IMMERSIVE LABS is an Advanced Institute for Research, Development and Training in Immersive Interactive Technologies (Virtual Reality, Video Games, Computer Animation etc.), with a precise Business Development Plan for both the short, medium and long-term.

This project was awarded during the Second International Social Innovation Competition (September 2011, Naples) - promoted by the Euclid Network and sponsored by the Unicredit Bank/Foundation - which received project proposals from 32 Countries worldwide. The Social Purpose of this project, is to empower our younger generations - especially disadvantaged but gifted kids - with an authorial knowledge in some of the most advanced digital professions (Interaction Design, 3D Animation etc.), more and more requested in the Interactive Entertainment Industry (Movies, Videogames, Simulations, Advertising).

The Core Business is the conception and production of Digital Simulations for different scales and solutions, especially in the domain of the “Knowledge Economy”: Professional Training, Public Education, Cultural Heritage, Technology Transfer, Scientific Visualization, Industrial Design, Complex Systems etc. The Products and Services are customized and offered in practical, real-life fields of applications like Immersive Learning, Cultural Entertainment, or Corporate Communication.

To fulfill its mission, Immersive Lab has defined its objectives and priorities, by which is dedicated to making a long-term contribution to the quality of instruction and learning, and thereby to the quality of life in our society:

- To establish collaborative and productive partnerships among researchers, educational practitioners and policy-makers.

- To conduct basic and applied research and systematic reviews.

- To address a range of learner and professional populations, including the disabled and gifted minorities, from preschool to postsecondary, all of whom face barriers, temporary or long-term, to achieving their potential in personal, academic and professional domains.

- To develop and evaluate curricular and technology-enhanced tools consistent with best practices in contemporary educational reform that has meaningful and generalizable effects and important social impact.

- To assemble an outstanding team of researchers and thinkers, involved in a range of basic and applied disciplines devoted to our mission.

- To educate the next generation of innovators, including practitioners, scholar-researchers, and policy-makers, and to promote the blending of these roles.

Solution

Today, we already have three generations of Digital Natives: kids who dealt with videogames and internet since early childhood. Those kids are developing a new Mental Toolset of diverse and novel forms of intelligence (Visual, Collaborative etc.) and skills (Multitasking, Problem Solving etc.): as a consequence, their minds react to a certain kind and frequencies of stimulations. We must then conceptualize and build the Pillars of XXIST CENTURY PEDAGOGY: based on the most recent discoveries in ‘Brain Studies’, on the most advanced educational models (Project-Based Learning, Emotional/Social Intelligence, Experiential Storytelling etc.), and by taking advantage of the proper technologies, in order to deliver educational contents with the engaging interactions between teacher and student, the kids themselves, and – above all – by ‘making contact’ with the complexity of both our current and foreseeable reality, and confront the kids with both local and global issues.

Example

The Institute will foster a collaborative approach between experienced professionals and students, while also developing and patenting commercial products and services for external committers (both public and private), thus allowing the self-sustainability of the whole structure. At the end of a two-year learning-path, the most skilled students will be absorbed into the Institute’s workforce: there, they will also have the opportunity to ‘give back’; by teaching what they’ve learned – both humanly and professionally - to the following generations of students. This model allows a seamless integration of both Technological and Social Innovation, where profit and non profit would be strongly integrated through a virtuous, self-sustaining cycle of education, training, occupation and – ultimately – self redemption.