Udacity and the Liam's Life Foundation: A New Scholarship Program Begins

We’re excited to announce the start of a new scholarship program designed to provide learning opportunities for recipients to make the world a better and safer place for everyone.

Last week, three students started studying in the Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program. Each of them is receiving a full scholarship to the program, in honor of Liam Mikael Kowal. Though drunk driving is preventable, a person loses their life to a drunk driving accident every 53 minutes. This amounts to 28 people a day and nearly 10,000 people a year in the United States alone.

Over 5,000 students from nearly 40 countries are enrolled in the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree program. With what they learn, each of them will contribute in some way towards making roads safer. Each of the Liam’s Life scholarship students knows the difference they can make with the skills they’re about to learn. Andrew Tran is one of the scholarship recipients. Currently a graduate student studying computer science in Southern California, Andrew is keen on using software to reduce traffic accidents while increasing mobility for people unable to drive. Says Andrew, “Self-driving cars have enormous potential to reduce vehicle-related injuries and deaths from distracted and drunk drivers. I’m excited to start this program and to ultimately design software that contributes towards safer roads.”