‘Zoom 2.0’: Virtual reality tech innovations happening in Wilmington aim to solve real-world COVID problems – WDEL 1150AM

A new data lab in Wilmington, which received a $2 million CARES Act Innovation grant aims to change the way we work in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

CompassRed, which was among the first tenants in CSC's new co-working space inside the former Pennsylvania Railroad Building near the Wilmington train station, is using virtual reality and artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems.

"We want to solve some COVID-related problems, and we want to help the community, so the Delaware Data Innovation Lab is one of the first community-based data labs that's all about innovation and bringing people together," said Patrick Callahan, one of the founders of CompassRed. "We've been able to bring people from out-of-state and get them working on really solid problems, everything from evictions to hospital beds."

The concept is based on the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Since 1980, they've been creating some really innovative ideas that spin-off companies or that build other talent pools throughout the region, that really had a lasting impact on that region," said Callahan.

County Executive Matt Meyer strapped on the Oculus headset and gripped the handles to see what the experience was like Monday.

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"It's pretty neat; it's like a Zoom 2.0. We were in a virtual room together, could see each other, could reach out and exchange documents. It's pretty neat, a neat way to work together," he said.

Meyer said his limited experience with the platform shows it's more effective than Zoom or Teams. While all options are safer than working in-person right now, this tech takes meetings to new levels.

"We as policymakers...we're trying to figure out at what capacity should restaurants be at," said Meyer. "Pretty much every jurisdiction in the country, in many ways, the world, is trying to figure out should people be able to go to restaurants or bars or not. This team, they've put together employment data, probably restaurant attendance data, COVID-19 prevalence data, maybe even a little wastewater data, you put that all together, if you look at the different policies all over the country, all over the world in the state of Delaware, you can probably start to draw some conclusions about what policies are effective and what aren't."

New Castle County government essentially closed to in-person working eight months ago at the start of the pandemic, and Meyer said he misses in-person interactions. When COVID is over, he expects some of the in-person aspects of working to return, but not all of it, in part, thanks to innovations like this.

"Business travel, I imagine, if you have a tool like this, I don't know why, friends of mine, colleagues of mine who are getting on planes flying all over the world every week to go to meetings, it seems like this is a way that you could come to work, do this, and then be home with the family," said Meyer.

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'Zoom 2.0': Virtual reality tech innovations happening in Wilmington aim to solve real-world COVID problems - WDEL 1150AM