About
Raya Bidshahri is a serial entrepreneur, writer, educator, futurist and keynote speaker. She has been described as a techno optimist, a communicator of popular science, and an advocate of curiosity, critical thinking, wonder, and awe.
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Raya is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Awecademy, a future-focussed educational organization that is disrupting traditional high school curricula and inspiring students to bring about civilization-level change. She is a founding member at SciFest Dubai, which serves to celebrate the science through the arts and has had a total of over 300+ events and 40,000+ audience members and participants. Raya is also the Co-founder of Intelligent Optimism, a global movement with 500,000+ followers that aims to serves to inspire a better future for humanity through science and rationality. She is the co-founder of Cafe Scientifique Dubai, an organization that gives the general public the opportunity to engage with the latest ideas in science & technology in a non-academic setting. Raya is a founding member at SheWorks, a contingent workforce platform designed to allow women to work on the cloud.​
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She has spoken on the topics of implications of disruptive technologies and the future of education at multiple venues including the G20 Summit, Global Education & Skills Forum, UNESCO Expo-Sciences, EduTech MENA, PATA annual summit at much more. She has been featured on CNN, BBC, SF Chronicle and in numerous other international magazines and newspapers. She is also a regular guest speaker on national radio shows and podcasts. Raya has organized and spoken at several TEDx events.
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A voracious reader and writer, Raya writes about the societal and existential implications of accelerating technology on our species. She is a contributing journalist to the Singularity Hub, where her articles have been read by millions worldwide. Raya studied Neuroscience at Boston University where she was involved with multiple Neuroscience & Bioethics research projects.
Organizations
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Empowering a generation of cosmic citizens to bring about civilization-level change.
A platform to promote creativity, critical thinking, innovation, and STEAM education.
A meet up group to talk about science, technology, and astronomy, in an informal setting.
Optimism about the future based on data, reason and empirical evidence.
Talks
Raya is a global keynote speaker and has given talks on the existential impact of exponential technologies, purpose-driven entrepreneurship, infinite human progress and education for civilization-level change. She inspires audiences to take a cosmic perspective, and have a positive impact on the world.
Articles
As a contributing journalist to the Singularity Hub, Raya Bidshahri explores how exponential technologies can be used to tackle global and existential challenges facing our species.
Exploring themes that involve the radical overhaul of traditional education, such as the importance of existential intelligence, preparing youth to become multi-planetary species and much more.
Media
Raya is a regular guest speaker at conferences, national radio shows and podcasts.
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In The Press
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