Luis von Ahn — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Serves as CEO, co-Founder & Board Member at Duolingo, a language-learning platform.
Co-founded Duolingo in 2011 with Severin Hacker to provide high-quality education access.
Founded reCAPTCHA, which was sold to Google in 2009.
Pioneered crowdsourcing, coined the term 'human computation,' and did early work on CAPTCHAs and Games With A Purpose (GWAPs) like the ESP Game.
Served as a Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University.
Earned a PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005.
Received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Duke University in 2000.

Biography

Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan-American entrepreneur and software developer, widely recognized as a pioneer of crowdsourcing. He is the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform, which he started with Severin Hacker in 2011. Prior to Duolingo, von Ahn founded reCAPTCHA, a company that was acquired by Google in 2009. His work aims to leverage technology to make high-quality education accessible globally and to foster a desire for learning.