July 6-7, 2023
Lia DiBello, our Chief Science Officer and Neil Sahota will be speaking about FutureView™ at the UN’s AI For Good Global Summit, Geneva Switzerland July 6-7 . Very excited to be included!
https://aiforgood.itu.int/summit23/
June 26-29, 2023
WE have been invited to orally present our paper,
FUTUREVIEW™ SMART MMO MEGA WORLDS FOR SOLVING WICKED PROBLEMS IN MINING; A COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR ACCELERATED RESULTS WITH ESG CHALLENGES ( by DiBello, Duarte, and Sahota)
at World Mining Conference 2023, in Brisbane, June 26-29. The full paper will be published in the conference proceedings. You can check out the conference here:
June 2023
We were thrilled and flattered to have a talented writer such as Cedric Chin do a deep dive into the research behind our products and services. Now he has taken down the paywall and made the whole series (which went viral) available for free. He does a much better job of explaining the science behind FutureView than we do!
https://commoncog.com/business-expertise-series/
July 2022
Our abstract “FutureView ™ Smart MMO Mega Worlds for Solving “Wicked” Problems in Mining; a cost effective solution for accelerated results with ESG challenges” co-authored with Alexey Duarte, a thought leader in mining and the environment, has been accepted to the 26th World Mining Congress in Brisbane Australia.
Our ongoing project with Office of Naval Research, “Accelerating Acquisition Of Tactical Expertise In Ill Structured Combat Settings” which will enter Phase II this fall, will be one of many show-cased at Dr. Ray Perez’s 2022 Cognitive Science of Learning Program Review to be hosted by Ms. Natalie Steinhauser September 13-14th. These review sessions are always very exciting, and we are looking forward to this event!
Let the games begin! With our partners at En-sync, we are deep in the development and testing of a new application of an Expert world that “pulls forward” mining managers to a new level of leadership through a series of fast unfolding challenges in a dynamic gamified mining environment. The core challenge is ESG excellence while retaining the mining asset’s value. Stay tuned for more on the results of testing with our first customers.
June 4, 2022
Several distinguished panel members including our CEO, Dr. Lia DiBello, (speaking in her role as ACSI Labs’s Chief Science Officer) discuss the implications for the growing role of the Metaverse.
Multi-stakeholder collaboration and emerging technologies such as AI will play an increasingly important role in enabling the Metaverse to achieve its vast potential. This webinar will explore how governments, industry and academia can work together to ensure that the Metaverse, supported by AI, can be used as a tool for achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to education, healthcare and inclusiveness.
A recording of this panel is now available online: https://lnkd.in/e2rjwNwf
April 25th 2022
Dr. Lia DiBello will be speaking at this virtual conference, with other leaders in the Naturalistic Decision Making field. It’s a good opportunity to learn what researchers in this area do. Download the details here: NDMA Open House Brochure
See it on the NDMA website: NDMA Open House
April 2022
Our coffee is going big time. Our Sales team will be at this trade show introducing Amor Perfecto to the food service world. Please check out the new website at www.amorperfecto.com
January 2022
Amor Perfecto International, which is the U.S. distributor of this amazing coffee, is dedicated to the decolonizing vision and mission. We are proud to be part owners of this amazing company and to be working with Luis on his journey and that of others who contribute to socially responsible models of business that also result in the best products. In this PodCast is the amazing story of how it all began.
As we have mentioned before the holidays, Alan Lesgold, Steve Reder and Lia DiBello are doing a series called “About Work” on Medium, and procuring essays on the subject. We are so fortunate to have our latest piece from Gary Klein appearing today. This piece really turns the notion of Expertise around.
December 2021
Dr. Lia DiBello was included in Sean Delaney’s “best of 2021” Podcast Special as he shares the year’s pearls of wisdom of all his interviews. The whole show is well worth a listen. Check it out here.
https://whatgotyouthere.com/portfolio/best-of-2021/
December 2021
Amor Perfecto International, our coffee company, was featured last week In a live segment on the Fox TV’s, Chicago Morning show. Diego Campos, World Barista Champion 2021 and one of our growers, demonstrated how to make coffee with just water and a simple pot.
In the last days of December, our coffee will appear on another morning show on one of the largest TV stations in the USA. Stay tuned for that announcement. Amor Perfecto coffee is getting attention because of its many awards, it’s unprecedented freshness (it’s sent by FedEx to your door a day or two after roasting in Colombia) and it’s socially responsible sourcing. Read about all of this on our coffee’s website. www.amorperfecto.com.
Here is the link to Diego’s presentation. https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1013541
November 2021
Tom Morgan, Director of Communications and Content for the KCP Group, a Large Investment Group out of New York City was kind of enough to refer to the universal applicability of FutureView™ to the world’s bigger problems and discuss the research behind it in his latest blog post for the company. Dr. DiBello will also be a guest speaker at KCP in November. Stay tuned!
Here is the link to the blog post:
https://thekcpgroup.com/resources/the-attention-span-squid-zen-and-the-abyss
October 2021
One of our partners, En-Sync, uses the FutureView suite of tools to transform companies at the C-Suite level. Here is a compelling case study of their results.
PPC Case Study – Futureview and En-Sync 8020
September 2021
One our founders, Dr. Lia DiBello, is a long-standing member of the Naturalistic Decision Making cognitive Science research community. As a guest of this PodCast platform devoted exclusively to the NDM research community, she reviews her career and the relevance our FutureView and accelerated Expertise research to cognitive science and business.
A fun conversation overall with NDM PodCasters Laura Militello and Brian Moon.
Check out their other interviews as well!
September 2021
One of our founders is interviewed by Sean Delaney for the PodCast “what got you there?” Dr. Lia DiBello is featured in Episode #262. Check it out and many of the other interesting episodes on Sean’s impressive PodCast.
August 2021
Lia DiBello was interviewed by the well-known business blogger and Podcaster, Cedric Chin, who focuses his work on the nature of expertise, and particularly intuitive experts. He also did an in depth dive into her published work. Check out the Podcast here. 
The podcast is up here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c74c0ee9. A series of deep dives into her work can be found here on Cedric’s blog Members Only Articles – Commonplace – The Commoncog Blog This is a rare opportunity to learn about the science behind the magic!
August 24, 2021
We are pleased to see our new coffee promoted at Carlos Vives’ concert this month at the Hollywood Bowl. Our new coffee supports their charitable Foundation, Tras La Perla.
For almost 2 centuries coffee has been at the service of the intermediaries and not of the coffee growing countries. Amor Perfecto International, in collaboration with the celebrated artist Carlos Vives, his wife, Claudia Elena Vasquez and their Tras La Perla Foundation, is pushing to rebalance the unfairly tilted value chain of coffee. Equally important, the product of Roasted at Origin coffee by Amor Perfecto, harvested, roasted and sent to you from the mountains of Colombia is a uniquely amazing coffee. It might be the best tasting coffee available today, because producing coffee where it is grown makes a much fresher, better tasting coffee. As Luis Fernando Velez, Amor Perfecto’s founder, says “have you ever seen the French exporting containers full of grapes to make champagne in Brooklyn?” Coffee should be no different.
https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/1258/2021-08-27/carlos-vives-with-the-la-phil
August 23, 2021
As you all know, we are part owners of Amor Perfecto International www.amorperfecto.com. Great things are happening and we have plans to expand to other continents very soon. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here are some entertaining Podcasts for coffee lovers to reveal the secret behind the magic of this wonderful coffee:
Keys to the shop:
https://keystotheshop.com/amorperfecto/
Coffee Sip with Chris Hudson:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-sip-with-chris-hudson/id1510715269?i=1000530899662
June 2021
Naturalistic Decision Making and Resilience Engineering Symposium 2021, Toulouse, France
WTRI and ACSILabs will be presenting exciting work being done with the
FutureView Solutions Platform
For decades, our team’s principals have explored accelerating expertise through a specific kind of “gamification”, which emphasizes unstructured tasks with high stakes “non-negotiable” goals and opportunities for rapid trial and error. This results in the development of deep domain expertise.
In this paper we explain how we are using these same virtual worlds to iteratively rehearse company strategy options that are too risky to rehearse or simulate other ways. Specifically, the immersive participation of actual workers, customers or stakeholders executing proposed strategies or even company designs “inworld” allows all to see if the proposed plan will survive reality – and more to the point – contact with human actors. It also offers the potential to develop decision making agility and business model innovation using advanced technology.
The results so far suggest that cognition – and ultimately the potential value of a business – is greatly enhanced when large problems are explored in 3D.
July 13, 2020
Innovakit, the company that educates the farmers that grow Amor Perfecto International coffee and contributes to their economic development, sustainability and responsible use of the land, just won the Colombian National Entrepreneurial Award. We cannot be more proud of Hugo Andres Lopez and his team and what he does for the farmers. Check out their website at Innovakit.co
July 1, 2020
WTRI is Proud to be part of Amor Perfecto International, bringing the worlds freshest coffee, responsibly grown, to U.S.A. The growers must qualify to grow this special coffee using methods taught by Innovakit, which teaches responsible profitable farming to multi-generational family farms all over the world. You can buy this coffee with free 2-3 day shipping at: amorperfecto.com
See Amor Perfecto’s remarkable story here:
June, 2020
We are pleased to conclude a successful pilot of Maxx Agile for Leadership Training in Colombia and look forward to the next steps with our new partners in Cali Colombia.
April 7, 2020
In these difficult times, WTRI is pleased to be called upon for advanced online skill building and collaboration solutions worldwide. We are very pleased to be launching Maxx Agile Leadership and the Cognitive Agility Profiler for South American countries next week.
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January 30, 2020
WTRI files another patent for one of the applications of its advanced behavior tracking and feedback platform, with proven impact for accelerated learning, behavioral change and cultural alignment.
Application No.: 16/776,852
Filed: January 30, 2020
Title: SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROVIDE MENTAL DISTRESS THERAPY THROUGH SUBJECT INTERACTION WITH AN INTERACTIVE SPACE
Inventors: David M. Lehmann
File No.: 01KK-054001
January 26, 2020
Very exciting week for us and our partners at SHR Branding in AZ and Amor Perfecto in Colombia. Our second major investor presentation commences this week in London for Amor Perfecto International, our distribution company. Amor Perfecto has many award winning coffees and a sustainable business growth model that supports the independent farmers and coffee related businesses of Colombia. Our goal is 10-fold growth. For more information, contact Dr. David Lehmann in a private message on LinkedIn or at dlehmann@wtri.com. Thanks to everyone for their hard work putting together a smashing pitch book, especially Hunter Rodgers.
Jan 2020
The purpose of WTRI’s FutureView Platform (patent pending) is to rehearse the future. We have partnered with CTAC S.A.S, which has a mineral finder technology that does not require drilling. Combined with our ability to make virtual immersive mines around the ore-bodies and water bodies found, and situate them in the terrains, and even communities being considered, mining companies can imagine their future and rehearse operations with virtually no risk. Costs can calculated as well. The world-wide response has been overwhelming. For more information please contact:
In South America: Carlos Mora cmora@ctac.com.co
In Australia: Geoff Wade geoff.wade@onirik.com.au
In the United States: David Andresen: da@ecotechadvisors.com
WTRI Makes News As A Serious Game Leader Worldwide
4 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT GAMIFICATION
(article in Acuity Magazine Oct/Nov 2019)
STORY SEAMUS BYRNE
Bogart Technologies is an educational tool developed by RMIT University that uses serious gaming and simulated experiences for ethics training. PHOTO: RMIT SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING
If you think gamification is kids playing Minecraft at school and calling it education, think again. STORY SEAMUS BYRNE
1 IT’S NOT ABOUT PLAYING VIDEO GAMES IN CLASS
Gamification isn’t about sitting students in front of Minecraft and calling it a valuable lesson. Rather, it’s about using those things that attract us to games – agency, emotional investment, engagement and, yes, even fun – to enhance learning. With less face-to-face class time, and more social media distractions, academics see gamification as a potent training tool.
In 2017, Swinburne University of Technology senior accounting lecturer Dr Gráinne Oates and Professor Dan Hunter won awards for a course-based quiz app, Quitch, which harnesses students’ smartphone addictions for good. In 2019, RMIT University will launch Bogart Technologies, an interactive game set in a fictional firm to educate accountants about the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. RMIT also developed the award-winning serious game Lucro Island – a strategic budgeting simulation that allows management accounting students to compete against each other in real time using their accounting skills as managers of hotels.
2 GAMIFICATION CAN BE USED WITH REAL STAKES
UTS accounting lecturer Dr Nicole Sutton uses a “giving game” to make her students responsible for deciding what charity is the worthiest recipient of a small but, importantly, real amount of money. “In one case a final vote ended in a deadlock,” Sutton says. “When a coin flip was suggested, one student leapt up and yelled ‘We can’t do that! It isn’t rational!’ It’s rare to see accounting students animated like that.”
Rather than simply discussing a financial concept, the class experiences what it means to use funds wisely. Having actual money at stake means there are real consequences for the decisions, so these future accountants are much more engaged.
3 LEARNING BY DOING IN A VIRTUAL WORLD DELIVERS REAL-WORLD BENEFITS
US company WTRI, led by cognitive scientist Lia DiBello, uses its FutureView Suite to create virtual reality ‘rehearsal’ scenarios across many fields, from mining to health care to financial services. Its research has found that putting people into simulated virtual environments that reflect real-world work gives them a chance to fail and then try again. Participants gain real growth in experience and, ultimately, in expertise.
“Human beings used to learn only through experience – learning by doing – for more than 100,000 years; it’s part of our DNA. Virtual worlds now offer the means to do that again, only this time without risk to actual companies or people,” DiBello writes.
WTRI’s virtual environments can host large multi-player teams and cope with large inputs of business information to simulate the real world. Companies that have used the tool include insurance giant Swiss Re.
4 FEEDBACK LOOPS CAN RAISE THE BAR FOR EVERYONE
Another UTS accounting lecturer, Dr James Wakefield, says that even the simple act of adding visible scoring systems and leaderboards to an education program can lead to higher baseline success across a student cohort.
In one example, Wakefield allowed students the option to share a presentation assignment online ahead of a deadline to get feedback from fellow students. This saw eager students set an early benchmark, and a competitive instinct to match or better those standards in other students. In courses with no such optional feedback system, Wakefield found the baseline marks for a student group are typically lower.
August 14, 2019
WTRI makes major news in South America after USAID sponsored visits
Innovation and new technologies contribute to protecting the environment and increase benefits is one of the main conclusions in the Innovatek meeting on Innovation, Technology and Sustainability in Extractive Industries.
The event held on Wednesday, August 14, in San Isidro, was organized by the USAID Amazon Project Best Socio-Environmental Practices.
Recognized specialists, academics and senior executives from the extractive sector, from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, United States, Australia, Peru, among others, met in order to deepen the relationship between profitability, technology and sustainability.
As noted, successful companies are increasingly committed to constant innovation as the engine of their operations, which is particularly relevant in scenarios of high value and fragility such as the Amazon.
“Every gram of land that the industry moves is a cost of more and an impact, the less we tango to move, the better,” said Carlos Mora, representative of CTAC Colombia.
According to the expert, with the new technologies, it is possible to have detailed information on deposits, with a margin of error of 5% to less than 1% in both industries, without affecting a single tree, much less drilling.
Also read: “It is possible to forge a stable relationship between mining and the environment”
Along the same lines, Lia DiBello, a renowned American expert in virtual reality and cognitive science, shared her experience with leading global companies in modeling virtual scenarios to test and evaluate new solutions and methodologies.
As she said “in the virtual world, we can work collaboratively with people around the planet towards solutions that can adapt continuously.”
Moreover, she noted that the Amazon is an ideal scenario for this. “Imagine modeling a virtual mining scenario and being able to see, in advance, if the proposed solutions work or not.” This, she continued, would help to protect the environment and create sustainable, safe and satisfactory jobs.
The generation of controlled mists to reduce the emission of effluents, bioremediation in mining operations, among other topics were also covered in more than 20 sessions that addressed the contribution of best industrial practices, showing that today sustainability and profitability range from hand.
The second day of this first edition of Innovatek will take place in Colombia, in the following days.
August 4, 2019
Very exciting times in Brazil.
Dr. DiBello was honored to co-present with many amazing technology companies on WTRI’s role in preserving the Amazon as a guest of USAID at the Amazonia conference and the 17th Latin American Infrastructure Leadership Forum in Brasilia last week.
So much happening, including visits from many distinguished politicians and leaders, including our own Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on his tour to solidify agreements with South American countries.
Next week WTRI will be in Lima Peru and Bogota Columbia, speaking about our technology conferences as USAID’s guest. Stay tuned!
June 2019
Dr. DiBello is honored to be a co-author with Monica Connelly and Dr. Joel Suss on a paper entitled:
Improving Expertise in Local Law Enforcement: Utilizing Virtual Environments to Assess Officer Performance and Standardize Training Procedures
Dr. Suss and Monica E. Connelly are both at Wichita State University. Monica is a Graduate Student in Human Factors Psychology, Applied Cognition and Expertise Lab.
Ms. Connelly will be presenting this paper at the HFES 63RD INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL MEETING held in Seattle Washington October 28th – November 1st.
Download from our publications page: Here
May 2019
We are honored to have our paper accepted for presentation at the 2019 Annual SIM (Society for Information Management) Conference in Orlando Florida. The paper is entitled:
Accelerating Learning and Expertise for Agile Decision Making 
Dr. DiBello’s co-author on this paper is Mahesh (Michael) S. Raisinghani, Ph.D, MBA, MS, PMP, CEC, CISM, PLD, Professor, Executive MBA Program, TWU College of Business, Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK, Editor in Chief, International Journal of Web based Learning and Teaching Technologies, and Member of the Board, Global Information Technology Management Association Advisor, National Society of Leadership and Success, and World Affairs Council
Dr. Raisinghani will be presenting the paper at the Orlando conference.
April 2, 2019
We are excited to be working with one of the largest and fastest growing software companies, developing solutions for accelerating the rate at which they can on-board account executives. Using our FutureView™ Technology platform the company is creating powerful accelerated learning solutions in hours, in an agile fashion for every stage of the account management process. The value of speed to on-boarding is incalculable. Stay tuned for more details….
March 31, 2019
Dr. DiBello will be presenting the results of our recent pilot projects with customers at the 14th International Conference of Naturalistic Decision Making in San Francisco, CA, USA, June 18-21, 2019. “Accelerating Expertise in agile decision making for business with iterative failure in a dynamic naturalistic virtual business”.
The full text will be available as part of the published proceedings.
March 18, 2019
Oxford Handbooks Online has finally published the article by Dr. Lia DiBello titled: “Expertise in Business: Evolving with a Changing World”. The article is available here or at www.oxfordhandbooks.com.
December 12, 2018
After months of closed door collaboration and years of conversation, the principals of SHR in Scottsdale Arizona, WTRI in San Diego and Onirik in Brisbane have hatched a joint approach for transforming the performance profile of a company by targeting the brand identity of the company at the employee level. In other words, what if the actions and decisions of every employee were guided by the brand promise of the company to its customers? How powerful would that be? Stay tuned for a downloadable paper on this page, to appear in a day or two.
November 2018
The new book is out. All the contributors are the best of the best in the Expertise Research Community. Dr. DiBello is very honored to have contributed. Her piece is: “Expertise in Business; evolving with a changing world”. Many of the sections, including Dr. DiBello’s, are available as stand-alone manuscripts.
March 2018
Gary Klein, famous for pioneering in the field of Naturalistic Decision Making, has an online Psychology Today Blog entitled “Seeing What Others Don’t”. He just published an article about WTRI’s work in mining. Check it out here!
January 2018
WTRI will be exploring improving decision making with virtual worlds in the areas of safety and emergency response in joint research with Professor Sebnum Duzgun from the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Sebnum is the author of over 200 publications and is a leading expert in mining engineering. The basic research is likely going to be funded by the National Science Foundation with support from leading mining companies. WTRI’s labs will support the work with their expertise in virtual worlds, improved decision making and studies of the neurophysiological impact of virtual worlds. Dr. Sebnum’s team will be visiting our lab to plan the research on Feb 2nd 2018.
November 2017
WTRI’s FutureView Virtual Worlds have a significantly different impact on learning and accelerating expertise because of the way they are constructed. The “secret sauce” is well understood (by us) but we have long been curious about what is happening in the brain; why are some virtual world approaches so much more powerful than others? In very early studies of brain activity conducted with the help of Dr. Dario Nardi, we are beginning to answer that question. This work will continue into next year and we will be seeking research funding to support following up studies on key findings.
In short, simulations or virtual rehearsals that elevated expertise in a person’s profession (in a demonstrable way) show a stronger correlation with the elicitation of higher levels of neural engagement, particularly in the regions needed for social/emotive judgement, insightful futuristic thinking, or curious exploration. We are excited about exploring this further.
September 2017
Our cognitive assessment tools, which include the Strategic Agility Assay and the FutureView™ Profiler have long been used to evaluate the fit-for-purpose of executives and executive teams. It has a long multi-year history of several hundred users who are now leading some of the largest and most successful companies in the world. The product itself has won awards and been recognized as a theoretical and methodological breakthrough in assessments of its kind.
Many have pointed out that with small changes in the software platform, it could be very valuable as a learning tool, showing people their active blind spots when evaluating business situations, or even when picking stocks! We are currently revising the platform for this purpose. In Version 2.0, after each task in the online tool, users will get the right answer, the right “clues” and will be shown what they missed before being encouraged to move forward in the instrument. Used this way, the tool helps users develop skills to see complex business problems the way experts do. We plan early pilots in 2018.
August 2017
What if your organization could be more Agile? What if your executives were practiced in navigating wicked problems in business? What if you could rehearse an agile future without risk? WTRI is working on a modular version of its FutureView™ Suite for relatively quick assembly of complex business scenarios using its vast library of “virtual worlds”, financial models, and business scenarios, including agile product design and launch in difficult markets. We are in discussions with several companies about piloting this new suite in the first quarter of 2018. Direct inquiries to: Dlehmann@wtri.com.
September 2016
Oxford University Press will be publishing a comprehensive resource for researchers studying expertise. “The Oxford Handbook of Expertise: Research & Application” will be coming out in mid-2017. This will be the most authoritative and inclusive handbook on expertise, including both traditional and contemporary perspectives. Importantly, it will provide a multidiscipline-multimethod view of the state-of-the-science/engineering research on expertise.
As one of the most knowledgeable and respected scholars in the field, Lia DiBello has been invited to author the section on “Expertise in Business”. We are very excited about the handbook – a much needed reference – and the recognition by the Expertise Research community.
August 2016
WTRI’s and GPR’s Dehler’s Joint Venture Company, Simmersal Solutions Inc. is currently hosting a major virtual world safety event at Digger’s and Dealer’s Annual Mining Conference. The event is a virtual world underground competition with 16 teams (working as underground “crews”) of participants from the leading mining companies competing for a prize. This year the conference was held in Kalogeria, Australia. Our team joined “crews” of participants, logging in from Tasmania, Hawaii, Sydney and San Diego. WTRI’s Dr. Whit Missildine is attending in person with some of the GPR team. Participants were mining professionals at the conference.
June 2016
WTRI conducts a strategic rehearsal with Tri-C Community College leadership and Faculty. The purpose is to develop effective programs that will increase the graduation/completion rate of students in the Tri-C system. The event was part of a larger, college-wide effort, “One Door Many Options for Success Initiative” supported by the Cleveland Foundation. WTRI’s Dr. Whit Missildine and Shelby Smith delivered an outstanding event.
It is hard to describe the impact of the simulation developed for us by WTRI. … Our challenge was to increase student graduation rates… As a result of the simulation we now have an enthusiastic cohort advocating the use of new software tools and methods for student outreach. Working in the simulation accelerated the realization of the need for change and training. Two of the innovations developed during the simulation have already been approved for College-wide implementation. In a word, AMAZING!
Dr. T. Pope, Campus President, TRI-C Community College.
June 2016
In collaboration with Dr. Michael Raisinghani of Texas Women’s University, a cohort of MBA students will be using a development version of an accelerated learning product for “hands on” experience with complex project management. This on-going research is funded by the National Science Foundation to explore ways to use simulations to advance complex skills.
February 2016
WTRI’s Annual in-person Advisory Board meeting was held in San Diego. This year we evaluated our progress toward scalable solutions and productizing our most profitable services. We were happy to report marked growth, a successful transition to a new business model emphasizing our technologies, and discuss the next steps. In addition, we welcomed a new member, Mark Juergensen.
January 2016
WTRI is pleased that IBM Global Business is considering one of our new products, now under development: Accelerating Expertise in Project management for Project Teams. This is a challenging exercise for High Potentials designed to increase expertise in navigating complex projects.
January 2016
WTRI will be working with Takeda Pharmaceuticals beginning early 2016 on a number of challenges related to increasing Cognitive Agility for R&D teams worldwide. We are pleased to be working with our partners at the 3 AM Group.
September 2015
WTRI and The Project Management Institute are collaborating on research to apply WTRI’s accelerated learning technology to Project Management Capability development. The National Science Foundation funded the seminal research on the application of our accelerated learning approach to the development of expertise in project management and will continue as a co-investor in support for this important collaboration. We look forward to an exciting couple of years.
September 2015
The National Science Foundation nominated our company for one of ten paid sponsorships to attend the New England Venture Summit hosted by youngStartUp Ventures in Boston, MA on December 8-9, 2015. This event brings together more than 500 VCs, angels, representatives from large industrial companies and tech transfer professionals. NSF recently sponsored the New York Venture Summit in June 2015 hosted by this group, and paid for selected NSF grantees to attend. NSF leaders were quite impressed with the quality and quantity of investors in attendance and the networking opportunities were excellent. As with the NY Summit, sponsored companies in Boston will pitch their technology/company to an audience of potential investors, bankers and strategic partners and receive coaching for the presentation.
July 2015
WTRI’s new offices in Second life are now open! Please contact us to schedule an in-world meeting to discuss our products or for a solutions overview or just a walk in our wonderful wooded sim. You will need a Second life Avatar to visit us. If you don’t have an Avatar, we can lend you one.
November-December 2014
One of the largest underground mining companies in the world commissions WTRI to build a model of one of the company’s underground mine in order to test emergency response plans for the future tunnels. Testing with 50 workers showed that rehearsing hazard identification and escape resulted in 100% survival (a 20% increase in the simulated environment) and 50% increase in speed of response to major incidents.
July 2014
WTRI receives a Phase II Award from the National Science Foundation for its new product: “Accelerating Project Management Skills Development through “Experience”; Realistic Rehearsal for Project Teams in 3-Dimensional Immersive Virtual Environments.”
June 2014
Dr. Lia DiBello’s new book “Accelerated Expertise: Training for High Proficiency in a Complex World” is out. Order on Amazon.
June 2013
WTRI’s publishes a chapter In “Web-Based and Blended Educational tools and Innovations”. Order on Amazon.
June 2013
WTRI receives a Phase I award from the National Science Foundation for its new product: “Accelerating Project Management Skills Development through “Experience;” Realistic Rehearsal for Project Teams in 3-Dimensional Immersive Virtual Environments.”
May 2013
E.S. Chamberlain wins his fifth IT Executive of the Year Award for his innovative work on virtualizing business simulations and creating the ability to “drop in” virtual business simulations to any location in the world.
Summer 2012
“WTRI customer, Proterra Inc., has important achievement.” For more information, click here. Summer 2012 WTRI and GPR Dehler of Australia and the UK form a joint venture for its virtual world Mining applications. For details on Simmersal Solutions’ inaugural product, click on this link.
April 2012
E.S. Chamberlain wins his fourth IT Executive of the Year Award for his innovative work on business simulations and the integration of business technology into business simulations.
March 2012
Dr. Lia DiBello is a guest on Ashford Talk Radio, talking about the future of eLearning with virtual worlds.
February 2012
Dr. Lia DiBello is a speaker at the Annual Society of Consulting Psychology’s Mid-Winter conference discussing the results for client using WTRI’s Profiler™ for assessing senior executive’s cognitive agility and business acumen.
January 2012
The famous Aimee Weber from Aimee Weber Studios visits our “Lynchpin Global” world and endorses the project for the second phase of funding.
December 2011
WTRI wins an NSF research award for its Lynchpin Global virtual world educational environment. This 3-D immersive virtual world will be developed over a period of two years with assistance from NSF, partner universities and companies. The goal is to accelerate the time needed to develop high level project management expertise. The participants will “rehearse” and solve “tough cases” in a virtual world controlled by WTRI’s FutureView Software. We will be looking for partner schools and companies in the fall of 2012.
Fall 2011
WTRI helps large copper mining company with a game changing strategy. We developed a customized exercise on efficient and productive block cave mining. The exercise, held in Australia in late fall, replicated the company’s future mining, processing and technological future. The team devised tactics for meeting their goals in the two day exercise.
August 2011
The Final Report of the January 2011 US Marine Corps Small Unit Decision Making Workshop has been released by the US Marine Corps Training and Education Command. Edmund Chamberlain was a key member of that working group.
Spring 2011
WTRI designs a major event for a European Financial Services company, combining its proven method of physical business emulation with its capability in Virtual worlds. The result is a dynamic and exciting two day event that is truly global in nature. 50 top executives from a major financial services firm participated.
April 2011
E. Sterling Chamberlain is a finalist for two different Information Technology Executive of the Year Awards. One is sponsored by Cox Communication and the other sponsored by San Diego Magazine.
January 2011
A case study involving WTRI’s FutureView™ Profiler is featured as Chapter 17 of the soon to be released book, Informed by knowledge: Expert Performance in Complex Situations (Expertise: Research and Applications Series) Kathleen L. Mosier (Editor), Ute M. Fisher (Editor). Available now on Amazon.
June 2010
A case study involving WTRI’s FutureView™ Profiler will be featured as Chapter 17 of the soon to be released book, Informed by knowledge: Expert Performance in Complex Situations (Expertise: Research and Applications Series) Kathleen L. Mosier (Editor), Ute M. Fisher (Editor). Available now on Amazon. April 2010 Lia DiBello Ph.D. was elected to the Knowledge Elicitor’s Guild as a Master Level member. For more information about the Guild, contact Dr. Robert Hoffman at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
December 2009
WTRI’s FutureView Profiler was described in Senior Executive Assessment, A key to responsible corporate governance by Dr. Dean Stamoulis, who is the leader of Russell Reynold’s Global Executive Assessment Practice. Our product was described under “Recent developments in Cognitive Assessment” as part of a comprehensive approach to assessing senior executives.
October 2009
Dr. Lia DiBello was honored with the “Women Who Mean Business Award” (WWMB) at the 16th annual award luncheon held on October 27th, 2009. The event was attended by over 800 people and acknowledged 25 successful and motivated women business leaders for their talent and contributions to business and San Diego. Meg Whitman, former President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay, delivered the Keynote. Awards which were presented by Armon Mills, President and Publisher and Reo Carr, Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher of the San Diego Business Journal.
April 2009
The San Diego Business Journal acknowledged Sterling Chamberlain as a finalist of the 2009 Information Technology Executive of the Year Awards sponsored by Cox Business. An event to honor the eighty finalists and thirteen honorees took place on Thursday, April 23, 2009 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. The finalists and honorees were featured in the April 27th issue of the San Diego Business Journal.
March 2009
In a joint venture the Blue Mine Group Inc and WTRI are developing a Virtual World Sales OpSim™ The on-line, multi-player environment will emulate a competitive world in which users must sell complex products to a variety of customers while at the same time managing their pipeline. The product prototype is based on a hybrid of the dominant selling models used by high performing sales experts. However, any selling model or product mix can be imported into the OpSim™. The product will be demonstrated at the upcoming 3D Training Learning and Collaboration Conference sponsored by Gallaudet University, Washington D.C. April 20-21. Come and visit our booth!
January 2009
Published in The International Journal of Cognition, Technology & Work: “Information technologies and intuitive expertise: A method for implementing complex organizational change among New York City Transit Authority’s bus maintainers.” By DiBello, L. and Missildine, W.
January 2009
Published in the International Journal of Mind, Culture, and Activity: “Intuitive Expertise and Empowerment: The Long Term Impact of Simulation Training on Changing Accountabilities in a Biotech Firm” by DiBello, Missildine & Struttmann. To appear in the Fall 2008
September 19, 2008
WTRI has been chosen as one of four finalists in the American Electronics Association (AeA) San Diego Council’s 15th annual High Tech Awards. Specifically, this was for our product, the Cognitive Profiler, which is enjoying great success among our customers. For more information about the Profiler, please call our office and we will get you in touch with a representative the same day.
September 8, 2008
National Science Foundation features WTRI in it’s “Research in Action” Website. OpSims™ help win the X Prize From page 15 of The Rocket Company, 2005, AIAA publishers “Tom (Rabbet) had also hired some industrial psychologists to develop business/engineering simulations of the vehicle development process. Their work was based on that of Dr. Lia DiBello and her team, who had proved so successful in turning around dysfunctional businesses. As modified for the problem facing Tom, DiBello’s techniques were applied to develop simulations of the engineering development, flight test, and production of a launch vehicle. Using these simulations, the engineering, management and support teams conducted exercises running from two days to a week, in which real strategies for working more effectively as a group were experienced. By this means, Tom hoped to build a team that had the equivalent of many years’ of experience working together developing and producing aerospace systems.”
April 3, 2008
Made in IBM Labs: IBM Develops a “Rehearsal Studio” to Let You Practice Your Job in a 3-D World. New 3-D studio helps IBM employees gain hard-to-learn skills in a virtual world.
