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Welcome to this week’s Thursday Feature, brought to you by Dine Around 2023. In this issue, meet the professor using virtual reality to simulate poverty, opportunities to pitch solutions for the ocean economy, and where exactly in Asia a local tech company has landed.

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VR poverty project

For those of us privileged enough to consistently have a roof over our heads and food on the table, personal experiences with poverty are far removed from our daily lives. Developing a better sense of empathy for folks in these difficult situations — and translating this into effective action — is what Tracy Smith-Carrier, an associate professor at Royal Roads University, hopes she can achieve through the use of virtual reality (VR).

Smith-Carrier's interest in creating a VR poverty simulation stems from her past research conducting in-person work in the space. In her prior work at King’s University College at Western University, participants would first receive a package that contained a scenario describing the background of someone in poverty. Then, the participants navigated the simulated community and attempted to fulfill responsibilities as described, which could include visits to a food bank, a pawn shop, and child protection services.

"We discovered that [the in-person poverty simulation] actually could help shift people's ideas, attitudes, and beliefs about people living in poverty," she said of her past research. "What it didn't seem to do was after six months, when we went and asked [the participants if they] had they done anything, very few people had said that they had done any actions to actually address the issue."

This desire to translate knowledge into action and move into more experiential learning led to her adoption of VR. At Basic Income BC (a group that advocates for a national basic income) she met Emmanuel Floret, who is the Victoria-based founder of VR studio Vagabond. From there, a large team — including Floret and Smith-Carrier — embarked on the multi-phase research project to create a VR poverty simulation, based on real stories of people experiencing poverty across Vancouver Island. The group effort included the island Participatory Action Research team to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as other members of the creative design team.

Smith-Carrier hopes for this work to land in the hands of policy and decision-makers. "I think a lot of people don't understand the nature of poverty. They assume that there's something wrong with individuals," she said. "This individual deficit model has really, I think, impeded our ability to make good progressive policy changes to address this issue. So I think that will be the first start [of this project]: orienting people to the systemic origins of poverty."

Had it not been for COVID-19, Smith-Carrier noted, it would be likely that she would continue doing face-to-face poverty simulation work. But upon meeting Floret, she grew excited for the potential that VR could play in building better empathy for people in poverty. "I think VR is really what [I'm] hoping for, because it really does capture the individual experience [of someone in poverty]," she tells the Victoria Tech Journal. "And it can sort of shape those [existing] beliefs and mindsets in a way that an online app might not, or even a face-to-face interaction might not."

Smith is also keen for this research to be in public hands, and hopes to welcome future partnerships with those working in tech, particularly in VR. For now, in the early stages of this work, she's focused on meaningfully collecting stories of those in poverty, and translating it into VR experiences with Floret through his studio.

Editor's note: this story previously stated that the Floret and Smith-Carrier embarked on the multi-phase research project to create a VR poverty simulation. It has been updated to better reflect the collaborative effort, including the members of the Participatory Action Research team on Vancouver Island to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other members of the creative design team.

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📰 More Victoria innovation news

🏆 Awards recap: Did you miss the Victoria Tech Community Awards, or are you already nostalgic for the evening's festivities? Check out the video recap here.

🌊 Calling all marine innovators: Applications close tomorrow for the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) pitch challenge. Selected pitches will present to the world's largest gathering of MPA professionals at the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) in Vancouver in February 2023. Startups and social enterprises working to enhance and/or protect MPAs are encouraged to apply. Read more. 

🌏 Data for decarbonization: Following COP27, many called upon the private sector to reduce carbon emissions, but most companies lack the data to be able to do so, says Christopher Naismith, CEO of Audette. He reflects on how innovation at his company supports real estate asset portfolios with custom decarbonization plans. Read more.

🚢 Engineers, meet ocean challenges: UVic's #OceanChallenge hosted 25 undergraduate engineering teams to pitch solutions to big ocean challenges. Topics included tackling naval defense, smart fishing, and Tsunami warnings. The evening's featured speaker was Devesh Bharadwa, founder of Pani Energy, and a Forbes 30 under 30 winner. See the highlights on LinkedIn.

💵 Not as much money for crypto, but still sizeable: Blockstream, the crypto infrastructure firm with employee presence in Victoria, recently raised funds at a lower valuation of just under $1 billion, in contrast to its Series B raise of $210 million at a valuation of $3.2 billion in 2021. Get the details in Bloomberg. 

🇯🇵 Victoria to the world: Sahar Sam of Solaires attended the Second Canadian Women-only Business Mission to Japan last week. Sam was supported by the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada to attend the week-long event, connecting with 52 women entrepreneurs to deepen business networks in Asia. See the recap on LinkedIn.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Back-End Developer at Momentum

• Economic Futures Analyst at South Island Prosperity Partnership

• Scientific Data Specialist at Ocean Networks Canada

• System Solutions Analyst (Workday) at BC Assessment

• Data Steward at Ocean Networks Canada

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