XR Women, a global community of women working in the field of XR technologies and an Initiative of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), presented 3 honors at the 7th Annual iLRN Conference Awards Ceremony on June 8.

The awardees were selected by XR Women from among members of their community who spoke at the iLRN conference and their work reflects the quality of content at the annual event, which was held on iLRN’s virtual campus in the Virbela platform. 

Judith Okonkwo was selected for the Real World Impact Award for her work in fostering the development and deployment of XR technologies across the African continent. Okonkwo is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a current member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for Augmented and Virtual Reality. She is the founder of Ìmísí 3D, a creation lab based in Lagos that focuses on building the African ecosystem for XR technologies (AR/VR/MR), connecting communities across the continent, and providing learning opportunities. 

As the leader of AR/VR Africa, Okonkwo organized the 2020 AR/VR Africa Hackathon, which had participants from 27 African countries. Okonkwo’s keynote address at the iLRN conference reflected on both the great challenges and the immense opportunities that the adoption of XR presents on the continent, particularly in creating solutions for education, healthcare, and storytelling.    

“Judith’s leadership in making XR accessible on the African continent affects millions of lives by opening up opportunities and fostering the development of solutions to persistent challenges. The scope of her work – across an entire continent – can make an enormous impact in unlocking human potential and solving problems. XR Women are honored to present the inaugural Real World Impact Award to Judith Okonkwo,” said Karen Alexander, Co-Founder and Executive Director of XR Women. 

The XR Women Innovation Award goes to Genevieve Smith-Nunes, a doctoral researcher at Cambridge University whose work creatively combines classical ballet, biometric data capture, augmented reality, and ethics. As part of her participation in the conference, Smith-Nunes developed an immersive 3D experience based on her work in the WebXR platform FrameVR.io. She also made a short presentation to XR Women along with several other doctoral researchers and participated in the conference’s Doctoral Colloquium. 

Jonathon Richter, CEO and President of the Immersive Learning Research Network, remarked, “Genevieve's work is really phenomenal, situating learning with XR in truly elegant and powerful ways. Her creativity and interdisciplinary expertise is really quite astounding, as demonstrated by her doctoral work. She has made a big impact on the Immersive Learning Research Network and we are very lucky to include her among the new emerging leaders in this field.”

XR Women honored Kavya Pearlman with the Trailblazer Award. Pearlman is the founder of the non-profit XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), a leader in research on cybersecurity, and a staunch advocate for the rights of individuals for privacy, safety, and rights over their personal data and identity. 

XRSI is the first global effort to promote privacy, security, and ethics as well as to develop standards and guidelines around these issues in virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Pearlman’s work is motivated by a desire not only to protect the rights of but also to serve and inspire women and underrepresented communities in security and emerging technologies. 

“I have been given many accolades for my work in the safety and privacy domain but this is one of the first few awards solely revolving around my work in the XR domain, so it is quite special to me,” said Pearlman. “Thank you, Immersive Learning Research Network and XR Women, for this incredible honor of naming me ‘The Trailblazer’ for my leadership role in cybersecurity, privacy, and protection of personal data and identity challenges in the XR and spatial computing domain.”

“It is an honor to have these XR Women with diverse and global perspectives lead humanity through exponential changes to education, the arts, job skill sets, communities and our well being.   We are proud to recognize their impact as global changemakers for the betterment of humankind,” said Julie Smithson, XR Women Board Chair. 

XR Women is an initiative that was started in October of 2020 in an effort to create an inclusive space and a community of support as women navigate their journey through the XR industry. The organization’s mission is to encourage their community to participate in and contribute to knowledge sharing in the XR industry, provide a space for networking among XR Women in the interest of furthering their skills, professional development, and careers, make visible XR Women and their accomplishments by sharing their work and successes, and serve as a resource for organizations seeking to include women as speakers, panelists, and workshop leaders. The group meets weekly on Wednesdays in iLRN’s virtual campus on the Virbela platform. 

“We are so proud of how far we have come since the initiation of this effort. Our participation rates have been growing so fast and is a testament to how much women in our industry want and need a supportive community like the one we have built. In the coming year, we aim to continue providing valuable content each week while building out various initiatives to expand on professional development, mentorship, and opportunities for women in XR to be seen and heard on global stages,” said XR Women Co-Founder and Director of Programming & Communications Sophia Moshasha.

“There are so many women driving the development of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality technology and it is an honor to help elevate them. XR Women’s mission to “make space for all in the metaverse” rings true through the events we hold each week, giving women and allies a platform to tell their stories, share their passions, and use their expertise to elevate others within the industry,” said XR Women Co-Founder and Technology Lead, Sarah Klein. 

The XR Women leadership team consists of Board Chair Julie Smithson, Co Founder of MetaVRse, a code-optional platform that makes it easy to create and share interactive 3D experiences instantly on the web; Karen Alexander, PhD, Founder and Director of XRconnectED, a media production company and consultancy guiding organizations and educational institutions through the adoption of XR;  Sophia Moshasha, XR strategic partnerships expert helping to create opportunities for XR companies through her work at AFWERX, Virtual Reality Marketing, and the VR/AR Association; and Sarah Klein (She/Her), UX Design Producer at Cisco and Co-President of the Seattle VR/AR Association, passionate about empowering designers to build impactful experiences in VR.

The Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) is an international organization of developers, educators, practitioners, and scholars collaborating to develop the scientific, technical, and applied potential of digitally-enhanced immersive learning environments. 

For more information on XR Women, contact 

GlobalXRWomen@gmail.com 

or visit XRWomen.com 

For more information on iLRN, visit 

Immersivelrn.org.

Winner: 2021 XR Women Real World Impact Award

Judith Okonkwo, Founder, Ìmísí 3D, Lagos, Nigeria

Winner: 2021 XR Women Innovation Award 

Genevieve Smith-Nunes, PhD Candidate, Cambridge University, UK

Winner: 2021 XR Women Trailblazer Award

Kavya Pearlman, Founder and CEO, XR Safety Initiative