Out Of The Wilderness And Into the Metaverse: How BadVR’s Justin Chow Merges Environmental Activism with Immersive Data Visualization
Hello followers and friends and welcome to our first Medium post of 2021! 🎉 We could not be more excited for what this year has in store for the future of #AR, #VR, and for our company.
If you’ve been following BadVR on Linkedin, Twitter, or Instagram, you know by now that we’re a team of curious, free thinking, geeky, mavericks who blend a passion for data and immersive analytics with a love of the arts, innovation, and exploration!
Today we would like to introduce you to Justin Chow, one of our newest team members. Justin’s unique path through life has taken him all over the planet as an explorer, activist, teacher, and engineer. He’s our own verifiable “renaissance man!” We’re thrilled to have Justin on our team and decided to kick off this year by sitting down with him to learn more about his history and world view.
We hope you enjoy meeting this new member of the #BadFam team!
Hello Justin! Can you give us a brief overview of your role as Project Manager at BadVR?
Hi there! Appreciate you having me. As a Project Manager at BadVR, I help chart and maintain a productive course for our various products. This involves documenting product requirements and specs, collaborating with engineers and designers to flush out concepts that meet customer expectations, and keeping us aligned to product roadmaps. From a high level, I’m here to help provide structure to our work streams. If the company were a rocket ship, a metaphor our CTO espouses, I consider myself part of its navigation system.
Before getting into the nitty gritty of what it’s really like to be a Project Manager for a data visualization start-up, tell us a little bit about your personal story. How did you come to this chapter of your life? What was your childhood like?
Virtually everything I do in life is directly or indirectly tied to a passion to improve the natural environment. I can’t remember what event specifically triggered my appreciation of nature, but I know being in the Boy Scouts played a big part — whether it was from learning myriad constellations for a silly astronomy merit badge, embracing the native American reverence of the earth through cultural activities, or countless nights of falling asleep to the sounds of the forest — I became connected to nature at a young age. Completing the scouting program provided early practice for goal setting, organization, and leadership, but also a really fun setting to try out a lot of activities that cities don’t offer easily like orienteering, canoeing, riflery, archery, hatchet throwing, spelunking, ropework, high adventure sports, and countless others.
I also remember how acutely aware I became of human vulnerability to nature, especially after going through an ex-Navy seal’s wilderness survival training. Each scout was only allowed to bring a pocket knife, tarp, twine, sleeping bag, 3 matches, headlamp, water bottle, and the winter clothes on our backs. The ordeal was supremely miserable because it had just rained heavily the day before our training and a cold front had swept in, rendering our fire making virtually impossible and our makeshift sleeping arrangements really soggy. The winter wear we had on barely kept us warm enough to think straight during our site prep. When we finally turned in, I could only sleep in short intervals as the temperature dropped. Luckily, the instructor woke us up in the middle of the night to allow to go back to our cabin to sleep in proper shelter. Either he had a heart or he was looking out for himself and didn’t want the liability of kids turning into popsicles and getting hypothermia.
I really didn’t do anything serious with my relationship with nature until years later when I had to think about picking a college major and like most young adults, panicked. My childhood friend had just sent me a subscription to Popular Science, though, and in my voracious appetite for its cool neo sci-fi articles, I found one volume broach the concept of using alternative energy to fight climate change. Among other tech, the magazine showcased wind harnessing kites, geothermal cities, and the Pelamis wave energy project in Portugal. I barely knew what climate change was (at this time still popularized as “global warming”) but definitely liked geeky tech a lot. At school, I had been building robots on the FIRST robotics team for competitions and so alternative energy sounded like a fit for me given my interest in mechanized things and the outdoors. That decision set me on my path to study Environmental Engineering at university and Mechanical Engineering in graduate school, and ultimately pushed me towards my lifelong interest in engineering things that can repair, mitigate, or reverse anthropogenic climate change. I still have that Popular Science volume in my possession, a reminder of the spark to my flame.
Every member of team BadVR seems to have had a past life that magically led to working for this company. What brought you to this role and what attracted you to BadVR?
In 2019, I was working as an electrified vehicle engineer for Toyota R&D. Working in Toyota’s hybrid electric vehicles division was a significant period in my career. As a young engineer hungry to make a difference in the environment, developing electric and hybrid technology was a dream come true. Also, Toyota had a huge impression on me years prior because my graduate research lab partnered with Toyota to test its low to zero emission products. Though my own project did not involve Toyota toys such as its Highlander fuel cell vehicle, I wrote my thesis on fuel cell systems for advanced transportation so I had a profound appreciation of the company. The tradeoff, though, of working for Toyota was being stationed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over a few years of challenging myself out there, I was increasingly having difficulty assimilating given my personality, my penchants, and people I needed close. So that year, I made one of the hardest decisions I’ll ever make by resigning from a job I held in high regard. I sold all my things in 2 weeks and made the move back to LA. I realize now that had I not challenged myself to try living in the Midwest all those years, I might not have ever defined my values so clearly.
Professionally, the traditional options were: stay in auto or pivot. I chose a third option — try something completely new for a break. I took a job as a STEM enrichment teacher for K-6th graders. It turned out to be the HARDEST job I’ve ever had. First, I was in charge of tiny minds with no manners. I was also told my services were needed on demand at 5 different schools each week within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Teaching that age of students was a bootcamp for raw management fundamentals. I learned more about triaging, prioritizing, and time management in a few months than I did in all my previous jobs combined. My appreciation for teachers grew 1,000,000x. I understood the Kindergarten Cop.
I inevitably became more of an Angeleno in the process. Traveling to different neighborhoods, I encountered the social fabric of the city. I learned Russian from the Slavic enclaves in Hollywood, dealt with low income racial struggles (and racist remarks to me) in the inner city, and witnessed the behavioral impact of higher income privilege in West LA. I also had a lot of fun re-visiting the beginnings of logic. I logged some of my favorite conversations, like this one with a 3rd grader who liked bugging me:
Angelo: Mr. Justin, where are you going? [at end of day, I’m packing up]
Me: Going home to eat dinner.
Angelo: Why?
Me: To eat food. Do you like to eat food?
Angelo: Yes. But why do you go home if you are a parent?
Me: What do you mean? How do you know if I’m a dad?
Angelo: Because you have a beard, so you are a dad.
As much as I found teaching rewarding, I kept looking for my transition back into tech. When COVID hit in 2020, I was amazed by the double-digit reductions in ground level pollution. I recall seeing a reel of before and after pictures of LA’s mountains and having an epiphany from the massive displacement of travel. I started to ask myself, “what about the ‘other’ side of the equation?” As in, in addition to “pushing” more efficient modes of travel, how about “pulling” unnecessary demand off the roads, ocean, and air altogether? And how to do it sustainably, without the loss of human lives. As I dug around for what enabled remote productivity, I found the XR (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality,…) industry. I soon realized if done right, XR could help society evolve in a way that can also reduce carbon emissions for the long term.
After doing this industry research, I went ham for XR. I enrolled in Unity classes, competed in hackathons, and networked hard. I attended at least 3 conferences a week in my job-hunting ramp up and was probably the most annoying XR noob on a few channels. I know Twitter thought so. During one AMA blitz featuring industry leaders, the rate of my questions caused the platform to flag me as a bot and kicked me off temporarily. I didn’t care. I was enthralled by the XR world and the more I sponged, the more I craved. Somewhere along my networking, I attended a Meetup put on by XReality and had a virtual coffee with the presenter, George McKinney. Based on my interests, he suggested I look at BadVR and talk to Jad. After taking a look at the company, I was pretty intrigued by its mission with data visualization. I was also looking to expand from deep engineering into a big picture role and Jad happened to be looking for a project manager. And that’s how my BadVR journey began.
What motivates you to get out of bed every morning to do your your job each day?
I’m personally very passionate about fighting climate change directly and indirectly with immersive tech, but am also highly motivated by the thought of all the touch points it has to countless industry pillars. Immersive tech can streamline everything from personal life choices to corporate operations, education, training, and resource management because of its engaging nature that is so natural for humans to communicate through. XR products quite literally throttle us from A to B, whether these points describe lowering the barrier to learning something typically abstract to us such as photosynthesis or to transporting us from our living room to Europa. In vehicle electrification, specifically, I’ve already seen how augmented reality can help workers visualize the complexity of electricity flow between components, something that is not entirely intuitive in training videos or on paper.
The industry is a box full of puzzle pieces waiting to be put together. Working at a startup as badass and nimble as BadVR allows me to be a leader in this seminal work. We’re at ground-zero in a burgeoning field, making stuff nobody has produced before. It’s hard not to take massive action when you have the feeling that there’s no limit.
On your journey finding this company and career, were there any life-changing moments that really pointed you in this particular direction?
As a way to clear my head during my transition from auto to education, I gifted myself a trip to South America. I enjoy backpacking mountains and the Andes was one range I’d always wanted to explore. Plus, I was eager to experience first-hand pre-colonial ancient cultures. Of course, everyone marks Machupícchu as a go-to destination and a friend had raved once about his time on the Salkantay Trail, which is one way to get to the ancient city by foot. The only difference was he booked a guide and I was going solo. Without a translator, I was going to have to awaken my dormant Spanish too.
Salkantay didn’t disappoint. I was felt supremely free in my own thoughts as I trekked the ~50mi trail. In fact, the historical purpose of the Salkantay Trail to Machupícchu was religious and ceremonial, a pilgrimage that included rituals to honor the mountains, peaks, and lakes of the route. I could see why as I ascended the 15,000ft Salkantay mountain pass, and then back down through the mountain valley and forests to various smaller Incan ruins and at the end, Machupícchu. I’ve never seen so much diversity of flora and fauna, with some vegetation seeming somewhat Jurassic. There were plenty of waterfalls too, which I happily stopped at not only for water but also for serenity. Without the annoying buzz of technology, I had lots of solitude to reflect on what I really wanted to do. It was really in those moments that I solidified my trajectory out of auto. I also decided on that trip that I would make it a priority to give back to society through volunteering, something I had forgotten about with my head buried in electrified vehicle development.
For all the splendor, breathing took a lot of effort due to the altitude. It was one of those periods in your life in which you had to dig really, really deep to find the strength to keep pushing on. I had done some preparation by acclimating slowly in nearby towns. Before flying out, I had also shaved down my gear to just 35.4lbs (dry 28.6lbs), an amount for which I had trained and was not uncomfortable with especially having carried similar weights up various other 14,000ft+ peaks in the US. Despite all these measures, the altitude was still a tough opponent. It also messed with my ability to sleep, which was essential when each day started before dawn and ended at sunset.
I had my fair share of pitfalls, too, such as getting lost a couple times and accidentally trespassing through farms. The most eventful sidetrack was one morning, when in the pitch darkness at 4AM I mistook a swamp of cow manure for the trail head and filled my left boot up with dung soup, forcing me to slog on until I found a suitable, ice-cold stream to wash up. I had to improvise a bit using clips and straps to make some kind of hanging thing off my pack to dry the soiled socks.
It’s quite funny that Stefanie Feldman, our Product Manager, also traveled to Peru before transitioning to BadVR. Must be a gateway both for brain healing and career jumps. I don’t think she lost 10lbs from her trip, though. Maybe next time I’ll also schedule in some ayahuasca to foster extra enlightenment. Hit me up via my LinkedIn if you want to read more about it and my accompanying trips around Peru on a blog writeup I’ve been meaning to post to help prospective solo backpackers.
Do you have any key mentors or people who have greatly influenced who you are, what you believe in, or who changed your commitments in both work and in life?
I’ve had so many people support me throughout my life. I always feel these kind of questions unfairly single out any one person over another. However, I can tell you about the one person who has always been there for me to remind me about family, work, and attitude — he’s taught it all. He was there for me in 1976, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1990, 2006, 2015, 2018, and probably will be there again when I need him. Commit his words to memory and as he says, don’t ever forget your mother.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody.
Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!
I’m always gonna love you, no matter what. No matter what happens. You’re my son and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, you ain’t gonna have a life. Don’t forget to visit your mother.
-Rocky Balboa
What do you think the BadVR team has learned from you since joining the company? What do you feel you have you learned from them?
I hope I can help provide process thinking that Toyota imbued in me. To the common person, the 80% planning, 20% execution mentality may not seem much. I thought so too at first. However, after several years of the company’s philosophies, including 改善 (kaizen, loosely translated as “continuous improvement”) and 現地現物 (genchigenbutsu, literally translated as “real location, real thing”), among many, many other core principles, and witnessing the efficiency gains in everything we did, I became a convert. It came as no surprise when I learned that the legendary Toyota Production System is a cornerstone topic at Business Schools and that the company’s Lean Six Sigma manufacturing concepts form the basis of agile methodology.
Another skillset I bring is comfort with multiple levels of collaboration. At Toyota, I was always jumping around vehicle software development, hardware testing, reporting, and excessive amounts of documentation. Usually, I worked with fellow engineers to calibrate hybrid software or to analyze data collected by technicians who executed my test plans. Other times I would be in the garage helping integrate equipment into the vehicles. During instances in which I exercised senior responsibility, I was coordinating amongst team leads across multiple divisions to push a new vehicle to the factory on tight delivery schedules and delivering progress summaries to executives. It was also rare that I did not practice Japanese with our international counterparts during in-person and video technical presentations.
Toyota also stressed the importance of the customer being #1. In this regard, I periodically utilized test chambers (temperature, wind, road load,…) or sites around the country to test our systems were working according to spec. I’ll never forget whipping around our Arizona test track in over 100F weather at maximum vehicle speed, pedal to the metal, strapped in and sweating under a heavy helmet in our prototype hybrid platform, testing various software debugs with no AC to evaluate a system limitation. On other test trips, we targeted unique driving conditions in dense urban areas that could cause thermal issues.
On the flip side, I have much to learn in a new industry. I am absorbing so much at BadVR in terms of how to build a product in a startup environment. I had so much cushion at larger organizations so it’s really exciting optimizing as much as I can. Also, I’m constantly bombarded with new terminology as well as decision methodologies around XR specific applications. In a sense, being in the electrified vehicle industry is kind of like being in the XR industry in that you are always on the cusp of a transformative technology.
Let’s take a step away from BadVR! What energizes you and fills your life with excitement outside of work?
I made due on the promise to myself to volunteer by becoming an environmental activist with the Los Angeles hub of the Sunrise Movement, a 501(c)(4) youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. The mission: build an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people. I’m currently the Coordinator of the Mobilizations Team, which manages Sunrise LA’s data through non-profit Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and ensures we deliver quality communications to ~4k subscribers.
Coming into 2020, Sunrise LA had significant momentum from monthly youth climate strikes held in downtown LA at the end of 2019, including one led by Greta Thunberg in November in which new outlets said was attended by about 3,000 people. I was really happy to be an activist at this time because I was boots on the ground. We also were also gaining national recognition through Bernie’s campaign and our work on the Green New Deal. However, when COVID hit, we needed to adapt. I decided to leverage my technical experience to provide backend help. Since then, I’ve helped incept our first podcast series, present to different local organizations, and submit OpEds to publications. As Mobilizations Team Coordinator, I’ve been leading a variety of projects including commissioning a study to determine pathways to boost activist capacity back to functional levels, revamping our weekly newsletter, and integrating digital tools and methods into our activist toolbox.
I can also share a glimpse into a project my team currently has in incubation; we are building a Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) interface using ArcGIS software. Our goal is to use the platform’s Story Map feature to illustrate the story of Sunrise LA and to tell the stories of frontline communities that have been unfairly encumbered by oil and gas well drilling. The oil and gas well Story Maps are our way to investigate health concerns and data gaps surrounding drill sites that have environmental justice concerns. In southern California, well drilling is unfortunately very rampant. There are over 3000 active wells and some sites literally share walls with residential units. There are also numerous inactive ones that still pose health risks. Corporations have politicians in their pocket. I’ve been helping coordinate with organizations such as FracTracker, StandLA, among others, to plan out stories from impacted community member. We’re about to embark on ethnographic interviewing to amplify voices that get marginalized.
I can’t sit around just talk- I feel a raw urge to take action. I don’t want to reflect 20 years from now and regret that I didn’t try. There is a HUGE, pervasive misconception that we can’t make a difference; that we can be content just resorting to low level actions like recycling; or that we can do our part just by retweeting or resharing a story and then forget about it because someone else is doing the hard work. Unfortunately, that’s not how change works. The climate crisis has metastasized into such a collosal scale that we in the US need to mobilize on a national level, an endeavor that requires bodies through movement building to convince government to take bold action on the order of the New Deal.
The benefits from the sacrifices of past movements in history, those that gave us women’s suffrage, civil rights, even the labor laws that we take for granted when we accrue vacation (that’s basically all of us), all required bodies. It is hard to pinpoint how many bodies it takes to tip the balance, but there is merit in historical data. Erica Chenowith, political scientist at the Harvard Kennedy School, looked at hundreds of campaigns over the last century and found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics depend on many factors, Chenowith showed it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change. That’s 11M people in the US. It’s doable, but we need everyone to spread the word and take action when it counts. The victories gained from these past movements weren’t from people who sat back, decided to forget about the challenge in front of them, and said “let someone else do it.”
In sum, my goal is to enable Sunrise, and the greater environmental movement, with data-driven activism. I am very grateful to my team members for their passion to do good for the earth. I continuously look to them for inspiration and hope. Volunteering on a dynamic team is also a social outlet as we regularly meet over Zoom, phone, and for those able, social distanced actions. Throughout COVID, Sunrise LA has been a second family for me. I have had the pleasure of making friendships with peers from all socio-economic layers, demographics, and ages. We all really believe in a greener world. It’s a tough road that requires immense grassroot level effort, but it’s also our collective future.
Aside from the basic necessities, what are 2–3 things you could you never live without?
I could answer by talking about pets, family, friends, even astronaut ice cream, but I’m going to go full nerd. Whiteboards and excel sheets. I cannot do without the former because I survive on visual thinking. Asides from countless school related study sessions, there have been many times in my past that I have had incessant ideas pinging around in my head that caused lack of sleep and brain blockage. Every time was cured with a gigantic information dump with my dry erase markers onto a whiteboard. For the latter, I habitually track everything I do. I’m a sucker for analytics and efficiency. Close friends and colleagues can affirm how OCD I can be with excel sheets. My old roommate witnessed me calculating every week how much our meals cost, down to the fraction of each grocery item, then taking these numbers and doing projections. Fair and accountable. He knew he couldn’t beat a $7 home cooked, healthy meal. No markup!
In a way, working at BadVR fits perfectly with these quirks because our products supercharge the fundamentals of each. Immersive tech involves using available 3D space, akin to playing around on an infinite whiteboard; data visualization requires manipulation of structured datasets, an ability rooted in the basics of information manipulation often learned from massaging excel sheets. Except in the case of BadVR, my whiteboards and excel sheets are on multi-dimensional steroids.
If you had a warning label, what would yours say?
WARNING: Powered by garlic!
What two radio stations do you listen to in the car the most?
I am glued to KCRW for its one-stop-shop of news, cultural events, and amazing mixture of music through it’s eclectic 24 playlists. It’s all I really need. It’s many shows are also really great to stay informed from multiple angles. There’s also a huge variety of specialty topics covered in its lineup through broadcasting NPR. My favorite is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, NPR’s weekly hour-long quiz program. Your commute or road trip cannot go wrong with it. It’s always a treat when you hear Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis start the show. I’ve never listened to an episode without laughing as I join in figuring out what’s real news and what’s made up.
What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play?
I practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). It’s officially a combat sport, but to me it’s much more than that. Unlike other martial arts/self-defense that I’ve trained in growing up, BJJ is a very cognitive exercise. You will learn this very quickly. In my first tournament, I was all brawn and no brain. I was objectively stronger than I’d ever been, consistently benching almost 200lb. After winning my first match, I thought I was unstoppable. My ego was crushed when in the first 60 seconds, I was rendered unconscious by a deadly ‘Anaconda’ choke. Instead of thinking, I had rushed in blindly at the start with a sloppy takedown that exposed my neck into the trap of a more experienced opponent. I was quite literally seeing stars while blacked out.
It took many subsequent hiccups to realize I lacked awareness. Talking to my BJJ brothers and sisters, I found the solution was to treat each match as a chess game- observing my opponent’s actions and reacting accordingly. It is completely counterintuitive. How can you think clearly when a human is pinning you down, trying to strangle you senseless? Rewiring my brain paid dividends. I began treating each struggle as a lively conversation. I focused on contextualizing each action. I also concentrated on breathing, good technique, and controlling my old habit of relying on strength, drastically allowing me to feel less fatigued. My abilities improved, producing more victories and earning me higher rank. Now, I look at relationships in life differently too through the humbling lens of BJJ. It has taught me how to relate to others. I cannot wait for COVID to relent so I can hit the mats again.
Let’s finish things up with a look into the crystal ball. As 2020 fades into the rear-view, what are you most looking forward to in 2021?
BadVR has some awesome new updates and products coming down the line this year. Weather visualization is one of them. One of my favorite classes in college was called ‘Earth’s Environmental Systems: The Climate System’. We studied the origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans, formation of winds, storms and ocean currents, reasons for changes through geologic time. Additionally, we dove into the influence of human activity: the ozone hole, global warming, water pollution, etc. through laboratory exploration, demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. I drew a lot of Hadley cells on flat disks that represented our planet. I’m really excited to bring these phenomena into the 3D immersive space and show the world how interconnected we are to the earth. Hopefully, you’ll be inspired to take action with me too.
Sunrise Movement Los Angeles: https://sunrisemovementla.org/
If you want to keep up with Justin and explore all the creative, ground-breaking work he’s doing with BadVR, check out the link below:
We’re deeply grateful for Justin’s contributions and are consistently inspired by the creative stories of both Justin and rest of our diverse team members. These unique and varied experiences and viewpoints fuel our creativity and innovation and help make BadVR the world leader in immersive data visualization!
If you’re excited about the future of immersive data and data analytics, or if you’re interested in a demo, please reach out today. We would love to chat with you!
Contact us today via the links below:
BadVR’s Twitter
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info@badvr.com
