Winter break is almost over, so it’s time to start thinking about going to school, even if you’re years past your college graduation. Singularity University, based out of NASA Ames center in Silicon Valley, is a unique collection of forward-thinking faculty at the heads of their fields. The inaugural SU Summer Program, and the Fall Executive Program had great successes in 2009. Now, the 10 day Winter Executive Program is gearing up and taking applications. It will run from February 26th through March 7th and feature instructors like Ray Kurzweil, Dan Barry, Daniel Kraft, Andrew Hessel and many more. Not sure if you’re interested? Check out what SU graduates are saying about the last Executive Program in the video after the break.

When you’re running a company, or a research team, there’s not much time for continuing education. That’s why Singularity University has taken its nine week summer course and distilled it into ten days of intense experiences. Although many important upcoming technologies will not be active for years to come, those in charge of investments and entrepreneurial endeavors need to plan now for the changes that such technologies will bring. That sort of philosophy is what has kept Kurzweil successful in business and the lecture circuit for so long. SU also hopes that its Executive Program will help powerful decisions makers see the benefit of using accelerating technologies to solve the world’s “grand challenges”: hunger, poverty, energy, and climate change.

SU’s Executive Program is cheap as far as such seminars go, $15k for tuition, room and board, but that’s still more cash than I have laying around. If you’ve got the bank (maybe you work for a bank) you can sign up at the SU website. Luckily, Singularity University is making many of its lectures available online after the seminars close. We’ve already discussed a few here on the Hub. As more talks from more world-caliber speakers become available, we’ll pass them on. You don’t get the full SU experience (Tesla car rides, Vomit Comet weightless training, tours through Silicon Valley companies, etc) but it is free.

We’ll also keep you informed about the unique innovations and new companies that have sprouted up around the SU programs. Gettaround car sharing, a 3D printer that can produce a house, crowd-sourcing disaster recovery…these are all cool ideas that had their start at Singularity University. Still, the most profound effects of these Executive Programs may not be the short term innovations they spawn. As SU does its best to raise a generation of Executives with a forward-thinking and global-improvement mindset, we could see new trends in business help create a future we can all enjoy and be proud of. Heh. Not bad for ten days.

*Disclosure: Keith Kleiner (owner of Singularity Hub) is an Associate Founder at Singularity University.
[photo credit: Singularity University]
[video credit: Singularity University]