The promotion and valorization of the material and immaterial cultural heritage of the city of Timișoara continues at an international level, the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project becoming an example of the integration of digital technologies in culture and education within the cultural program Novi Sad 2022 – European Capital of Culture. 

 Starting from the implementation team's desire to innovate the way a city's history and heritage are presented to the general public, Patrimoniul sub Reflectoare – Spotlight Heritage Timișoara currently enjoys a large international audience eager to learn as much as possible about the next city with the role of European Capital of Culture.

The participation of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, as part of the collaboration with Novi Sad 2022 ECoC, took the form of a digital exhibition with cutting-edge technologies of the city of Timișoara, carried out by the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara team, in which participants were invited to discover information, images, videos and memories of residents of the city's historical districts. 

The exhibition took place from 2-5 November 2022 at the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and attracted an impressive number of visitors, who interacted with augmented reality, virtual reality, mobile applications and our website and watched recordings of theater and dance performances with Spotlight Heritage digital technologies. Visitors had the opportunity to interact with augmented and virtual reality applications, which present landmarks of the city, were able to walk its streets and visit the most famous monuments, without leaving the city of Novi Sad.

The exhibition started on November 2, 2022, with a very large number of participants and continued throughout the whole week, with a series of activities dedicated to the culture and heritage of the city of Timișoara, but also to the promotion of technical education in Timișoara, the applications being developed by the UPT students and teachers. Almost a thousand visitors were active participants of the exhibition, which promoted and valorized the cultural heritage, material and immaterial, of Timișoara at the international level, through the digital augmentation of historical stories and buildings, highlighting the multiculturalism of the city , the diversity of ethnicities, styles architecture and the stories of its inhabitants.

On the third day of the exhibition, a team from Romania, represented by members of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, the Timișoara 2023 Association, the National Museum of Banat and Thespis Student Theatre, visited the ongoing exhibition. The members present, representatives of the various entities important for the actions carried out in the cultural program Timișoara 2023, met with representatives of the Novi Sad 2022 program, with the managers of the university that hosted this event (the University of Novi Sad), with the aim of exchanging information, cultural ideas, but also technological solutions, digital education models and best practices for promoting culture and technology. 

During this visit, the initiator of Spotlight Heritage Timișoara, Dr.eng. Diana Andone, director of the e-Learning Center of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, presented the idea of the project and its evolution over the years. The presentation was followed by the interaction of the Romanian participants, prof.dr.eng. Radu Vasiu, President of the Senate of the Politehnica University Timișoara, Zoran Marcov, head of the History department and Marius Corneamuseographer, National Museum of Banat, Tiberiu Novak, community manager, Timișoara 2023 Association, with colleagues from Serbia, Prof. Darko Stefanović, vice dean at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Dr. Miljana Zeković, Dr. Dragana Konstantinović , vice dean at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Dr. Vesna Latinovici, Director of BelArt Gallery and Danube Dialogue Festival, Dr. Sara Vuletić, Program Director at the Novi Sad 2022 Foundation – European Capital of Culture.

During this meeting, Zoran Marcov, head of the History section at the National Museum of Banat, handed the 150th anniversary medal of the National Museum of Banat, to the vice-dean of the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Novi Sad, Darko Stefanović.

The meeting was followed by a series of demonstrations at the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara stand, as well as visits to the cultural centers Svilara and Egység Cultural Station, developed within the cultural program Novi Sad 2022. This meeting highlighted the importance of the link between history, heritage and cultural sustainability, and the influences that technology has. 

The implementation team enjoyed the many curiosities of the participants about the city with the next title of European Capital of Culture, Timișoara 2023, as well as many impressions about the culture and history of the city and, in particular, about the applications through which they managed to find out all this information in unique visual details.

The entire event was held in English and Serbian and was organized by the Politehnica University of Timișoara, the Faculty of Technical Sciences – University of Novi Sad and the National Museum of Banat.