Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Dr. Muhsinah Morris

Curt Anderson  0:01

Alright guys, man, thank God it’s Monday. So Happy Monday, Damon, good morning to you on the West Coast. How are you my friend?

Damon Pistulka  0:10

I’m great Kurt. Great getting ready for Christmas. This is a last minute last. The holidays are coming.

Curt Anderson  0:16

Our last hurrah. And this is our last interview on our little money manufacturing Monday motivation. And man, did we save a powerhouse for our last Monday of 2021? What a great way to close out the year. Guys, I want to introduce you to our dear friend Dr. Muhsinah Morris as her students affectionately referred to her Dr. Mom, Dr. Morris. Good afternoon. How are you today?

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  0:40

I’m doing well. How you doing?

Curt Anderson  0:43

I’m doing absolutely awesome. This is such an honor. Thank you for accepting our invite to join us today, guys and sit back I have to I just say I’m going to I’ve just scratched the surface. Dr. Morris, I know you’re very humble. You might be a little uncomfortable with this. I’m going to share. So Dr. Morris is the program director of virtual reality at Morehouse College. She’s the interim director, department chair and Assistant Professor of Chemistry. She’s the affiliate professor of Center for Excellence in Education at Morehouse, which is an all dude school. Dr. Mercier, the first head of your department and chemistry is that the first female head of your department, is that correct? Correct. Well, this is such an honor and privilege for us to have you today and spend a little time with you just share a little bit about what’s going on in your world. What’s happening at Morehouse. And what’s what’s going on here.

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  1:35

Oh, gosh, listen, we’re just grateful to have survived. And still surviving through this global pandemic. It has been a roller coaster for us all over the world. And so I am a mom, like you said, a wife. Let me let me start this. Yep. I have a husband. He’s a super gamer guy. But he’s an IT person. I have a love of my life best friend. And we have five sons, ages ranging from 25. All the way to 420. My strength? Well, God’s strength. It’s the four year old for me.

Curt Anderson  2:12

Yeah, I bet and you not look old enough to have a 25 year old by the way. So you are doing well my friend.

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  2:19

Listen, when family matters to you, you do family, you do career, you do life all together. And at a very young age, I really found my purpose. And then I found love. And so my family was really supportive and making sure that we achieved all of our career goals. And we were able to walk in our purposes. And so this is the result of it is that I have five beautiful, very well rounded sons who don’t like to clean up but do well in school and sports. And but, yeah, and and just really, really, you know, supportive of their mom and J champion, everything that I do, and they make my life a lot easier to so. So I’m a mom to those five. But at Morehouse, I have about 2300 sons, I say, because everyone who I encounter has always called me Dr. Mom. And I told him I said, Well, it means molder of minds. Okay, so you need molder of minds because I do that. Most definitely. But I really one of my biggest teaching philosophies is to build a rapport with my students before asking them to perform. And what I really didn’t know about being a boy mom is that boys are sensitive in a way that people don’t really understand. So you have to really mold them in a way that is intentional, and it has to have purpose. So I take my time, and I’m patient with them. And I don’t, the thing about it is you just set real strict boundaries with boys. And they respect that. Because if you don’t, if you don’t try to change the rules on them, they can follow them. So I just try to, you know, set boundaries for them that they can respect, and I don’t waver from them. And I gently lead them, you know, back to the starting line, if they you know, mess up. So, but I build a rapport my students before asking them to, you know, really, you know, perform for me, I want to see who they are as people and and I want to make them more self aware of who they’re supposed to be in the world. I think that was the most important lesson that I learned as a student. And what drove me to my success is that people see, so that’s me in a nutshell, but I do a lot of different things, but I don’t do anything that I don’t feel is purpose and I don’t do things that I don’t really want to do. So I’m a chemist, because I was really good at chemistry because I always thought the world in terms of molecules, right. In terms of what was the smallest thing about this was really in the air what’s really On the street, my imagination as a kid was always like that. So that’s, that’s why I’m a chemist, I do the autism, advocacy and research because I have a son who is 13, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, his name is Seth. And Seth is very bright, very brilliant and limited verbal, but he has some other, you know, things that limit his ability to be as academically sound, you know, like, he has this calculator, numbers he does not like, so much, but he knows how to speak in different languages of which his mother cannot interpret. And you know, and he’s really, really tech technical like. So I do my autism research, because I feel like those people who have that laser focus, and even though they might have some kind of limitation, that they have a place in STEM and inclusion matters. And things that he can bring to the discipline are things that we can’t find anywhere else. So trying to make sure that there’s a space for him, because I’m really clear about the fact that those with autism will outlive their caregivers, a lot of them don’t have any additional type of medical conditions that will cause them to have a limited life. And so the burden of taking care of them, when they can be really independent and can learn skills should really beyond the all of ours, you know, not just limited to the families or limited to those who were in social work or anything like that, but policymakers and everyone should understand their worth and their value, and then put them in positions where they can have a good quality of life, even beyond their caregivers live lives. So that’s why I do autism. But I’m also a special needs sister. So I had a brother who had meningitis at the age of four, and it left him brain damaged. My mom has been taking care of him my whole life, she refused to institutionalize, and back when that was something that you did. And so the compassionate heart and love I have for people who have special needs is because my brother,

in my opinion, made the greatest sacrifice for our family in terms that we learned compassion, we learned good health and wellness and how to take care of a human being. And we learned how to stick together through tough times because he had epilepsy and, you know, other cognitive issues. And he’s 51 Now, but he’s cognitively 18 months, so I always had to think for more than myself. And that kind of translated into the career pathway, where I’m able to teach a wide range of students, regardless of where they start, they’re going to finish where they’re supposed to, because I have learned how to embody the minds of my students and other people and help them get to where they need to go. So that I can keep talking, but

Curt Anderson  8:03

man, what I mean, what a Christmas week mode, what a gift you are this. This is mine a demons Christmas gift right here. And I just I just want to share a couple things real quick here. So let me read let me read through your your education here. So I have a bachelor’s degree from Clark, Atlanta University in chemistry, you have your MBA, right? Well,

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  8:25

so I took courses towards the MBA and project management. So I found that I was pregnant halfway through, but I uploaded all of my project management courses, because what I was clear of when I got my PhD was that they always throw PhDs in supervisory positions without having the experience. And my sister is a business finance person. And I kept watching them take all these classes that they would ask me to help them with, you know, could you look at this and see if I did this, right, or read over my paper like this is on it? And so, but but it really intrigued me too, because I wanted to know what, well, I’m gonna have a PhD, they’re gonna put me in the supervisory roles. I have no idea, honestly, how to maintain a manager grant, how to make sure that I meet all of my benchmarks. I mean, I did okay, um, you know, managing my dissertation research, but what really made the substantial difference was that I took those business courses I got halfway through and then I found out I was pregnant with my fourth child, and I was like, oh, no, like, I can’t do both of this. But I had already taken project management and advanced project management. I have taken my organizational leadership and I’ve taken technical writing and marketing management and just all the change management so all these things I had like kind of pre loaded and like left some of the other ones that I didn’t think were really too relevant at the at the end. So I really could go back and finish up the I think it’s like four or five courses that I have left to complete it, but I just set it on a different scale. And I think that what I learned helped me finish my, my degree in record time, like so I was kind of stuck in my dissertation research for a minute. And literally, those courses because I got pregnant, and I had my baby, but I had to finish my proposal, my outside research proposal, and then I had to finish my actual like writing on my dissertation. I literally did that in like 19 months. So I was pregnant, had the baby took four months off, because I needed the time off, took four months off, and then came back and within, by the time Seth was 10 months, I had finished my PhD. Wow. So and it was because of the project management skills. So I use Microsoft Project and, and just put everything on on a scale, like on a timeline and, and I just became my own boss, like I told him, I will meet my advisor, like, look, this is our schedule. And this is what we’re

Curt Anderson  11:01

Yeah, that’s what I love what you’ve done. Dr. Morris is like you bring that entrepreneurial spirit to Yeah, you know, as a professor, and so we’ll dig into that. And so, so again, you have your PhD in by

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  11:14

by Biomek. Bio molecular,

Curt Anderson  11:17

molecular. And so Dave and I, we were going to get our PhDs but we couldn’t pronounce it so they wouldn’t let us in. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, but you know, from Emory University, now let’s go back in time a little bit. Okay. So Damon and I, we’re big. We’re girl dads, and we just find we love interviewing women in manufacturing. Once again, you are a pioneer in virtual reality. Guys, if you haven’t connected with Dr. Morris, you have to connect with Dr. Morris here on LinkedIn. But there’s a gentleman in your life. He goes by the name of Gordon Holmes senior. He’s an army that into my understanding he was you know, he’s retired from at&t Bell Sol, just you know, work relentlessly raising his children. And on aside, he was an auto mechanic. So like he just worked tirelessly. Just anybody needs their car fixed to help his little girl now who is this Gordon home senior guy that we’re talking about?

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  12:11

It’s my daddy.

Curt Anderson  12:14

So it’s your little bit like talk about the inspiration? Like what you are such an accomplished? I feel like such an underachiever today, you are so accomplished, you are such an inspiration. You know, for all of us here and again, for young women out there. We’d love hearing your story. I’d like to dig a little bit into the inspiration in your life you shared like your brother, your five boys, Seth, you know, talk a little bit about your dad what he meant to you growing up.

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  12:40

Wow. And you know, as a as a woman, many women can have, you know, issues with relationships with males. Just because that’s how life is right. But I just don’t you know, the daddy issues. I don’t have I am a total daddy’s girl every day my dad who woke me up and told me how beautiful I was. And my dad his country. Now he went from Savannah. Well, he’s from Savannah has to start a family from Savannah, and they’re actually really from Sylvania, Georgia. Just by Screven County, it was like nowhere south. Okay, so um, but, you know, they, they would catch possum and combs and, you know, trap turtles and all kinds of stuff like go hunting, fishing, so I had that kind of dad, and he will wake me up every morning. He said, You know what, girl? You so purty. He’s so Kurd. Hey, my Purdy baby, and that my dad always woke us up with love, always. No. And he was a renaissance man in a sense that he knew how to cook. He knew how to clean he knew how to work on cars, he could fix anything in the house. It was nothing I didn’t think my dad really could do. But one of the things that I learned from my dad was his work ethic and his ability to problem solve.

So I never I don’t think I’ve seen my dad sit down now. Like he’s 73 and he still wakes up at like the crack of dawn. And he used to do like, when we were kids, he wake up and he do calisthenics by the bed because that’s how an army right you wake up the exercise. So he would do about 50 Push ups on the side of the bed, do jumping jacks do his situps and then like run and then go like run around the block sometimes and then come back. And and I just used to see I’m used to seeing that kind of discipline day in and day out. And he did that. But he started to be to work though at 5am. And he would leave and that’s how we that he was like our alarm clock because we were here his car and my dad loves cars. He loves cars so much that he had like a race car. So back in the day it was like the Toyota Celica it used to be the but the Viper one though the real like racing was so he had that souped up car, he would hear it like zoom down and St. But on the way back home, you hear it too. So all the kids that run to the door, my dad would come in and after working because he worked on all the big trucks, and at the time, it was sudden bill, and he would do their work and he would come home, and he would hug on us go take a shower and play with us for a little bit and then he’d go back out. He’s like, he was running his own business in the carport, like, you know, he would have somebody card need to fix Mr. Gordy, can you do this Mr. Gordy? Could you do this, you know, who would go to other people’s houses and fix their laundry machines and whatever the case may be, and that’s how he made money. And it didn’t matter how many days and nights he would just be out there in the garage, but he would take us out there sometimes and let us you know, like pump the brakes to bleed them for him or, you know, he would let me act like I was switching gears in the car, you know, play make believe out there. But he, he was he didn’t care what he had to do, we were going to have the best of the best. He knew that. He it might not be him that was going to be the person with the greatest education or, you know, this big time corporate career, but he banked on his children. So every extra dollar, we always had the latest electronics, he worked for a telecommunications company. So that meant that, you know, we were gonna have cable, but my biggest gift from him was the Commodore 64. He came in, he brought this big old dinosaur computer. We didn’t even know what it was, you know, like, we’re used to like the little apples that were in the school house that we had alone. Mike Macintosh, I think it was yellow computers or seeing Atari Games. But he came with this like, big old Commodore and I was like, Dad, what is that? And he was like, this is a Commodore 64 This new computer. Let me show you. And literally now I play video games on it. So I beat Donkey Kong. But I stayed there because I wanted to figure it out. So I stay there. And I play that game and play that game play that game. And so I became like the reigning video game everything in the house and I have a younger brother, who’s three years my junior, he actually is does actually his careers and it so he has like his Bachelor’s in networking and security, something really ridiculous and too hard to describe. But he’s an IT person at Emory actually now in the School of Nursing. And like he’s he wanted to beat me so bad that like literally he made his whole entire life into computers. Now I switched gears on into chemistry, but he literally like was like, I cannot beat this girl like and she’s a girl. I can’t take it. So yeah. But my dad was just wonderful in terms of no matter how long he had to work what he had to do all of his money time effort went to his kids and I tell him all the time he made parents and looks so easy. That’s why I have so many kids. I said if I knew it was hard, I probably would have stopped at one.

Curt Anderson  17:56

He made it look so easy. Oh my god. This is so phenomenal. I love that. So look at you know by making that incredible impression on his little girl look at you are making an impact on hundreds and hundreds of young lives. Men. As you know, in Morehouse, when you think of Morehouse, my goodness Martin Luther King spike Samuel Jackson. I mean, like some incredible leaders have come out of this great institution. And here you are leading the pack, you know, the first female head of your department chemistry. So you are a pioneer in virtual reality, you are leading the charge. You’re an advocate for autism. You know, in that field, as you mentioned, talk a little bit about what’s going on in virtual reality share some of the super cutting edge exciting things that the projects that your students are experiencing right now.

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  18:45

So I listen to get back to gaming for me, is everything. So my husband is a super gamer. So I marry a man that really like I’m talking about he plays computer based games like role playing games, World of Warcraft guild, leader like just gaming chairs, like that’s been my whole existence, but it was because my culture at home was very similar. Like my dad allowed us to get every game system like I said, he will work yeah. And make sure every every time a game system or computer, whatever phone we always had the latest technology. And let me tell you both blue collar workers, my mom and my dad, my mom did. She was a cosmetologist, but she ran a cleaning service. And she mostly stayed home as a homemaker. But she also had this engineering mind that made us do everything. So let me let me hats off to daddy But Mama was the one in there doing the implementation. So we had to know how to do everything that everybody knew how to do. She made us like my mom loved the holiday. Because a holiday meant that we were going to do the baseboards and paint a room and change coffee. Literally we will go to school in the morning and when we came back home my momma would have changed the entire house. She would have painted the walls I still change the cabinets, I promise See, every it seemed like every week, our house was something totally different. It was like, What’s going on here? It was beautiful to see. And she’s still like that to this day. But, um, so So we learn how to do a lot of everything. And okay, so back to the whole gaming situation. So with virtual reality, I have let me see this is my favorite. My.

No, I can. Yes. So I was so glad that there was an opportunity that I could get back to gaming in my career because I focus really hard on my career. And I watch my husband, at the end of the day, make his hobby, his you know, like, video gaming and still doing it. And he had the PlayStation VR headset, and I’ve been in that and all that kind of stuff. But I never had a time I’m sitting here raising kids, right. So like raising kids cooking and cleaning, I get off work, all that kind of stuff. And they’re gaming their lives away, right. But I didn’t really have time. But this gave me a chance to do it as a part of my career. And also have fun. So it’s like getting back to my very first love. And even though the pandemic was tough, I’m grateful for it, because the pandemic allowed me an opportunity for my children to see the work that I do, but also to join in on some of the initiatives that I also do. So they while they teased me really, really badly, they were really helpful in making sure that I had everything that I needed to be successful in this. So I started teaching with upper bound students with the Pico. So asynchronous VR, we had chemistry and biology stuff loaded onto here. So we worked with a company called victory XR, the CEO of Steve Grubbs country, I own one of my good friends now. But he he already had all of the science standards tethered to the national next generation science standards. And so that was good because we were teaching high school first generation students. And they needed something to think about that is, is asynchronous. So I students who have been sick of being on Zoom calls, were okay with being in the headset, but I couldn’t see what they were doing. At the same time, I would do the same lesson during the time and then we come talk about it on Zoom, but it wasn’t the same. Then Steve introduced us victory XR, we did demos with this the Oculus quest at first and then the two came out. So we switch to the to where they had a campus on the Engage platform where you could be synchronous. So the teachers in the classroom with the students, and Boyle boy, what a joy that kind of like opened up my eyes to what the possibilities of this could really be not just in terms of us being in a global pandemic, and my students really being zoned out, but really wanting to have that same interaction. And in a way where there was no pretense, you know, students kind of showed up as themselves in a relaxed kind of way. It was fun to them as well. You know, it was a kind of way of gamifying we call it tangential learning, but gamifying the content. So students are not distracted by the outside world. They’re immersed in this particular world. But more than that, victrex are built us out more houses. Morehouse College’s digital twin, so a digital twin canvas, and for my students who my students were upper level, and they had been on campus for a year and a half. And they were graduating seniors to spawn in this headset, and I never told them what we were going to do on to the campus. That I mean, they had it down to the shading of the tree. Yeah, I mean, it was to them. I mean, if you hear a grown young boy, like near tears, like choke up, like, Oh, my God, Dr. Morris, and then they didn’t really realize how much they wanted to see me too. So I told them to create their avatars. But I didn’t explain to them that they also had face enabled avatars. So when they saw me, I had my it was my face on my avatar, and they were just like, Dr. Morris, that’s you like, Oh my God. And then I said, Give me a high five and they give me a high five and then the haptic feedback, you know from the vibrate, and they were like, Did you did you touch and you can touch me like No, it just automatically Yeah, opened up a whole new avenue away of the us being able to relate to one another, but also connect and and be in the room so they were just so happy that they could be in the room with me again. And I was too because I do I have active classroom and my class you will hear games you his students screaming and yelling, you will see people walking around. And because I want them to do the problem solving that really is happening in action, I tell them all the time, the reading is important. And I’ll tease out some of the conceptual things with you. But it’s about the application of it. If you can’t apply it, you’re stuck. So that’s why students do so poorly on exams, is, they have never practiced it. So you teach them all this theory. And then you you make them go and try to synthesize it, that was probably good for us, maybe, because we didn’t have other distractions for our students, you they don’t need us to give them all of the information, they can go on their phones, this little thing right here is the professor, it’s the subject matter expert, it can go they can go and find anything they want. For us, it’s about how do we bring them along this journey? And teach them how to think through problems in a way that’s going to matter? And then how can we apply that to the real world and have them work together and develop collaboration skills, communication skills, creative thinking, you know, how can they be innovative about their approaches? You know, how can they dissect this thing, and then like really letting them fail forward in, in, in your space. And so being in a virtual headset being in VR, allowed opportunities for me to still engage with them in the active kind of way to facilitate what was going on I they weren’t in breakout rooms, they were right there in groups I had 3d voice on, they could only hear the people around them. And I could still like go around group to group to group engage with them, I can see where they were stuck because they have a 3d pen, and they can write on their whiteboards. And so it was it brought a different layer of engagement to my students that they had been longing for and missing, having been in a pandemic. And the thing that was just so, so great for them was that they were experiencing this emergent technology at their homes all across the US in California students in Washington State, I had some students that were in Caribbean islands, because they asked us where their homes were. And you know, and they were sitting there and they were like, Doc, hey, I’m sitting here out on my porch. And, you know, but I’m in your classroom, and I just love it, you know, and so they wanted to stay in the headset, almost more than I did pass time, I didn’t ever have time, where they were like, Oh, this is enough, I’m tired of this, they really, really loved it. And so I felt like I had gifted something to my students in a way that I never had before. And so I’m excited about the possibilities, because for chemistry, which is already challenging, you can’t see molecules, right. So you’re trying to explain something molecular to someone and have them kind of imagine it. And even though they have 2d representations, and we have all these simulating tools, it’s still happening on a flat surface. But if you can bring a molecule where they can blow it up to any size, and they can bring it down, and they can twist it around, and they can, you know, you know, see all of the different angles and walk around it themselves and walk underneath it and kind of see, you know, oh, that’s why I made vibrate that way. Or that’s why this thing, we call it the see saw. And oh, I see exactly why this is T shaped or even with events in organic chemistry, we talked a lot about symmetry and coordination compounds and things like that. So that visual spatial intelligence is so extremely important. And they miss it. They’re like, I never even thought about an orbital like that, like I now I get it like after all these years, now I actually get what a orbital is and why it’s so important for us to you know, think about it in terms of the relationship and plane. So like, it was a wonderful experience, and my students are still enjoying it. And I flipped the classroom this semester and had them actually develop what their concept of a lab in virtual reality is. And so we’re going to be building that out along with Victrix are based on what students feel like and what they need. So I’m excited about the possibilities we’re doing so much more to

Damon Pistulka  29:15

That’s awesome. Well, you just talk about it. You know, I just get just getting chills just listening to you talk about how you can teach and how you can teach globally with the VR like you’re doing. Yeah, and when you talk about things like the voice recognition that you only hear people that are close to you, and just like you would in a regular room just the the things like that, that make it so realistic, and the haptic feedback and everything else that is incredible. Yeah, incredible. And that like you said, the possibilities even then when you look into chemistry, I just I think VR and AR stuff is so cool. And there’s so many applications for it, you know, my experience in in manufacturing and other things like that. I think of, I think of all kinds of things, you know, from the from the maintenance person that’s working on a, a could be a huge piece of mining equipment somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, there have AR on that’s telling you, you know, this is your problem, this is what you’re doing. I just, I get so excited because, like you say, if they have the right setup, the people at the corporation because it you know, we’re talking 10s of millions of dollars, piece of equipment, sometimes they can be they’re looking over their shoulder going, Oh, no Daman you need there. That’s where you need to look right there. Exactly. It’s this stuff is so cool in your application in schools, just think what this would do for people that are not able to physically be in the location of a school, for whatever reason?

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  30:48

Absolutely, absolutely. I think that is, we call it geographical agnosticism, right. So you can be in Mexico and learning something from someone that’s in a laboratory in, in Germany, right, that has cutting edge technology and instrumentation and everything like that, and you can be transported there and actually be able to manipulate some of the instrumentation. Same thing with like, manufacturing, you don’t want to take the whole line on in order to upskill your employees, right. Like that is tragic, like, you know, if if some kind of standard operating procedures or policy or you know, changes which it is ever evolving, you don’t want to, okay, risk, some kind of error happening, something that’s going to, you know, put production behind, or, you know, cause any kind of like, I don’t know, contamination issues, not safety issues, non compliance. And so if you have the ability to upskill them in XR period, so immersive is good, because say, before they go in, and they’re starting to use new equipment, you know, they work all day. And then before you bring it in, they can get in this immersive environment. And they can learn how to now operate the machinery before actually having it put into your own facility and then working on it. So they’re already familiar, it’s not new to them, they know exactly what buttons to push, and how to get it back online, they know how to troubleshoot because that’s really important, without causing any problems or lag in production. But even with AR to have the ability to, okay, let me just put my AR glasses on really quickly, because I see something that I didn’t, you know, know, and I don’t have to carry around this big old binder, trying to figure it out. Because that’s contaminated, whatever is going on, on the line much less. And then, you know, I’m able to then project and see overlay onto the instrument, everything I need, and labels are popping up. Yeah, I’m able to say, Okay, this is step one, do this. And, and I’m not having to look down at a piece of paper and make sure that I’m doing it right or go back in a completely immersive environment and do it, but I’m able to actually do it in real time. Or that someone else can also see it and say, hey, you know, that’s this is what you’re supposed to be doing at this particular point. And so it’s kind of like on the job training or on job learning as they go along. And you don’t have to take your your whole, you know, process offline. And I mean, that’s gonna save so much money in time and effort for companies, because the worst thing is to have to, like, take everything offline because of a contamination error. Or, you know, it could have been a flip of a switch that was done wrong. That could put you back for four months. Just me, I used to work on chemical instrumentation for my PhD, we do HPLC and mass spec. And when our HPLC would break down, I remember calling my dad and saying, Daddy, I wish you would have let me stay outside with you a lot longer because I’m a glorified mechanic here. I said, I’m just I said, I’m changing pistons, can you I had him break down to me. What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to make sure the pistons are in correctly, you know, before I put my instrument back online, because if my retention times are wrong, then I have to recalibrate this thing all over again. And I’ve already been in the middle of an experiment. And that means I’m starting like a year’s worth of work over so literally, my dad taught me through how to change pistons on my HPLC. So like I said, he’s been a value add.

Curt Anderson  34:41

Yes. No, it never stops. And Dr. Morris, did I see are you an OSHA expert on safety standards that I see that on your

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  34:51

site? I use, I used to I used to really be we have to stay up to date because we have labs so I have to do all the OSHA training and I have to make sure that all of our labs are online, but not in the way that I used to have to when I was at Emory at Emory, we weren’t radioactivity. So I was the radiation safety officer. And I had to make sure that everyone was tested, and everyone had their rings, and all, you know, everything on at the end of the day, and do all the, you know, clean up and everything. But now, I kind of outsourced that a little bit. So we have a lab curator who has taken over that wonderful job, but I still have to as the head of the department, you know, you’re over everything in terms of making sure that everybody is in compliance with everything. So all labs have to be online in the right way, all safety procedures, all, you know, the manuals have to be in a particular place. But it’s challenging. To try to do all of that chemistry is one of those types of majors that are really, I hate to say vocational, but it’s the most vocational liberal arts major there is in the sense that you have to have like 700 hours at the bench in order to be a chemistry major. That means that you have to actually work with your hands. And that’s the one thing with VR that I really can’t wait is when they get the haptic feedback gloves, would that allow more dexterity for us at the bench where we’re able to actually take and pour liquids and, you know, you pipettes and actually use, because the fine motor skills that are developed, being a chemist is really, really important. So it’s just like, any other field like even culinary, you know, you have to make sure that you’re measuring correctly, that you’re pouring into the right container, and you know, you that you’re doing things in the right order. The one thing that’s also missing for us right now in virtual reality that I’m excited about. bringing on board and consulting on is the safety issue. So people can go into virtual reality without thinking about the safety precautions, but what we need to build into them are that, Hey, you can’t reach out and just touch this Bunsen burner without, you know, consequence. And so right now, it’s kind of like there’s no real built in system where, you know, there’s there’s a consequence, there’s a real consequence for reaching over a flame or touching glass that looks hot. This also looks Oh, yeah. So just trying to make sure that those kinds of things are those realistic consequences are built in there, even if we have to put disclaimers? Yeah, man, wow, that sounds a finger.

Curt Anderson  37:37

This is like, Man, I could listen to you. Yeah. Like this is beyond my expectations were so high, like you’ve just completely crushed them. So when you think about like, let’s just recap a couple of things real quick. And I know, I want to be mindful of your time because I know we’re, we’re cooking here. But, you know, Damon, you brought up a phenomenal point, you know, before we jumped live, you’re like, you know, hey, chemistry, what, you know, where’s the correlation? In Dr. Morris, you did an amazing job of describing of like how virtual reality plays in perfectly for young minds in chemists that are future chemists. And look at the competitive advantages that you’re creating. And so again, like, you know, we preach and sing to manufacturers, as far as I know, our stick is ecommerce. And you’re like, Well, wait a minute, what does what does this have to do as everything to do with it, because you’re describing simulating safety situations. Damon, I love that example of like, the mining, you know, piece of equipment that’s, you know, in the middle of nowhere and back at headquarters, they can communicate to fix these problems and challenges. And you are Dr. Morris, like, just think you are guiding our future youth into these incredible cutting edge technologies. Look at the competitive advantage you’re bringing for us, your United States, as you know, we suffered horrible supply chain challenges, we discovered how vulnerable we are, right? Yes, and look at like to talk. And again, I want to be mindful of time. So I don’t mean, you’re all here but what you know, share a little bit like what are you super excited about? What what’s like just a driving force for you waking you up in the morning with senior young, you know, these young gentlemen, these aspiring minds in the future that they hold with, with virtual reality? What are some things that you’re seeing on a daily basis.

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  39:20

So, for a long time, people thought that they had to really do the work that they do in silos. And that is one of the things that this is changing and being able to impart upon our young men that we don’t, you have to be able to compete globally. The world is small, even though the world is large. Now, the world is so small, and so you have to be able to communicate your science, your worth and your benefit and add value to a system because right now, it’s not the same as I’m gonna go to college. I’m gonna get a degree I’m gonna get a job and that’s gonna sustain me and my family, I have to train them and I’m trying to train their minds into listen, you are a value add to someone, what do you add to an organization? Don’t see an organization is I’m just a worker, you embodied the work that you’re doing. But you have to add something. And it’s okay to develop more than just your scientific acumen. It’s okay to develop your business sighs it’s okay to develop the creative part of you, it’s okay to bring all of your talents and gifts to the, you know, to the job like to what you’re doing. I don’t want them to be, I guess you would say, just like, people always say Jack of all trades, master of none. Right? But yeah, no, that’s right. Yeah. So it’s Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes more than a master of one. So that’s true. So if, if you want to really be successful, you have to know a lot about a lot. You really do. And understanding that we’re not just one faceted people, we are multifaceted, we have many different gifts. And if you are, who you inherently are, and what you bring to the table, all of that is good. And all of it works to add value to a circumstance, a system a person, you you are a walking testimony, a walking testament, and so you have to bring every skill and every gift that you have. So if you are a gifted writer, then that means that you’ll be able to help make sure that documents are always written well and in place and engaging. If you are also an artist, you know what I mean? Then maybe you’ll you’ll work with the marketing program and help them understand how to market the science in a way that is kind of like, come up with like a little tune for the world to be able to understand that too. But you’ll be able to kind of translate over into other areas, but to work together and know that everything is connected is really, really important. And I think they’re seeing that because when I talk to them in terms of Morehouse in the metaverse, and they think that it’s just the VR but it’s not just the VR. I’m trying to show them about crypto currencies, even gaming, we’re talking about looking at what is the global economy gonna be? What about policy? What about cybersecurity? What about networking? What about all of these other things, making it safe for children and elders, accessibility options, all of that, like, this is the time to get in on him on like, the internet, like I remember when the internet started, yeah, dating myself. But you know, I know when the internet started, I remember being taught how to use email in school. So for me, it’s like now I have an opportunity to build something, to not just be a part of it, or consumer of it, but build it. And that’s what I tell him, I don’t want to just sit at every large companies table, I want to build it. I want to build it because we’re capable. Everyone is capable of having a piece of this and building the world that they want to see everyone talks about building this better world, we want to build a better world. Well, the metaverse is a world that we can build better. And we have to know how to do it together, we have to put humanity first we have to make sure that the least of us are also included in this, that those people who are older or have disabilities, that they can also access this technology in some kind of way, form or fashion. And it’s more than just coding is all about

all of us and all of the gifts and talents that we bring to the real world bringing them into this, this virtual simulated space, but taking part in it and being aware that this is a change that is going to happen. And it doesn’t belong to one particular company or corporation, but it belongs to all of us just as the world does. And this time, we can make it where it’s equitable, where people have access, where people are able to be proud of what has been built, not for them, but by them. And so, for me, this just gives us a huge opportunity to use everything that we have, in order to make the world a better place for everybody. And it doesn’t have to exist in this dystopian society. I know we’re going through a global pandemic and that kind of accelerated the process of us doing you know things virtually, but I really do believe that we can have a beautiful world, but we can create another simulated world embodiment of this internet, this space and the world outside of us, maybe it will make us think, Hmm, we could do better with the world that we already have the tangible world and think a better sustainability things. Think of ways in which we can preserve the space that we have to continue to make it and cultivate it to be as beautiful as it’s supposed to be. So I think that it can exist, all of this can exist in a world that is beautiful. It doesn’t have to, you know, be this dark world that we’re escaping from. It doesn’t have to be that it can be that it makes everything better. And it’s an enhancement to the beauty that we already have. So,

Curt Anderson  45:44

yeah. Moment of silence man. Yeah. Yeah. See the follow up? Thank you. Yes, yeah, that’s about it. I’m like, I Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  45:59

Thank you yet. It’s so cool. What you’re doing.

Curt Anderson  46:01

There’s nothing I can say to know. All right. Well, that was so good. You are an absolute gift. I can’t tell you wouldn’t honor this moment of time together to hear your brilliance, your inspiration. I’m calling Gordon home senior today. And I’m going to ask him, could I please have some father tips? Because yeah, I, my, my daughter’s a light of my life. And if I could do, I could be a fraction of what Gordon has done, man, I’m going to be a monster success. So Dr. Morris, thank you. I’m like speechless. And thank you for what you’re doing for our young people. Thank you for what you’re doing at Morehouse College, thank you for what you’re doing for your family for autism, you know, leading the charge in virtual reality. And I know, like a lot of folks, you know, manufacturers old school might be resistant to technology, the COVID change that they are now embracing it. And now as we said, VR, AR at some point in time, this is not gonna be like, cool. Always be cutting edge, but it’s going to be more to the masses, and you’re leading the charge making this happen. So we salute you hats off to you. Guys go out, please, man, if you if you’re looking for inspiration, just just hit just back this up and just listen to Dr. Morris a little further here. So we need to have you back on again. I don’t want to end with you. So we’re gonna wind down because we could we could keep you here all day. Dr. Morris, we wish you your family and amazing holiday, Merry Christmas to you. Any parting thoughts on where we’re working? Folks? If they want, obviously, we’re here on LinkedIn, we’re on Facebook, we’re on Twitter, where can everybody find and connect with you?

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  47:44

LinkedIn is the best possible place to connect with me at this time. So if you want to link then it’s my full name on the screen, and just send me shoot me a message or I’m pretty good about responding to everyone because I just want to build a community of like minded individuals that want to push this effort forward. I do have to be remiss if I didn’t, so I have to actually call by name some of the people who have also made this possible and entities because without them, I would not be here because I tell people I stay in here as one but I really stay in here as many. So my colleagues that started the Virtual Reality Project with me, who’ve been really, really supportive. We call ourselves the ultimate team. So Dr. Failed marine Dr. ovale Hamilton, Dr. Tanya Clark, in English, so English history, biology, and then we have Dr. Adrian Welter who joined us who’s a sociologist, Dr. Mickey Harris, who did multimedia and storytelling. This past year. They were all the faculty that have dove into this wholeheartedly. I also have our Academic Affairs at Morehouse College. So Dr. Thomas, our president who has been very supportive. Dr. Kendrick Brown, Dr. Keith Howard, who was our dean of faculty and PR on the first grant, but also Dr. Michael Hodge, who wrote the grant that was funded by serving company at Qualcomm that got us started, but he’s also the executive director of the Atlanta University consortium center, and Shantay. Carmen was the former program manager who got us started and bring all these technological ideas. So those people I am grateful for and still have their support, and I’m thankful for all of the ways in which they have stood in the gap to make this happen. I have full support from my family. Of course, my dad, Gordon Holmes inspiration, my brother Gordy, my sister name was severe. And then my children, Anthony, Matthew, Christopher, Seth and Cameron and my husband bit Chris. Thank you for gaming out of control and, and making sure that I have everything that I need. Trust me if you come to my house, you have to clap, snap and jump. I’m like, I don’t Just want to go cut the light off. And he’s like, no hold on that like you can talk to. And I’m like, okay, yeah,

Curt Anderson  50:04

yeah. Cardiac with the Morris. How’s that? Yeah, I

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  50:07

have a whole host of people who have supported and loved me. And if I missed your name, then it’s not because I don’t remember you, Oh, I did miss somebody. But besides Southern Company, and Qualcomm, and metta for sending out 300 headsets for my students and Unity Technologies for funding a grant for me so that we can develop culturally relevant avatars and culturally responsive content for our students of color. I really would like to thank victory XR, and Steve groves. Because, you know, I’ve never been pushed so hard to do something that I love. But to be be able to be gently guided along this trajectory with someone who is professional, has a great staff runs a really lean model, but a really tight ship, great customer service. So thank you so much, Steve Grubbs and team for working with me and being a great educational partner, because that’s really what you need in order to pull forward. So as we’re building these Metaverse, cities around the country, I just urge everyone to, you know, dig deep, and find out how we can push our education for because we’re transforming the landscape, but we’re laying the framework. And if you want to reach out to anyone PILT feel free to reach out to me and I will guide you in the direction that you can go and I’m I’m happy to do that. Because someone paid it for and paid for for me. So thank you. That’s all. Well, thank you. Awesome. Thank you for having me, Kurt and Dana. I enjoy being with you all. And I’ve learned so much out of this book right here that is shaping my man for the future. I’m serious. Thank you know, you have good stuff in here. So if you haven’t, go get this manufacturing ecommerce strategies book by Kurt Anderson. I mean, I’m telling I got the hardback and Kindle, because it’s really, really, really good. And I like when you start talking about your 8020 rule. But more than that, how you feel like you’re late to the game. And some people also feel like to the metaverse game, but you’re not. And this kind of holds some of the keys to what you can do to just kind of bring yourself to the space that you want to be it’s just some real good stuff in here. So I appreciate this book.

Curt Anderson  52:36

I have no idea what I I am so thankful that you like so Damon, we’re not doing another I’m not doing another interview for this year. And Dr. Morris, I my my expression, my admiration, my respect is just what a friendship here. So thank you, God bless you. God bless Gord and God bless your entire family. Thank you for sharing your inspiration with all of us here today, guys. So let’s go out. We wish everybody out there just an amazing, magical, wonderful holiday season. Enjoy quality family time being gratitude. Yeah, just go out and crush it. I’m closing it out. Now. Just

Dr. Muhsinah Morris  53:17

if you want to give a child’s something for the holiday season, go to Amazon and get Seth can do all things I was looking for one of my child’s books. So we wrote a book called Seth can do all things. So that Seth can encourage people who are on the spectrum, that they can do everything that they want to do. So if you want to. It’s a workbook, it’s interactive. Seth can do all things. That’s actually a picture of my son. And this is nice. He almost lost his life in 2020. Due to some neurological problems, but we I promised him that we write a book together. And so we wrote a book, it’s interactive, and your child can actually write in, we’re gonna change it into augmented reality series two, coming up here soon, but he is thriving and doing very well. But if you want to give the child second do all things is on Amazon. And so we also donate the proceeds to families in need who have special needs children, so awesome. Okay. All right. So now that’s it. I’m done.

Curt Anderson  54:23

Guys, thank you have an awesome holiday. Happy New Year. Thank you, Dr. Morris. Hang on one second. We’re closing it out. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.