Submission

How I Became an XPRIZE Visioneer. From Paris to LA

I am using virtual reality as an accelerator for perspective-taking and tolerance. This experiential tech can help us reduce our biases!

Ivanovitch-HeroX_Je suis Paris.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ByiccjkRDg

Deeply influenced by cyberpsychologists and computer scientists like Mel Slater and Jeremy Bailenson, I am a social entrepreneur and researcher in the field of experiential technologies for the common good. Together with a non-profit based in France, I am developing cutting-edge programs in rehabilitation for minors on probation, using virtual reality as an accelerator of self-transformation.
The XPRIZE Visioneers competition has allowed me develop a US-side to my project with a different social impact application of VR: to reduce implicit racial bias in US police departments and schools in L.A. I am working with Nonny de la Pena, "godmother of VR" on this app, as well as Pr. Jack Glaser (Berkeley) and Pr. Manos Tsakiris (London).

Pioneering cyberpsychologists and digital artists inspired my journey as a VR social innovator. VR can help us reduce biases in an unprecedented way and can help us live together beyond prejudice.

This project stems from the November 2015 Paris attacks. After these attacks it became clear to me that I wanted to dedicate my work as a social entrepreneur to addressing violent extremism through exponential technologies. How can we debug extremism through experiential technologies that allow us to adopt the point of view of another?

People tend to associate virtual reality to gaming and entertainment, but it can also be used for social good. Virtual reality can help us reduce the biases we have towards outgroups -- people that do not look, sound, or behave like us.
The XPRIZE Visioneers competition helped me mature the project of a non-profit whose mission is to accelerate the reduction of implicit bias linked to race, gender, age, sexual orientation and religious belief, through technologies like virtual reality. Its first step is to develop and implement a tech-enhanced and science-based training to reduce implicit racial bias in police departments and schools in the L.A. area.
More info:
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/alexandra-ivanovitch-simorga-virtual-reality

XPRIZE Visioneers competition

http://www.xprize.org/visioneers/teams/experiential-empathy

The XPRIZE Visioneers Challenge soughts submissions to reflect and experiment on the possibility of using virtual reality to develop empathy. I accomplished this goal through my postdoctorate in Digital Humanities.

By entering an incentive challenge, you will become a part of an innovative and international community of industry disruptors and lateral thinkers. Hack yourself, your habits and linear thinking by joining a group of relentless thinkers and doers.