Closing the gap: Women in Immersive Tech

The networking and knowledge-sharing event was organised by European-wide collective, Women in Immersive Tech, WIIT UK Ambassador Muki Kulhan and WIIT Co-Founder Ioana Matei, who discussed mentorship programmes, award opportunities and breaking boundaries within the currently male-dominated area of immersive technology.

The evening gathered a well-accomplished audience ranging from students from undergrad to PhD, developers, designers, producers, award-winning creators, healthcare providers, entrepreneurs, R&D leaders at major corporations, university lecturers, researchers, Emmy & Grammy nominees, and XR hackathon winners through Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network.

Presentations spanned XR development for storytelling with XR hackathon winner Chi Liu, who dialled in from Taipei; Teodora Popa PhD, who demonstrated how XR can be developed in women’s health research; and IBC Accelerators project participant Sonia Lange. Lange shared behind-the-scenes clips from the animated TV show pilot which was developed using tools such as Adobe Firefly, 3D AI and Dall-E as part of the project, Generative AI in Action under the umbrella project ‘AI Innovation Labs.’

Sonia Lange, Animation & AI Lead at Somersault praised the event as an insight into what others are doing, “(Otherwise) you can be in your own bubble and the algorithms will feed you what you want to see.” She added that a recent report stated that men are more likely to use and experiment with AI tools compared to their female counterparts: “I’m seeing it firsthand - if we don’t have more women using these tools, then products are going to be shaped for a male-driven target market, so we need more women making these tools work for them.”

Amy Chao, Knowledge Transfer Manager – Immersive Tech at Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network, the UK Innovation Network for XR (VR, AR, MR and spatial computing), emphasised how the event can prevent a wider gender gap, “It’s a chance for people to come together, to support female and non-binary people, to connect and find opportunities to collaborate and find a welcoming community.”

Lange summarised: “It’s really important to broadcast this message, ‘Hey, let’s try this out. Let’s be more open minded. It’s okay to make mistakes. This (AI revolution) is very new, and the space is moving so quickly, (the gender gap) can become a big problem very soon. So we need to get the message out now that more women need to be using AI tools.”

Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network’s flagship Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards and 4 new Working Groups (supporting Accessibility, ED&I, Environmental Sustainability and Ethics) encourage all diverse talent to get involved.