The Open edX Community Team is pleased to announce that Gerald Jay Sussman, renowned researcher and professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present the keynote address at our first Open edX Conference. Sussman will speak on his extensive work in computing, education, and open source initiatives.
Throughout his career conducting artificial intelligence research at MIT, Sussman has advocated for and advanced the open distribution of knowledge. A pioneer in online learning, Sussman published a series of videos — which are still available online — to accompany the SICP textbook he co-authored long before the MOOC movement took the shape and spotlight it has today.
Since the publication of his SICP series, Sussman has continued to devote energy to the ideals of open source and online learning. His work as part of the Free Software Movement included releasing MIT/GNU Scheme as free software, and he continues to serve on the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation, a nonprofit organization which “promotes the universal freedom to study, distribute, create, and modify computer software.”
We’re thrilled to welcome a speaker whose ideals regarding open access align with edX’s mission, and we look forward to welcoming you, the amazing members of the Open edX community, to discuss your own ideals, developments, and findings.
Conference attendees will also hear focused talks from edX on the future of our open source initiative and recent developments including named releases, API development, and analytics. Additionally, a broad section of Open edX community members will present on the advancements they’ve implemented within the platform.
The complete schedule of speakers, including finalized panel sessions and topics, will be posted on our website in the upcoming week. You can register for the conference here. We look forward to seeing you!
