Established in 1885, Stanford University is known as one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the United States. The university is a founding member of the Association of American Universities with 5,100 externally sponsored projects and a $1.7 billion total research budget. Located within Silicon Valley, Stanford graduates are known for their innovations and have made a significant impact on the technology industry as founders and leaders of companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. In keeping with this entrepreneurial spirit, Stanford offers broad public access to open learning opportunities through platforms like edX, Venture Lab, OpenClassroom, and Stanford on iTunesU.