Lori-Lee Elliott of Dauntless XR joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to share about her tech company's evolution. Photo via LinkedIn

As Lori-Lee Elliott was building out her company — an augmented reality software company to enhance industrial workflow — she was approached by a representative in the Air Force interested in her technology. That conversation would end up leading to a major rebrand and pivot, as well as multiple federal contracts and grants for the Houston startup.

Dauntless XR — originally founded as Future Sight AR in 2018 — has two software platforms that bring customers flexible mixed reality solutions. The Air Force uses the Aura platform to create 3D replays of missions, while NASA plans to utilize the technology for analyzing space weather data.

"Something that we realized when we built out this platform is that it doesn't have to be for just one thing," Elliott says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "We can make it ingest all kind of data sources. It does require us as the developers and the architects to go in and learn about each application. And that's great because I get bored easily and it's an endless source of fascination."



After entering into these new industries — as well as a 2022 strategic acquisition — Elliott says her team started thinking hard about a rebrand, specifically to set the business up for success as it expands into new fields and opportunities.

"We wanted something that was a name that was a little bit more future proof," Elliott says on the show. "We wanted something that was more representative of this new thing that we had evolved into, and then also something that was going to stand the test of time going forward. We actually really enjoyed the rebrand process."

While Elliott had to learn how to navigate a rebrand, she also juggled the grant and contract process with federal entities — something else that was new to her. Dauntless XR has secured both SBIR and STTR grants and contracts with two different federal agencies, so Elliott has learned a lot.

"The lesson learned I would say is if you're interested in pursuing (grants), go and get all of your government registrations and certifications before you start," Elliott says. "They have fairly quick close deadlines, so when an opportunity opens to when it closes is usually a month. And that is not enough time to register your company at all of the different places it needs to be registered."

She shares more about what she's learned through the past few years or so, as well as what's next for Dauntless XR on the podcast.

"We are no longer limited by the laws of physics." Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: How extended reality and the metaverse can disrupt the business world

guest column

The year is 2012. It’s your first day of a new job. You wake up extra early to get ready and drive to the office – which takes you another half hour with Houston traffic. Once you arrive, you wait in the lobby for someone to help you with badging, sit in the same room for hours while numerous facilitators click through slides, and find out your laptop won’t be available for another week or two. Not the warmest welcome or greatest impression, right?

Fast-forward to year 2022. It’s a week before you’re set to start a new job. You receive an exciting package in the mail and unbox your new joiner start kit, complete with a virtual reality headset and other company swag. You onboard completely in the metaverse, meeting and collaborating with teammates from around the world – all from the comfort of… wherever.

Especially in a time where being physically together may not be an option, extended reality has made people feel closer than ever before.

To level set, XR is the umbrella term encompassing any immersive technology that blends digital content with the real world. It covers the full spectrum of experiences ranging from augmented reality, where digital content is superimposed and simple instructions appear directly on your phone or smart glasses, to an entirely virtual world where people, places and things co-exist and interact with one another in new, computer-generated environments – also known as the metaverse.

Although XR has been around for decades, the lack of devices and standard software platforms made implementation a challenge. Now that both are widely available and affordable, the doors for innovation have been thrown wide open.

There’s been plenty of key drivers that led to XR being a hot topic right now, including:

  • The need for digitization of our lives, accelerated by the global pandemic.
  • The recent global focus on sustainability and responsible business.
  • The cross-industry commitment to customer journey, optimized employee performance, and creating new content and services.
  • The convergence of powerful advancements in technology, such as 5G, cloud, AI and blockchain.
  • The recent investment in the metaverse by companies like Microsoft and Meta, formerly known as Facebook.

Now is the time for XR.

Every industry can benefit from using immersive technology to enhance both the enterprise and consumer experience, from retail, finance and automotive to tourism, entertainment, and real estate. XR has a proven track record of increasing revenue, collaboration, and productivity and decreasing costs, safety incidents, and our carbon footprint.

By 2027 the VR gaming market size alone is projected to reach $92.31 billion, and we’re now starting to really blur the lines between gaming and training. Compared to in-person training, VR results in a 96 percent reduction in training time, 76 percent increase in learning effectiveness, 70 percent increase in productivity, and 30 to 70 percent decrease in costs.

Engineers can leverage digital twins of manufacturing facilities for product development, performance improvement and predictive maintenance.

Science classes can teleport to outer space and use haptics to feel the ice and rock that make up the rings of Saturn.

Surgeons and patients can take a three-dimensional tour of the brain before surgery, leading to better preparation, decreased operative time and reduced risk of complications.

Those suffering from dementia can recover certain motor skills or tap into old memories to trigger positive mental stimulation, aiding in both assessment and rehabilitation.

As the new fabric of life is unfolding, the metaverse is showing promise beyond its gaming roots to offer people and brands a new place to interact, create, consume and earn.

Despite spending an average of $1,300 per employee annually on training, research proves that learners forget 70 percent of the content within 24 hours and nearly 90 percent in a month. By extending reality, we engage learners with interactive, hands-on, experiences that transform one-way training into deeper learning with heightened retention.

When high-fidelity design is mixed with low latency technology enablers, XR environments intuitively engage our senses, capturing the experience as an actual memory in our brain versus something we simply read or watched.

The future is immersive technology – not only for how we work and learn but also how we exercise and have fun. XR will touch all aspects of our lives. That’s why at Accenture, we have launched a grand experiment to make enterprise virtual reality a… well, a reality. We’re currently amid the world’s largest VR deployment in history. We are deploying over 60,000 VR headsets to our people to experiment, innovate, and learn with VR.

We as a company have over 650,000 employees and have over 200,000 new joiners annually. About one third of those people joined the company during the pandemic – over 50,000 this past quarter alone. That means a good portion of our people have never set foot in our offices, let alone met any of their teammates in person.

Through the power of VR, we now have a consistent and scalable new joiner experience that inspires our people, aligns with our purpose, and equips them to learn, live and love Accenture from day one. VR gives us the opportunity to make meaningful connections and share a sense of belonging. Our people can now head to the “Nth Floor” to meet new people from all over the world and have those natural water cooler moments – even while working remotely.

In a time where live events are facing a standstill, platforms like AltspaceVR are hosting live events for everything from Burning Man and Diplo concerts to church and AA meetings. The spatial recognition offered by VR makes it a great medium to have one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many interactions.

Accessibility is key too. That’s why many applications offer experiences in both VR headset and 2D on PCs.

We are no longer limited by the laws of physics.

Extended reality creates a powerful sense of presence that we as a collective society have been missing these past two years. If we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that human connection is key to mental wellness and innovation.

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Krista L. Taylor is the immersive learning lead at Accenture.

The solution to Houston's workforce problem might be right in front of our eyes. Getty Images

Developments in virtual reality technology are changing the workforce, say Houston experts

XR express

Everyone's job has training associated with it — from surgeons to construction crane operators — and there's a growing market need for faster, more thorough training of our workforce.

"The best way to learn how to do something, is to just get out and do it," says Eric Liga, co-founder of HoustonVR. "But there are a lot of reasons why you can't do that in certain types of training."

Augmented and virtual reality training programs are on the rise, and Liga cites safety, cost, and unpredictable work environments as some of these most obvious reasons reasons to pivot to training employees through extended reality. This type of training also provides portability and has proven higher retention, Liga says in his keynote speech at Station Houston's AR/VR discuss on April 25.

"You get a much higher retention rate when you actually go out and do something — physically going through the motions — than you do sitting in a classroom or reading a book," he says.

As more companies are introducing this type of technology into the workforce, there's a growing need for developers and experts to design these programs. Currently, it's rare for a company to have employees with XR expertise.

"Working on commercial accounts, I see a lot of customers who have done enterprise software — web pages and forums — but it's a very different skill set from simulations," says Jared Bienz, senior software engineer at Microsoft.

So, companies are faced with hiring developers and designers to create these training programs. Ethan LeSueur, who oversees immersive technology at ExxonMobil, says his team benefitted from the cut-throat game design industry. So many developers want to go into video game creation, but there's not enough jobs. At Exxon, developers get to create games — but for training purposes. LeSueur says he looks for a diversity of programming experience when hiring for these types of jobs.

"It's important to not have one skill set," he says. "We're looking for the people who are sort of a swiss army knife. You don't have to know everything, but if they have more than one specific skill set, that's really important."

But hiring a team might not be the only option to AR/VR development. Working with startups has been an avenue for major companies seeking out XR programs.

"People talk about digital transformation all the time, but half the time we wouldn't know what that looked like if that slapped us in the face," LeSueur says. "That's what we're asking startups to do — help slap us in the face."

LeSueur says that proving cost effectiveness is extremely important for startups looking to win big companies as clients, but so is passion. The complexity of the process as well as all the red tap of business calls for passion from a startup.

"We're trying to take a complicated physical process and digitize it," LeSueur says. "That means there's going to be a lot of back and forth."

From the startup perspective, it's not always easy working with major corporations – especially within oil and gas. Amanda, who works with construction clients and larger companies as an instructor at ITI, recommends having someone on the inside to look out for you.

"I think it's really important to have an internal champion who really owns the product and wants to see it through to its last degree of integration."

On display

Courtesy of Station Houston

After the panel, Station Houston VR companies showed off their programming.

Over half of Houston business leaders say their company has already enabled AI, blockchain, and extended reality technology. Getty Images

Business leaders in Houston have a surprisingly high tech adoption rate

Early bird gets the worm

When it comes to enabling new technologies to advance business practices, Houston business leaders are ahead of the curve. According to a new study, the majority of the companies surveyed are already using artificial intelligence, blockchain, and extended reality today.

The global study, Technology Vision 2019, was conducted by Accenture and included surveys from 6,600 business and IT executives around the world, including 100 in Houston. Dallas was the only other Texas market surveyed, along with nine other major United States metros — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

Of the 100 respondents, 91 said that innovation efforts have accelerated within their organization over the past three years because of new technology, and 80 said that while they feel their employees are digitally savvy, they are "waiting" for the company's technology to catch up. However, when it comes to the need to reskill employees due to emerging tech in the workplace, 47 percent says that need will happen within the next two years.

The survey also focused on three distinct technologies — AI, blockchain, and extended reality, which includes augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. XR responses indicate that 66 percent of business leaders have already used some sort of version of XR either in one or more of their business units (37 percent) or are piloting the technology (29 percent).

The numbers for adoption for AI is similar, with 65 percent of leaders saying they have introduced AI tech in the workplace already —nearly 2 in 5 have already adopted somewhere within the company, while over 1 in 4 say their company has an AI pilot program.

Blockchain, according to the study, falls further down the spectrum in Houston companies. Only 15 percent of the companies have a pilot program, but 42 percent have blockchain technology already in use in one or more business units — for a total of 57 percent adoption rate.

With 5G on the horizon, almost all respondents — 79 percent — say the technology is going to revolutionize their industry in terms of how they provide products or services to their clients. Almost half said that impact will happen and jobs will be altered within the next three years.

Brian Richards, managing director at Accenture, oversees the company's Houston Innovation Hub. The hub welcomes in business leaders who are utilizing Accenture's services to ideate and then implicate innovative technologies. At a recent panel in the Accenture office, Richards spoke to emerging tech in Houston and said there's been no shortage of leaders wanting to move the needle on new tech.

"I've never seen [corporations] more motivated than they are right now to be able to think differently on how they are able to engage Houston," he said.

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Houston organizations identify promising life science cos. at annual event

startups to watch

For the 13th year, the Texas Life Science Forum hosted by BioHouston and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship celebrated innovative companies from around the world that are creating new treatments and solutions to today's biggest health care challenges.

This week, over 40 companies presenting their innovations across cancer, cardiovascular disease, biotechnology, and more. Nearly 700 venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, angel networks, industry leaders, academics, service providers, and others attended the event on November 7 at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative in the Texas Medical Center.

Just like in previous years, the event ended with the announcement of the 10 companies that were deemed "most promising" based on their pitches and technologies. Of the 10 companies named, six are headquartered in Houston and an additional two startups on the list have a presence here.

The 2024 most-promising life science companies are:

Houston-based clinical-stage cell therapy company March Biosciencesis developing a pipeline of innovative therapies, beginning with targeting relapsed an refractory T cell lymphoma.

ImmunoGenesis, headquartered in Houston, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a potent PD-1 pathway targeting agent specifically engineered for immuneexcluded tumors, which account for over 50 percent of all cancers

Taurus Vascular, based in Houston, is revolutionizing endovascular aneurysm repair by addressing the critical issues of residual aneurysm pressurization and endoleaks with its catheter-deployable aortocaval shunt.

Headquartered in Australia with a Houston presence, Foxo Technologyoffers HIPAA-compliant, communication software for anyone in health care.

Another Houston company,Voythoshas built an AI platform to better predict and diagnose cardiovascular disease earlier to enhance quality and cost of care.

Dutch company Loop Robot, which has a presence in Houston, automates disinfection with its intelligent robot to make medical-grade disinfection faster, safer, and digitally auditable.

London-based Case45develops and commercializes pan-cancer prognostic tests using unique integration of tumor evolution and AI and is beginning with breast and lung cancers.

OmniNano Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Houston, has developed a nano-drug delivery platform technology enables simultaneous co-delivery of multiple therapeutic agents designed specifically to treat solid tumors.

Houston-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Mongoose Bio is pioneering first-in-class T cell receptor T cell (TCR-T) therapies for cancer treatment.

Rua Diagnosticsfrom New York is redefining point-of-care diagnostics with advanced micro gas chromatography technology for breath analysis that's capable of detecting a wide range of prevalent and deadly diseases.

In addition to this list, the event named two additional awards. United Kingdom's Cytecom, which provides quick and accurate diagnosis and treatment of blood infections stems, was selected by the crowd as the People's Choice award winner.

Last, but not least, BioHouston's Ann Tanabe awarded this year's Michael E. Debakey Award to Houston-based Autoimmunity BioSolutions, seed-stage biotech developing a next-generation, immuno-corrective therapy for treatment of autoimmune diseases to restore normal immune function.

University of Houston taps global partner to work on hydrogen, sustainability breakthroughs

team work

The University of Houston and Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University have been awarded seed grants to six energy projects, which is part of an innovative transatlantic research collaboration.

Researchers from both universities will take on projects that will concentrate on innovations that range from advanced hydrogen sensing technology to converting waste into sustainable products.

This will mark the first round of awards under the “UH2HWU” seed grant program. The program was created following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between both institutions in 2024. The universities will “seek to drive global progress in energy research, education, and innovation, with a particular focus on hydrogen as a key element in the shift toward cleaner energy,” according to a news release.

“This partnership is rooted in a shared commitment to advancing research that supports a just energy transition,” Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at UH, says in a news release. “Hydrogen, and in particular low carbon hydrogen, is essential to achieving sustainable energy solutions.”

The UH2HWU program provided $20,000 in seed funding to each of the projects. The program will help with the goal of helping researchers secure additional funding from private sources, companies, and government with a total of 11 proposals being submitted, and a panel of industry experts reviewing them.

One of the winning projects was titled “A joint research project on the feasibility of Repurposing Offshore Infrastructure for Clean Energy in the North Sea aka ROICE North Sea,” and was led by Ram Seetharam, ROICE Program executive director at UH, Edward Owens, professor of energy, geoscience, infrastructure and society at HWU, and Sandy Kerr, associate professor of economics at HWU.

The UH ROICE team focused on reusing old offshore structures for clean energy instead of removing them after their productive life. The UH team created cost and project models for the Gulf of Mexico and will now work with Heriot-Watt University to apply to UK North Sea. UK North Sea has over 250 platforms and about 50,000 kilometers of pipelines. To see more of the projects click here.

“We wanted to bring in industry experts to not only assess the quality of the proposals but also to attract industry support of the projects,” assistant vice president for intellectual property and industrial engagement at UH Michael Harold said in a news release. “It’s a win-win —reviewers get a first look at cutting-edge ideas, and the projects have a chance to build industry interest for future development.”

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.