Data for global solutions: How new technologies can help people to re-imagine the future of cities and more

People are more willing to accept and act on the science surrounding global environmental change when they can see themselves in that change - or when they can understand how global processes like climate change impact their lives in concrete and intimate ways. The digital revolution presents unique opportunities to make those sorts of connections. We will explore how new technologies can help to immerse users in the challenges of global sustainability and deepen their sense of personal involvement. We will draw on case studies from the Future Earth Media Lab, a communications and research initiative that was formed by Future Earth, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and Globaïa in 2015. The Media Lab was set up to bring together partners from science, technology, art and design to co-create products and experiences that can change the way we communicate the challenges of the world's most intractable problems, with the potential to shift mindsets and behaviours. We are at the very beginning of this 10-year project to explore how advances in virtual reality, augmented reality, data visualization and artificial intelligence will reshape how non-scientific audiences engage with science. The session will focus on results of the most recent projects launched in 2016: a hackathon series with the Iris.AI artificial intelligence project to test the limits of AI for searches based on framed research questions; a global hackathon series around using virtual reality to communicate global change challenges and an immersive space co-created with data visualization experts at the UN's biggest conference on sustainable urbanization at Quito, Ecuador.