Courses & Conferences
Courses and lectures R42 personnel
Starts Hybrid September 26th 7-9pm Pacific Time 6 weekly lectures, Thursdays. Artificial intelligence is in the news daily. This course will provide a high-level overview of AI techniques. Through pre-built, hands-on exercises, we will discuss how current AI platforms compare with how the brain works and how AI systems actually "learn." Specifically, we will cover neural networks and their applicability to generative AI and large language models. We will also discuss the societal and ethical issues surrounding the real-world applications of AI. By the end of the course, students will understand how AI techniques work so they can (1) converse with AI practitioners and companies; (2) be able to critically evaluate AI news stories and technologies; and (3) consider what the future of AI can hold and what barriers need to be overcome with current AI models. This course is ideal for product managers who interact with data scientists, software engineers who wish for more AI exposure, and anyone in the general public who wants to know how current AI works.
Online only starts September 23rd 5 lectures, 7-9pm Mondays. An investor’s impossible dream: how to know what financial instrument to buy—and how to buy before it goes up and sell before it goes down. While we live and operate in a world of uncertainty, there is a professional way of managing that uncertainty to reduce the risk to something less than a gamble. In this introductory course on investing, we will examine how various methods and theories have evolved since the first financial instruments were traded. Specific topics we will cover include stocks and bonds (stock picking vs. bond investing, duration vs. maturity); venture capital (how it works, valuations, and due diligence methodologies); the capital asset pricing model and the Sortino ratio; and new forms of assets such as cryptocurrencies. By the end of the course, students will have exposure to methods of calculating risk and evaluating investments as well as critiquing financial articles and conversing with investment professionals. Students will also understand venture capital term sheets and structures from the investment viewpoint.
This symposium will look at these questions specifically as applied to longevity, uniquely from the investor, scientist, and the founder viewpoint. The symposium will provide a foundation to the field with talks from investors, scientists and company founders who will explain their respective perspectives, and will include talks from Stanford faculty involved with startups and spinouts.