, Eran Shir, Eyal Ben Ze'ev, Gilad Gomé, Maya Elhalal-Levavi, Samuel Scheer, Udi Meridor and Yaron Schwarcz
“Co-creating the SU Israel Chapter has allowed me to reconnect with my local fellow program participants and also allows me to give back and help new people attend the GSP,” said Chapter leadership team member Yaron Schwarcz.
SingularityU Mexico City Chapter in Mexico (license starting September 11th)
Ana Karen Ramírez, Jose Antonio Torres and Jose Jorge Molina
“The crazy ones who think it is possible to change the world will find their tribe here. We hope to be the place where inspiration meets execution. A place where we can grow ideas, nurture new relations and generate a positive impact within a country that desperately needs it,” said Chapter leadership team member Jose Molina.
SingularityU Madrid Chapter in Spain
Diego Soroa, Luis Carvajal, Luis Gonzalez-Blanch and Pablo de Manuel Triantafilo
“We are delighted to continue leading the Madrid Chapter. I can´t believe it has been six years since we organized the GIC in Spain. We have done a lot of work and believe that we are on the right track to becoming a valuable asset to the SU community,” said Chapter leadership team member Luis Gonzalez-Blanch.
SingularityU Sevilla Chapter in Spain
Antonio Conde, Esperanza Caro, Luis Rey, and Manuel Bellido
“The SingularityU Chapter is a wonderful means to connect Sevilla to the innovation ecosystems that the SU network is fostering all over the world. It brings together exceptional, creative and active people creating exciting opportunities to every event. Being involved in a Chapter is an honour as well as a chance to meet great individuals, to help spread SU vision and to catalyse initiatives to improve the lives of one billion people,” said Chapter leadership team member Luis Rey.
More information about SingularityU Chapters can be found at https://su.org/chapters/.
ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY (SU)
Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU's collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download the SingularityU Hub mobile app.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Singularity University: Diane Murphy, diane.murphy@su.org