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introduction
title
How I Became an XPRIZE Visioneer. From Paris to LA
short description
I am using virtual reality as an accelerator for perspective-taking and tolerance. This experiential tech can help us reduce our biases!
Your Story
Please upload your story using the document and/or video fields below.
Please upload your story - document
Ivanovitch-HeroX_Je suis Paris.pdf
Please upload your story - link to video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ByiccjkRDg
What is your innovation?
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).
Fill in the following one-sentence “mad lib”: A inspired my innovation of B; B is important because of C and has made D impact.
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.
What was the motivation behind your innovation?
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?
How does your story bring the "Wow Factor"?
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
The Incentive Challenge
Name of the incentive challenge related to your story.
XPRIZE Visioneers competition
URL to the incentive challenge (if available)
http://www.xprize.org/visioneers/teams/experiential-empathy
Fill in the following one-sentence “mad lib”: The A challenge sought submissions to B. I accomplished this goal through C.
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.
If you convinced someone at a cocktail party they should enter an incentive challenge, what would you say?
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.

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