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		Sebastian Thrun, an German computer scientist, robotics developer, research professor at Stanford University, and CEO of Udacity. Formerly he worked at Google Inc., where he co-developed Google Street View and founded Google X, where he worked on the development of Google driverless car [1]. Sebastian Thrun holds a Ph.D. in computer science and statistics from University of Bonn in 1995 on the topic of Explanation-Based Neural Network Learning under advisors Armin Cremers and Tom Mitchell from Carnegie Mellon University, where Thrun continued his career as research computer scientist in the area of Machine Learning and Robotics.
Sebastian Thrun [2]

NeuroChess

Sebastian Thrun applied explanation-based neural networks (EBNN) to computer chess. His research chess program NeuroChess took its search algorithm from GNU Chess and its evaluation was based on the neural network ^{[3] [4]}.

Online Education

IIn 2011, along with Peter Norvig, Sebastian Thrun co-teached an online AI class initially through Stanford University, for which 160,000 students registered and 23,000 completed ^{[5] [6] [7]}. As an outgrowth of free computer science classes, Thrun founded the for-profit educational organization Udacity ^[8].

Selected Publications

^{[9] [10]}

1992 ...

• Sebastian Thrun (1992). Backpropagation und Neurocontrol. Master's thesis, University of Bonn (German), zipped ps
• Sebastian Thrun, Tom Mitchell (1993). Integrating Inductive Neural Network Learning and Explanation-Based Learning. IJCAI 1993, zipped ps
• Sebastian Thrun (1994). Neural Network Learning in the Domain of Chess. Machines That Learn, Snowbird, Extended abstract

1995 ...

• Sebastian Thrun (1995). Explanation-Based Neural Network Learning - A Lifelong Learning Approach. Ph.D. thesis, University of Bonn, advisors Armin Cremers and Tom Mitchell
• Sebastian Thrun (1995). Learning to Play the Game of Chess. in Gerald Tesauro, David S. Touretzky, Todd K. Leen (eds.) Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 7, MIT Press
• Sebastian Thrun (1995). Is Learning The n-th Thing Any Easier Than Learning The First? NIPS 1995
• Sebastian Thrun (1996). Explanation-Based Neural Network Learning: A Lifelong Learning Approach. Kluwer Academic Publishers
• Sebastian Thrun (1999). Monte Carlo POMDPs. NIPS 1999 ^[11]

2000 ...

• Sebastian Thrun, Michael L. Littman (2000). A Review of Reinforcement Learning. AI Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 1, pdf
• Sebastian Thrun (2000). Probabilistic Algorithms in Robotics. AI Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 4
• Sebastian Thrun (2002). Probabilistic Robotics. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 45, No. 3
• Joelle Pineau, Geoffrey Gordon, Sebastian Thrun (2003). Point-based value iteration: An anytime algorithm for POMDPs. IJCAI, pdf
• Sebastian Thrun (2004). Toward a Framework for Human-Robot Interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 19, Nos. 1-2

2005 ...

• Sebastian Thrun (2005). 175 Miles Through the Desert. KI 2005
• Sebastian Thrun (2006). Winning the DARPA Grand Challenge: A Robot Race through the Mojave Desert. ASE 2006
• Sebastian Thrun (2006). A Personal Account of the Development of Stanley, the Robot That Won the DARPA Grand Challenge. AI Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 4 ^{[12] [13]}
• Sebastian Thrun (2007). Why we compete in DARPA's Urban Challenge autonomous robot race. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 50, No. 10
• Sebastian Thrun (2008). Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. Robotics and Cognitive Approaches to Spatial Mapping 2008

2010 ...

• Sebastian Thrun (2010). Photographing the world ground up. GIS 2010: 2
• Sebastian Thrun (2010). Toward robotic cars. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 53, No. 4

External Links

• Sebastian Thrun's Homepage
• Sebastian Thrun from Wikipedia
• The Mathematics Genealogy Project - Sebastian Thrun
• Google X Founder Sebastian Thrun Has Left His Role As Google VP And Fellow by Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch, September 23, 2014
• Sebastian Thrun im Gespräch über seine Online-Uni Udacity, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 11, 2015 (German)
• Intro to Artificial Intelligence Course and Training Online - Udacity
• Reflections on online education: Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, May 2013, YouTube Video
  

References

1. ^ Sebastian Thrun from Wikipedia
2. ^ Sebastian Thrun, Stanford University, talks during the interactive session 'Connected Transportation: Hype or Reality' at the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2013. Copyright by World Economic Forum. swiss-image.ch/Photo Urs Jaudas, Wikimedia Commons
3. ^ Sebastian Thrun’s NeuroChess from Machine Learning in Games by Jay Scott, September 2000
4. ^ Sebastian Thrun (1995). Learning to Play the Game of Chess. in Gerald Tesauro, David S. Touretzky, Todd K. Leen (eds.) Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 7, MIT Press
5. ^ Welcome to the desktop degree… by John Naughton, February 05, 2012, The Guardian
6. ^ Fortnightly Mailing: Taking the red pill: Sebastian Thrun's candid reflection on the AI course
7. ^ Intro to Artificial Intelligence Course and Training Online - Udacity
8. ^ Advance Your Career Through Project-Based Online Classes - Udacity
9. ^ Sebastian's Publications
10. ^ dblp: Sebastian Thrun
11. ^ Partially observable Markov decision process - Wikipedia
12. ^ DARPA Grand Challenge - Wikipedia
13. ^ Stanley (vehicle) from Wikipedia

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