Introduction

In December 2018, the UNICEF Innovation Fund on-boarded its largest round of portfolio investments of thirteen startup companies using frontier technology solutions to address complex challenges and create fairer opportunities for children and young people. Imisi 3D joins the VR/AR  portfolio - these investments are part of the Fund’s work in the VR/AR space, to explore the use of the technology to solve real human problems and make it more accessible. 

Imisi 3D’s solution aims to provide quality education by designing educational modules that will enrich and better learning experiences. We are building leVRn C3, an open source VR platform for curriculum-based learning modules that support both teacher’s and student’s classroom experience. Originally, leVRn C3 was a roughly thought out idea that focused on teaching kids how to code using hand-based gestures in VR. It has since evolved to become a VR solution that can provide a better quality of education in Nigeria (and potentially across the global south). We believe that to have a significant impact on the educational problems we face, our VR solution should have locally-tailored educational VR content.

For too long, the technology narrative of Nigeria has been one of consumption and not creation. The advent of Extended Reality (XR) in the mass consumer space has provided an opportunity to not just change the narrative but allow ownership of exponential technologies that allow us to define our future. Given this, ensuring XR can gain more access while being locally designed became a critical purpose for us.

While there are other companies using VR technology, Imisi 3D’s leVRn C3 puts a strong emphasis on designing its VR content for education with users.

Frontier technology & Open Source

The technologies and methods of yesterday have not solved the problems we have in the Nigerian education system. These problems include a lack of access to quality education, overpopulation in schools and an unacceptable number of out of school children (13.2 million, the highest for any country). Continuing to employ traditional means will lead to the same results; there will never be enough money allocated in the budget, qualified teachers or places in schools for the population we have. Emerging technologies like Virtual Reality allow us to leapfrog these problems and offer the hope of more affordable, scalable and better quality education.

VR allows people to immersively experience anything imaginable. If you can create VR content, you can create any world or experience and place your user in it. We at Imisi 3D are working across multiple sectors, driving engagement and adoption, and creating local XR solutions. We also believe that contributions from the open source community will accelerate the development of our solution and increase access.

Team & diversity

We're comprised of amazing people from different backgrounds. The team includes Judith Okonkwo, the founder, and a passionate extended reality evangelist, Tade Ajiboye, a young VR developer who leads our VR team, and Isiaq Gbadamosi, one of our first VR Scholars, who has now joined the team as a junior developer.

Diversity is critical to our success -- so we mix across gender, background, education disciplines, experience, and age. This brings multiple perspectives to all we do. We derive particular value from the infusion of young talent in the team juxtaposed with experience and the resulting access to a wider network.

Way ahead

We are thrilled to be working with UNICEF’s Innovation Fund. It will allow us to bring specific expertise we need into the team. It will also allow us to expand our testing pool, enabling us to better refine the product. Being a part of the Fund’s larger cohort of startups working in similar emerging technologies is really great as it helps us connect with a network working to expand the possibilities of VR, globally.

Photo Credits | Top: © UNICEF/UN0270229/Knowles-Coursin |  In Article : © UNICEF Nigeria/2019/Achirga