The question that motivates my research is, if we can put a man on the Moon with 100,000 [people], what can we do with 100 million?

The current business model for language education is the student pays — in particular, the student pays Rosetta Stone $500. The problem with this business model is that 95 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have $500.

This sounds strange to many people, but I work out for exactly 16 minutes every day, and do so at maximum speed by running 2.5 miles. This keeps me healthy without taking up too much time so I can stay focused on other things. It's one of the most efficient things I do each day.

Because education is such a broad area, I chose to focus on language learning.

Together with my advisor, Manuel Blum, I co-invented CAPTCHAs, or computer-generated tests that humans are routinely able to pass but that computers have not mastered (they are the squiggly computer letters that are prevalent across the web).

My ultimate research goal is to transform our human existence to just eating, sleeping, drinking, playing - nevermind.

People are good at figuring out what's attractive, and computers are good at quickly searching and finding. You put them together, and bang!