The Neuroculture Tech Product Team Goal (PDF)

The Neuroculture Tech Product Team

Development of Neuroculture Learning Facilitation Technology Product
A Social Learning Platform for Human Capital and Diversity Development

For many global citizens, the word culture has become a way to talk about cultural heritage,
customs, or traditions. What they may miss, however, is that culture can also be found in the
subtle and taken-for-granted patterns that shape our thinking and acting.
- Dr. Joseph Shaules (2015)

Team Goal
This collaborative research partnership proposes the development of technology that addresses
the barriers of culture and individual biases in the learning process (Busso & Pollack, 2015;
Cheon & et.al, 2011; Shaules, 2015; Stevenson & et.al, 2013). Our collaboration, generally, is
embarking toward this goal to “dig into,” or learn about, the operation of “neurological substrates
of cultural differences” (Rockstuhl & et.al, 2010, p.2). The findings from the study and project
that we propose could contribute not only toward addressing issues of bias in areas of culture,
but also to areas of education such as learning and teaching enhancement, for example.
Description of Need
The White House’s Office and Science and Technology Policy (2015), under a directive of
President Barack Obama, advocates four principles referred to as a 21st Century Grand
Challenges (https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/grand-challenges). The 21st
Century Grand Challenges (the challenges) collectively present “ambitious but achievable goals
that harness science, technology, and innovation to solve important national or global problems
and that have the potential to capture the public’s imagination” (The Office and Science and
Technology Policy, 2015). In early August 2015, Dr. Ramona Pierson, the same co-applicant of
this proposal, presented an innovative process directly to President Obama
(https://declara.com/collection/02b0850d-6ef0-4c2a-bbd7-890f509bf5d3/post/59d4f059-880041dd-9aab-9257800c1391). The presentation, in-part, was in response to President Obama’a alert
that our country must “Expand the frontiers of human knowledge about ourselves and the world
around us” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/grand-challenges).
The NeuroLeadership Institute (2015) advises that “Companies [including K-12 schools and
universities] everywhere are struggling to significantly move the needle on the diversity and

inclusion challenge” (https://www.neuroleadership.com/solutions/talent-challenges/bias/).
Thomas Rockstuhl and colleagues (2010) in their article, The culturally intelligent brain: from
detecting to bridging cultural differences, provide a compelling, and scientifically supported,
argument explaining that “Culture is, after all, stored in people’s brains” (p.1). Of course there
are sociological contributors to the development of culture, but, it takes individual processing of
that which we are exposed.
The product that is envisioned would be software based from what is learned, through the
proposed research and worldwide collaborative experts in machine learning and artificial
intelligence. From the proposed research and collaboration, the dynamics of neurocultural
substrates will be examined and learned from toward being referenced by technologies that
reveal patterns given large amounts of data (i.e. machine learning and artificial intelligence).