The winning applications of the International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest 2021 were presented online, Tuesday, December 14in the presence of more than 100 students at the Finishing event: Virtual tour of Spotlight Heritage 2021: Fabric neighborhood - Worlds beyond destinies

The initiative belongs to the Politehnica University of Timișoara and was organised within the "Spotlight Heritage Timișoara 2021 - Fabric – Worlds beyond Destinies" project, funded in 2021 by the Timișoara Project Centre. Partners of the competition were Aalborg Universitet from Denmark and Università di Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy.

During the competition, the students worked in international teams, consisting of one student representative from each partner university, creating together a digital story in virtual reality with the resources of the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project, using artefacts, text and multimedia stories and integrating them into a virtual reality experience. 

The winners of the competition are three teams of students Christian Bodskov and Oliver Engermann - Aalborg University, Denmark, Ilie-Silviu Berzescu and Marius-Cosmin Tătaru - Politehnica University of Timișoara, Doresita Marino and Luca Contardi - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy.

The stories of Timișoara’s churches, explored in a virtual space

The winning applications contain virtual tours of the Roman Catholic Church "The Sacred Heart of Jesus" in Bălcescu Square (historic district of Elisabetin) and of the Millennium Roman Catholic Church in Trajan Square (historic district of Fabric), in a 3D virtual space, with 360 images, old and new pictures, audio elements, as well as information about the history and architecture of the buildings, the objects of art inside them (paintings, stained glass windows, organs inside the churches), but also about the historical characters who left their mark in the construction, design and development of Timișoara’s buildings. All of these elements are integrated into an interactive and unique VR application through which the user can explore churches through digital storytelling artefacts in virtual reality.

Watch the video presentation of the apps at the Digital Skills for Education and Culture Workshop:

The applications can be downloaded and used on the Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality glasses, but also on the Cospaces Edu web and mobile platform.

The Spotlight Heritage Timisoara resources used by students in developing the applications are available in Romanian and English on the website https://spotlight-timisoara.eu/ and in the mobile applications for Android and iOS found in the app stores with the name "Spotlight Timisoara".

The projects were assessed by a jury composed of Dr. Diana Andone and Dr. Silviu Vert, Politehnica University of Timișoara, and Marius Cornea, National Museum of Banat, awarding prizes worth a total of 3600 euros. Also, the winners will be nominated at the EU Medea 2022 Awards, the student section, and at the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest 2022.