Former US President Barack Obama today made his first major appearance since leaving office, having chosen Chicago, the city where his political career started, to emerge from a three-month hiatus from the public eye.

In a panel discussion at the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught constitutional law, the 44th president told the audience that he had been spending a lot of time thinking about what's next for him.

"The single most important thing I can do is to help in anyway I can prepare the next generation to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world," he said.

Since leaving office, Obama has kept a relatively low public profile, taking vacations in Palm Springs, California and the British Virgin Islands, where he indulged in the sport of kite-boarding while vacationing with British billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

Together with his wife, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, the former president recently struck a two-book, $65 million memoir deal. He is expected to travel to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next month.

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