Exploring Mixed Reality for Developing Intercultural Team Skills: Implications for Space

Exploration TeamsDr. Mesut AkdereAssociate ProfessorPurdue University2017 NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality Workshop Program

October 13, 2017

What is the most important factor in team success?

TEAMSEXPERIENCE

The Right People in the Right Environment(Stephenson, 2002)

• Mars Climate Orbiter Failure • Miscommunication between Jet Propulsion Lab &

Lockheed Martin• Metric units versus English units

TEAMSNASA EXPERIENCE

Intercultural Collaborative

Team Skills

Data Triangulation

Mixed Reality

Technology

THE MODELINTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

• Share knowledge and resources, learn from one another, help each other complete tasks, and meet deadlines.

• Create cross-fertilization for insight and innovation due to the variety of backgrounds of team members

• May demonstrate homophily—tendency for associating and bonding with similar others

• Can be given skills training for developing collaborative behavior. (Gratton & Erickson, 2007, n.d.)

COLLABORATIVE TEAMSTEAM CONTEXT

• Collaborative Teams:• Appreciate each others’ capabilities• Able to engage in purposeful conversations• Productively and creatively resolve conflicts• Effectively manage the program

• NASA mission teams will continue to grow to be more diverse

• Differences such as nationality, age, educational level, and tenure may inhibit team collaboration

• Creating a collaborative culture for teams is critical for the success of NASA’s missions

TEAMS @ NASA MISSIONEFFECTIVE TEAMS

Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.” (Bennet, 2008)

INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE & COMPETENCETHE VALUE RUBRIC (ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIV. 2010)

Knowledge• Cultural self- awareness• Knowledge of cultural worldview frameworksSkills• Empathy• Verbal and nonverbal communicationAttitudes• Curiosity• Openness

INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE & COMPETENCETHE VALUE RUBRIC (ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES. 2010)

• A set of knowledge/attitude/skill • toward cultural difference and commonality • arrayed along a continuum from the more

monocultural mindsets of Denial and Polarization

• through the transitional orientation of Minimization to the intercultural or global mindsets of Acceptance and Adaptation”

(Intercultural Development Continuum, 2017)

INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUUMGROWTH IN CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING & AWARENESS

INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUUM

Demonstrate capacity for soft skills development• Mixed Reality• Augmented Reality• Virtual Reality

Provide the ability to interact and communicate between physical and simulated worlds, enhancing and stimulating learning:• Safe• Scalable• Cost-effective

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIESINTRODUCTION

Google VR• Card Board• Earth VR• Tilt Brush• Daydream• Expeditions• Jump

IMMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIESINDUSTRY PRACTICES

Facebook• Spaces

PayPal• Augmented Reality View of Product Instructions

IMMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIESINDUSTRY PRACTICES—CONT.

• Amazon Lumberyard

• Netflix VR

IMMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIESINDUSTRY PRACTICES—CONT.

• Training facility for integrated extravehicular activity, spacewalks, and robotic simulation for astronauts

• Emphasis on teamwork for using in space, seeking breakthroughs in technology through experimentation

• Provides a simulated hybrid environment of various NASA missions

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES AT NASATHE VIRTUAL REALITY LABORATORY AT NASA'S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

• Creating MR simulations around intercultural collaborative team skills to train space exploration team members prior to missions

• Presents opportunities for effective training teams• Recognize the human element (both its potentials and

impediments) embedded within the system

MIXED REALITYSIMULATIONS

• Data Collection• Quantitative• Qualitative• Biometric data (physiological responses via galvanic skin

response—GSR), electrodermal activity—EDA, electromyography—EMG), and facial emotion recognition)

• Data Triangulation• Data from self-report surveys, interviews, self-reflection and

data from non-invasive devices that monitor involuntary biological indicators of emotion and engagement

NEW FRONTIERS IN MR RESEARCHDATA TRIANGULATION

Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)/ElectrodermalActivity

• While we are physiologically or psychologically excited (in fear, extreme joy or under stress), we start to sweat

• Measures physiological responses in the electrical resistance of the skin caused by emotional stress, measurable with a sensitive galvanometer

• With GSR, the impact of any emotionally arousing content, product or service can be tested

BIOMETRIC DATAIMOTIONS

Electromyography (EMG) • Measures muscular electrical activity from the surface of the

skin • Common muscles for EMG are the zygomaticus major

(smiling) and the corrugator supercilii (frowning), although any muscle can be recorded

• EMG can provide information on the valence of a stimulus

BIOMETRIC DATA

Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) • Uses machine-learning algorithms to map facial

expressions and emotions based on the movement of facial landmarks

• Maps onto core emotions such as joy, anger, contempt, surprise

• Provides information on head position (yaw, pitch, roll) and valence of a stimulus, but not arousal – best used in combination with GSR

BIOMETRIC DATA

• NASA mission teams will continue to grow to be more diverse

• Differences such as nationality, age, educational level, and tenure may inhibit team collaboration

• Creating a collaborative culture for teams is critical for the success of NASA’s missions

• Critical for creativity and innovation

IMPLICATIONS FOR SPACE EXPLORATION TEAMSCONNECTING ASTRONAUTS WITH MISSION CREW

• MR may be instrumental in designing training for intercultural team skills to develop and support collaborative behavior and mindset

• MR provides safe, scalable, and cost-effective training • Data triangulation enables a more comprehensive approach

to study human phenomena• MR approach to training would contribute to overall quality

efforts to ensure success of NASA missions

IMPLICATIONS FOR SPACE EXPLORATION TEAMSNEW METHODS

Amazon Lumberyard . (2017). http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/latest/userguide/virtual-reality.htmlBennett, J. M. (2008). Transformative training: Designing programs for culture learning. In

Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: Understanding and utilizing cultural diversity to build successful organizations, ed. M. A. Moodian, 95-110. Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.Facebook Spaces. (2017). https://www.facebook.com/spacesJohnson Space Center. (2017). https://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/pages.ashx/203/Faking%20it%20

and%20making%20 itvirtual%20reality%20helped%20EVA%20reach%20its%2050year %20milestone

Google VR. (2017). https://vr.google.com/Gratton, L. & Erickson, T. J. (2007, November). Eight ways to build collaborative teams. Harvard

Business Review.iMotions(2017). https://imotions.com/blog/NASA, The Virtual Reality Lab. (2017). https://www.nasa.gov/content/alexander-skvortsov-uses-

the-virtual-reality-labPaypal. (2017). Augmented Reality View of Product Instructions, https://uploadvr.com/paypal-

granted-patent-augmented-reality-payments/Stephenson, A. G. (2002). CEO’s corner: It is about people. Engineering Management

Journal, 14(1), 3-5. The Intercultural Development Continuum. (2017). https://idiinventory.com/products/the-

intercultural- development-continuum-idc/

REFERENCES

Dr. Mesut AkdereAssociate ProfessorTechnology Leadership and Innovationmakdere@purdue.edu

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS