Aleria Research Corp

My work leverages a unique scientific approach that can help any social enterprise quantify and amplify the impact of their programs and initiatives.

I have been developing computer simulations of complex systems for three decades. After 10 years in academia developing simulations of biological neural networks, and 15 years developing agent-based simulations to solve complex problems for large corporations, in 2016 I saw an opportunity to apply my work to a wide range of societal inequities, initially focusing on corporate Diversity & Inclusion, and recently expanding to other societal issues where inequalities exist.

We need the support of a visionary philanthropic organization that sees the potential of our human-centric research methodology, not just to amplify the impact of specific programs, but more generally to increase the efficacy and efficiency of philanthropic investments. I will use the Elevate Prize funding in two ways: first, to support ongoing development of a SaaS platform that revolutionizes the collection and use of entrepreneur D&I data to help level the playing field in entrepreneurship. Second, to create proof-of-concept simulations to expand our work into additional societal areas. The scientific/technological nature of our work will benefit tremendously from the Elevate Prize network of mentors and partners

In 1999 I left a tenured professorship to become an entrepreneur, using my scientific background to tackle complex problems for companies, foundations and government agencies. In 2016 I saw an opportunity to apply my knowledge to show corporations why and how Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is key to their success. I developed computer simulations that capture the complex interactions among employees, and how D&I impacts company performance and employee satisfaction.

In 2018 I realized that D&I influences every facet of society, and that my unique human-centric approach could help unravel the complexity of any societal problem, pinpointing root causes, identifying solutions, and measuring impact. I launched ARC with the dream of applying this work to a variety of societal sectors. We secured early funding to explore inequalities in entrepreneurship, created simulations and visualizations to uncover the structural barriers faced by underappreciated entrepreneurs, and are launching a platform that will revolutionize tracking an analysis of entrepreneur identity data, to drive greater equality in entrepreneurship.

My goal is for ARC to become a sort of idea lab, collaborating with nonprofits and philanthropists on many societal problems. We’ll develop simulations that capture the complexity of specific problems, design better interventions, and forecast impact.

The fundamental problem my work addresses is complexity, the property that makes systems exhibit unpredictable and sometimes counterintuitive behaviors as a result of the interactions among the individual elements that make up the system. From flocks of birds and termite nests, to traffic jams and financial markets, complex systems and their emergent behaviors are all around us. Every societal problem we encounter is steeped in complexity.

Our brains are incapable of understanding complexity. We fool ourselves into believing that our intuition, coupled with proximity to the affected populations, will reveal root causes of inequities and suggest solutions. But the lack of progress in our society suggests otherwise.

Social impact work lacks analytical tools to shed light on the causal workings of complex systems. We measure inequities through population-level statistics that, by their very nature, hide the details of individual experiences, and often fall back on anecdotal evidence as proof of impact.

My organization leverages 30 years of experience to develop computer simulations of complex systems in collaboration with social impact organizations across a variety of sectors. We provide a human-centric but quantitative approach to help these organizations pinpoint root causes, design better programs, quantify impact, and forecast outcomes.

Our approach combines behavioral science and computer science, creating “agent-based simulations” (ABS) that capture the daily experiences, behaviors and interactions of individuals, linking them to their societal context, e.g., a company, a community, a country. Put simply, the simulations show how individual behaviors lead to systemic biases, and how these biases in turn impact individual experiences. These simulations then become a tool to predict the likely impact of structural and behavioral interventions, which can be used effectively to support decision-making and to help design programs for maximum impact.

Our ABS approach is ideal for social impact because, although quantitative, it is a human-centric approach that links individual experiences and societal outcomes. More importantly, the methodology is intuitive, engaging, and it does not require quantitative skills on the part of social entrepreneurs: the process of developing simulations is a collaboration in which the entrepreneur contributes domain knowledge and the modeler contributes the scientific and technical expertise.

I have successfully used complexity science approaches to solve problems for some of the biggest companies in the world, government agencies and foundations. We have demonstrated our success in the area of entrepreneurship. With your support we will scale this to many other societal areas.

Our greatest potential lies in our ability to bring a multiplier to the impact and efficiency of other organizations that impact humanity. Crucial to our long-term success is to create a portfolio of application areas, focusing on one societal area at a time until we reach a certain level of maturity, before expanding to the next.

For instance, we started by focusing on entrepreneurship. Through three grant-supported projects we identified profound gaps in the collection and use of entrepreneur diversity data. We are now creating EDDEx, working with VCs, affinity groups, and support organizations to make entrepreneurship more diverse and inclusive.

We are starting to explore other fields by collaborating with other entities. For instance, we have a partnership with I-DIEM, an organization aiming to bring D&I into emergency management, and we recently started a pilot project with a leading cultural organization, with the ultimate goal of making arts and culture more accessible and inclusive for New York’s highly diverse population. I spent 15+ years running a similar (for-profit) company.

We had great success with leading corporations (e.g., BP, Intel, Schlumberger, Humana), government agencies and some foundations. ARC builds on that success, bringing it to the social impact sector.