AWE Exclusive: AWE announces $100,000 XR Prize challenge to encourage XR innovations to help fight climate change

In General XR News

June 1, 2022 – Augmented World Expo (AWE), the leading series of worldwide events focused exclusively on the business of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR), has today announced at AWE USA 2022 that it is launching an ‘XPrize’-style challenge to try and solve the effects of the greatest threat facing mankind in the 21st century – climate change.

This new, year-long innovation challenge will enable any team in the world to vie for a USD $100,000 cash prize – no strings attached. No strictures or limitations are placed upon the winning entry, and all Intellectual Property (IP) will remain the sole ownership of the winning team, according to AWE.

The winning team will be announced at next year at AWE USA 2023, during the event’s Auggie Awards ceremony. To propose a partnership, learn more about the challenge and to sign up, visit awexr.com/global/XRprize.

“The last two decades have demonstrated all-too-conclusively how climate change is in the process of dramatically reshaping everything from global terrain to water shortages and threatening humanity,” said Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE. “We believe in the power of AR and VR to simulate and visualize the invisible, which can help change people’s behavior and simultaneously have a positive impact on climate change. It is incumbent upon every man, woman and other of conscience to strive to solve this potentially apocalyptic scenario – and there are no better tools than VR and AR to accomplish this! Since 2010, the AWE community of 50,000 AR and VR professionals has been inspiring a movement to advance AR and VR to advance humanity. I am looking forward to seeing firsthand how this contest will galvanize the XR community towards presenting truly innovative solutions!”

Since its inception in 2010, more than 5,000 companies and 50,000 professionals rely on AWE as their primary venue and community to connect, learn and grow their businesses throughout the XR hardware and software ecosystems, according to the company.

AWE offers a true XR ecosystem, event and marketplace where end-users are able to meet solution providers in the form of:

  • An endless stream of online webinars and local meetups in 20+ cities around the world;
  • Educational classes and workshops with the best instructors from the XR community – for the XR community;
  • Free access a large collection of free videos of talks and webinars on augmented reality and virtual reality;
  • AWE’s long-standing awards competition for the XR industry – The Auggie Awards.

AWE USA 2022 begins today at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, USA. The company also holds events in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, all of which consistently bring together a mix of CEOs, CTOs, designers, developers, creative agencies, futurists, analysts, investors and press in a unique opportunity to learn, inspire, partner and experience firsthand the cutting edge of the XR industry.

For more information on AWE, click here.

Image credit: AWE

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.