Utopic Studio: Improving children's reading skills using VR technology
Immersing children into a world of literature through interactive Virtual Reality (VR) games
Utopic Studio combines the best of video games with recent research findings of childhood reading comprehension. The company aims to transform the way children read through a library of Virtual Reality (VR) games -- immersing children with interactive learning experiences.
“Our VR games objective is to increase children's motivation while assessing their reading skills using non-traditional and more sociocultural research approaches.”
Reading is an essential skill and it's important to motivate and engage children to read. However, most children prefer consuming content on their digital devices rather than print. This poses a challenge. To address this, we have developed a digital platform and use VR technology to make reading a new fascinating world that will also help teachers motivate their students a bit more. Additionally, the ability to track and evaluate children’s reading skills using VR technology is an innovative way to improve the reading abilities of children.
ON BEING OPEN SOURCE
Being an open source solution is going to fulfill our dream of opening VR technology to students from all over the world. In addition, it gives the possibility of customizing the games by changing the content and tailoring the games for each student’s skills.
TEAM & DIVERSITY
Our team is a mix of people with multiple skills and interests. Margarita has a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University. Pedro is an artist with a Master in Engineering in Virtual Reality and innovation from ENSAM Paris Tech. Gabriel is a computer scientist in machine learning and game developer. Carlos is an electrical engineer who is fascinated about open source and backend development. Our 3D artist, Claudio, is passionate about storytelling and Antonia oversees the business development.
On the contrary to the traditional educational system, we believe that no matter what you study, every skill and ability count. So, our company builds products and learning experiences inspired by a group of diverse people sharing each other's creativity for the benefit of children's learning.
WAY AHEAD:
We believe VR creates valuable learning experiences for children in a fun and resourceful way. Utopic Studio will use the Innovation Fund investment to develop a strong methodology for diagnosing reading skills while leveraging the “fun” factor VR games offer. As we develop further our open source solution, we are also exploring how we can collaborate with UNICEF’s Innovation Fund VR cohort to create a Minecraft-like VR platform for educational purposes.
Having the opportunity for UNICEF to connect us to a larger cohort of VR problem solvers is exciting. We are looking forward to being part of this community!
About UNICEF Innovation Fund: The Fund has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that has the potential to impact children on a global scale. The core motivation of the IF is to fund "clusters" or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology, like UAVs, Blockchain, Data Science and AI or virtual reality - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children.
As well as funding the start-up companies, UNICEF’s Innovation Fund will provide product and technology assistance, support with business growth, access to a network of experts and partners. The Fund also actively seeks second-round investment and support for companies it has invested in, as well as the opportunity to scale-up these technologies, when they are successful, in the more than 190 countries and territories where UNICEF operates.
More info: www.unicefinnovationfund.org
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