28 May 2019

For the students in the Socius VR team taking part in Summer Lab was a way for them to find out what it meant to be an entrepreneur and to use the skills from their degrees in a more practical setting. Little did they know that in just six short weeks they would go from strangers to business partners and be flown out to Barcelona to present their startup at the mSchools Social Development Goals (SDG) competition.

During Summer Lab Sarah, Weilian and Anzel met and formed Socius VR, a startup aiming to use virtual reality to help people with autism practice social interaction. Run by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Summer Lab is a six week ideas accelerator that takes place during the university summer holidays. During the programme the team applied for the mSchools SDG Challenge – an international competition for students to design innovative solutions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by applying digital technology. The team were selected as finalists for the competition and were flown out to Barcelona with all expenses paid to pitch their idea at influential tech startup event, 4YFN.

“Summer Lab felt like it gave us a valuable foundation for our journey to Barcelona. Throughout the six weeks of workshops and teamwork we were taught business tools and models, negotiating, how to raise capital, market validation, pitching and so many other things that were foreign concepts to us not so long ago. Each team was also given industry mentors and the continued relationships we have with them makes us believe that we have a place to keep exploring in the innovation landscape and community in New Zealand and beyond,” the team says.

“One key take-home message for us from this experience was to not forget our why and to continue to be centred on our vision to change lives by making barriers such as social interaction difficulties easier to overcome,” Sarah says. This technology has great potential to be one of the most efficient ways for people with autism to comfortably learn how to navigate social situations, understand non-verbal forms of communication and help make it easier for them to connect with people.

As for the next steps in their startup journey, the team are currently talking to as many people as they can and working closely with Autism New Zealand to make sure that their VR videos are able to help those impacted by autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Weilian is studying towards a Master of Commerce in Information Systems. Sarah and Anzel are both studying towards a Bachelors of Science in Biological Sciences and Psychology.