Blockchain Developer Nanodegree program, Built on Blockchain, Featured, School of Programming

Bringing Votes Home Safely, with Blockchain

West Virginia’s embrace of blockchain-powered mobile voting technology is the latest in a long line of pioneering achievements for the state.

Donald Kersey - Built on Blockchain

It’s no coincidence that as we approach election day, we find ourselves talking about election technology, and it’s no surprise that we’re talking about blockchain. For its advocates, blockchain is virtually synonymous with trust and security, and that’s what successful elections are all about.

In our most recent Built on Blockchain interview, we talked with Nimit Sawhney, the Co-Founder and CEO of Voatz. Voatz is pioneering the use of blockchain technology to help overseas military personnel vote securely in West Virginia, and in our interview below, we check in with the West Virginia side of this remarkable partnership, as we talk with Donald Kersey, the Director of Elections in West Virginia.

Events/Meetups, Featured, Udacity Festival 2018

Discover Udacity Festival 2018

Celebrate community-powered learning and the audacity to produce positive change, at this 2-day virtual festival that gathers together Udacity students and alumni from around the world! RSVP for Udacity Festival 2018 today!

Udacity Festival 2018 - 2

All across the globe, everywhere you look, you’ll find Udacity students—lifelong learners who are committed to self-empowerment through education. They are young, old, and all ages in between. They are novices, and they are experts. They are entering the workforce, and re-entering the workforce. They are landing their first jobs, and they are established professionals. They speak different languages, live in different places, face different challenges, and have different opportunities. But what unites them all, is a passion for learning, and an unwavering faith in the power of education to produce positive change.

Your Invitation to Udacity Festival 2018

If you are a current student, or a member of our alumni community, then please consider this your invitation to Udacity Festival 2018!

career change, Featured, School of Programming, Student Success

George Ampartzidis made a spectacular career change—from bank teller to Android developer!

George Ampartzidis - Udacity - Student Success - Career Change - 2

George Ampartzidis’ career wasn’t going where he wanted. He’d worked in the banking sector for twelve years, but was unable to move up through the ranks. He’d added a Master’s in Information Systems to his resume, but it hadn’t enhanced his employability. He’d even expanded his search for new roles across his homeland of Greece, but he found opportunities severely limited.

Then George heard about a Udacity scholarship, and saw in it the opportunity to start something new. He applied, and was accepted. Less than two years later, nearly everything in George’s life has changed. He moved with his wife from Greece to the UK, and he landed a great new role—as an Android developer!

We spoke with George to hear how he succeeded in making such a spectacular career change.

Featured, Future of Work

Answering “Yes” to Hard Questions About Learning, Hiring, and The Future of Work

A recent article from the University of California’s Chief Innovation Officer, about the impact of disruptive technologies on jobs and skills, poses critical questions about how we connect learning to jobs—today, and in the future.

Udacity - Future of Work

Everyone from politicians to policy makers, utopianists to university professors, innovators to investors, is talking about the future of work, the fourth industrial revolution, and the automation age. It’s hard to avoid these topics, and if you’re between the ages of, say, 16 and 80, you probably shouldn’t avoid them.

Featured, Student Hub

Introducing the Student Hub—Where Udacity Students and Mentors Share Experiences and Resources

Start exploring the fully-immersive learning experience now available in the Udacity classroom!

Udacity - Student Hub

We know it takes dedication and courage to learn new skills and explore new career opportunities. We are committed to providing you with all the resources and support you need to achieve your learning goals and advance your career.

That’s why, today, we are launching the new Student Hub experience to all of our existing and new students. The Student Hub provides you with an effective way to connect with fellow students and receive support and guidance from knowledgeable mentors.

Our goal in launching this new experience is to help you acquire valuable and in-demand skills, and to successfully complete your challenging Nanodegree programs. These are intensive programs, and as you proceed through your curriculum, you’ll need to set ambitious goals, and achieve important milestones. We’re excited to offer new resources that will help you do exactly that.

Built on Blockchain, Featured

Securing Democracy With Blockchain

Nimit Sawhney’s company Voatz is pioneering the use of blockchain technology to help overseas military personnel vote securely in West Virginia.

Udacity - Built on Blockchain - Nimit For some, career choice seems like a foregone conclusion, as if they were born to it. For others, a career is something one ends up in as the result of choices made along an uncertain path. For still others, a career is a way to make a living doing something you believe in. For Nimit Sawhney, it’s all three, and then some. His career journey began in 1984, the moment the Prime Minister of India was assassinated. He was just a child, and couldn’t have known then the influence this terrible event would have on his life, but today, he credits that experience for motivating him to pursue the work he is now engaged in.

“Some of the things I saw then as a little kid were shocking—just the image of someone forcing you to vote at gunpoint. It was scary at the time and the image really stuck in my head, though I didn’t understand the magnitude of it until I grew older.”

Nimit is the co-founder of a company called Voatz, which is pioneering the use of blockchain technology to secure modern voting platforms.

In creating our new documentary series Built on Blockchain, our goal was to seek out and engage with the most innovative thinkers, the most passionate practitioners, and the most ardent evangelists of this powerful emerging technology. We spoke with Nimit to learn more about his history, his company, and his embrace of blockchain technology.

Featured, School of Autonomous Systems

Yes, the robots are coming, but no, that’s not bad news

Jobs aren’t going away, but they are evolving. Future career success means learning the right skills, now.

Udacity - Robots - School of Autonomous Systems

Anywhere the future of work is being thought about, debated, forecast, and fought over, there are conversations going on about the role automation is going to play. The primary question that shows up in virtually every conversation takes on many forms, but the gist is always the same—will the robots free us up for better jobs, or will they simply take our existing ones away?