">Luis Von Ahn was born in guatemala city guatemala of german guatemalan descent on august 19, 1978. When he was a boy he grew up in an upper-middle-class household with his mother and father both working as physicians. When he was younger he went to a private English school in Guatemala City, an experience he considers a great privilege. When he was eight years old, his mother bought him a commodore 64 computer, which started his passion for technology and computer science. In 2000 when he was 18 he began studying at Duke University where he would go on to receive a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics with over a 3.7 GPA. He later earned his P.h.D in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 at the age of 23. In 2006, Von Ahn became a faculty member at the Carnegie Mellon School of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University

The reason I think this person can be influential to people’s lives is that. When he created a project it was with others’ needs in mind a good example of this is his and Severin Hacker Duolingo project. Which he started because of a driving motivation. Which was Von Ahn's upbringing in Guatemala where he saw how expensive it was for people in his community to learn English

For his work in his field, he was awarded many things including: a MacArthur fellowship in 2006, David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in 2009, a Solan fellowship in 2009, and a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship in 2007, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2012. He has also been named one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover.

The place Luis Von Ahn grew up in is full of traditions and cultures including. Patterned clothes with an interesting meaning. Visitors to Guatemala will instantly notice the multi-colored patterns of the Mayan indigenous community. What is unknown by many is that these clothes can tell you where someone is from if you know how to read them; each town and village use different designs from one another. Another thing that they do in Guatemala is fly giant kites to honor the dead which is one of the all saints day traditions for many people in Guatemala. One last tradition and my personal favorite is drunken horse racing. In the town of Todos Santos, they prepare for the race by getting drunk on all saints day before attempting to ride horses through the town.