When Albright Enyioha’s website biography describes her as “multi-passionate,” that doesn’t even begin to capture this Nigerian millennial’s capabilities and aspirations. She’s building a legacy to empower the African XR ecosystem for better representation while renovating the education system through XR. Albright is an XR Experience Developer, Energy Engineer, NFT Creator, Sales Engineer, game and UX/UI designer, fashion designer, and wife. Another tag: a courageous Woman of the Future.
Her web3 undertakings are undoubtedly changing and shaping the world, one industry at a time. As Energy Engineer at Schlumberger – one of the world’s largest companies in the energy sector – Albright lends her voice and network to empower XR for education initiatives and drives the large-scale adoption of XR for safe operations in the energy industry. Working with High-Temperature High Pressure (HTHP) scenarios, she researches XR simulations to reduce personnel risk and ease new hires’ onboarding.
As if that’s not enough, she blends cross-industrial experiences through research and development of XR for improved African education and promotes sustainability for the arts, fashion, and entertainment industry. Through the ATA Studio’s Sustainable Games project, Albright works towards empowering young Africans with XR technology skills for improved learning cycles and introducing more youth to XR training in line with the United Nations’ SDG-4 – with 100 students graduating per class. Fashion is close to Albright’s heart, and her LaninB project focuses on equipping fashion businesses with 3d garment designs and Digital Humans for improved brand representation and sustainable production workflows.
Her functions at TotalView Media see Albright convert physical spaces into Real-Time Interactive Virtual Tours through XR technology – opening the world for businesses to the Metaverse.
Her work benefits engineers, XR technology builders and enthusiasts, and business professionals through access to research work, training, and growing a creative community. “The Metaverse is the ‘Great Backend’ that will transform communication and telepresence,” she believes. “There’s been an exponential increase in the adoption of web3 and the Metaverse industry. While the VR industry has existed as far back as 1968, the wider public was attracted by the 2018 movie ‘ReadyPlayerOne’ and the release of the cross-platform avatar creating software ReadyPlayerMe. Web3 platforms like Decentraland have also redefined gameplay, as we experienced in ‘The Sims.
The web3 and the Metaverse are still foreign concepts to most people. She said: “It is a case of seeing is believing. Once people have tried VR and XR technology, it is then that they grasped the concept of immersive experiences.”
That’s why education – of web3 and through web3 – is central to Albright’s mission. She wants as many Africans to participate and contribute to web3 and the Metaverse’s fantastic opportunities: “I can only imagine how much more effective learning can be with XR solutions. Looking back to my lab practicals at the University of Benin, I see related use cases in XR technologies. We had a few discarded drill bits in the lab shown in passing to visualize drilling processes. Having access to 3d versions of the tools can only strengthen the experience and make it more real to the students. In the next five years, I am certain that universities and colleges that adopt XR technologies for training will produce far more experienced graduates who would appreciate the working principles through hands-on experiences with virtual 3d simulations.”
Her journey to get where she is today is unconventional at best but highlights the breadth of opportunities of the web3 and the Metaverse space. “My passion for design started when my mum gave me pages of old newspapers to create style ideas for her next garment. She was a seamstress and made many of my outfits as a little girl. I picked up from pencil sketching to 2d digital designs and later discovered 3d cloth creation and virtual humans. Growing up, I watched Pops restructure our house plan multiple times and eagerly describe his thought in detail for me to visualize. This led to my love for environmental design and technology.”
“My a-ha moment came in 2018, I worked with my team to shoot a marketing ad with a 3d concept. The finished project made me realize that this was not just 3d but could make a big impact in the world of Virtual Reality, which we now loosely refer to as the Metaverse. Another lightbulb moment was in 2021, when I needed to make a poster to showcase XR in the African space but could not find a picture that fully represented my message. I decided to step in and use my modelling skills to provide representative photos for Africans in XR.”
What makes Albright excited about the future of web3 and the Metaverse is “the growing community and the vast number of resources easily available to us. I am inspired by the likes of Justin P. Barnett, Dilmer Valecilios, and the enthusiasm of co-creators in the community to share and develop more creators in the XR space.”
The use cases and applications for XR are limitless. With the vision and drive of Albright Enyioha, the world will grow in leaps and bounds through enhanced education to empower even more Africans.
ALBRIGHT ENYIOHA’S METAVERSE & WEB3 TIPS
