Emerging pandemic diseases like Ebola and Zika, the sixth extinction, and food insecurity: these are some of the most daunting issues facing the world today. A new open online course wants to empower people around the world to overcome these grand challenges in new and innovative ways.

“Innovation and Design for Global Grand Challenges,” a MOOC by Duke University, aims to teach individuals around the globe how to address the world’s biggest challenges in conservation and development using the latest innovations in technology, business, and behavioral science, and create new companies to address them. The course is taught by Alex Dehgan. Dehgan is the former Chief Scientist at USAID and the co-founder of its DARPA for development, the U.S. Global Development Lab, as well as the Chanler Innovator in Residence at Duke University, founder of the startup Conservation X Labs, and part of the team that created Afghanistan’s first national park.

Dehgan uses this background to help students in the course challenge assumptions about solving grand challenges, harnessing exponential technologies and open innovation, and teaches principles of design and engineering unique to the developing world. He is joined by more than 20 global leaders, social entrepreneurs, and innovators from organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, X Prize, Indiegogo, USAID, Planet Labs, Design Revolution, World Wildlife Fund, Freeland, and National Geographic.

From crowdfunding to using technologies like remote sensors and 3D printing, the course will look at real cases of successes and failures from entrepreneurs who have tried to tackle these problems in novel ways. Students will be asked to create their own startup and will be provided with the tools to create it.

“It’s not just a course, it’s an opportunity to change the world,” says Dehgan.

The course starts June 20. To register, visit https://www.coursera.org/learn/grand-challenges.

“It’s not just a course, it’s an opportunity to change the world.”