Recently, there has been a wave of amazing new online college classes offered for free. The frenzy started with Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Class in October 2011. Tens of thousands of school students - some as young as 13 years old - have already successfully passed college level computer science classes. And now there are courses available in fields such as physics, business, humanities, and statistics.
So, we decided to run a worldwide competition. At stake is an all-expenses paid visit to Stanford University and a tour of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence lab, including the famed self-driving car. (And there might be a chance to ride in a self-driving car!). Professor Sebastian Thrun will be welcoming the winners personally and showing them around.
Here are the rules:
- If you are a high school (secondary school) student, pair up with a friend from your school. You two will be the team leaders.
- Visit the Udacity contest page, sign up, and create your team name.
- Sign up as many people as you can to take online college classes with you. These can be classmates, relatives, and even your teachers. You'll have a special code for the sign-up so that your team members can identify themselves as members of your team and get your team credit.
- Recruit your friends and encourage your team members to recruit their friends too. Start building your teams now to get ready for the June 25th start date!
- Your team members then take as many classes as they wish; all courses are free. Any course unit that is successfully completed before August 26th will count as one point for your team. The goal is to get as many points as you can!
Team leaders from the top five teams will win a trip to Stanford! If you are one of the winning teams' two team leaders, you and a parent can come and visit Stanford. We realize that in some cases it may be difficult to visit (e.g. visa problems), in which case we'll find something else for you to win.
Developing interactive online classes has been a thrill ride. Share the excitement of learning by taking classes with friends and family - and win a personal tour of Stanford! Start your team now!