1. General considerations

The third edition of the International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest (2023)), henceforth called ISHSC 2023, is organized by the Politehnica University of Timisoara from Romania within the digital cultural initiative Spotlight Heritage Timișoara, co-financed by the Center for Projects of the Municipality of Timișoara, Timiș County Council, Ministry of Culture, Romania, EEA and Norway Grants. Read how the contest unfolded in the first edition in 2021 and the second edition in 2022.

The partners of this contest are Aalborg Universitet from Denmark, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia from Italy, Kauno technologijos universitetas from Lithuania, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University of Agder, both from Norway, and St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences from Austria.

This procedure was written in accordance with the national legislation of Romania and the internal regulations of the Politehnica University of Timisoara regarding student activities, international collaboration with other universities, etc.

The participants have the obligation to respect the terms and conditions of the present regulation for carrying out the activities regarding the participation in ISHSC 2023.

2. Mandatory conditions for registration in the ISHSC 2023 contest

In order to register for the participation in the ISHSC 2023 contest, the participants need to be students at one of these seven universities (irrespective of the level of studies that they are currently enrolled in – bachelor, master, doctorate):

• Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania)
• Aalborg Universitet (Denmark)
• Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy)
• Kauno technologijos universitetas (Lithuania)
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)
• University of Agder (Norway)
• St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Austria)

Participants must fill in a form, accessible at the link https://form.123formbuilder.com/6406828/registration-for-ishsc-2023, which will contain the following information:

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone
• University
• Faculty
• Specialization
• Skills / competencies
• Short idea description

The participants will shortly after submission receive an email from the organizers that will confirm their registration.

3. The ISHSC 2023 contest – outcome, jurying, awards

The contest will require that students work in international teams (at least from 2 universities of the 7 involved in the contest), remotely, in a hackathon style, during the contest phase dedicated to the development/implementation of the idea.. 

If, when you submit your project idea you will not know colleagues from other universities, the organisers will have a mix & match session between projects, after all project ideas are submitted. So, you can submit your project idea even if you do not have an international team and are then invited to discuss and harmonize your project with colleagues from the other universities.

The project idea should be based on creating a digital storytelling artefact in virtual reality or augmented reality with Spotlight Heritage resources, using the existing multimedia artifacts, text and stories, and integrating it in a virtual reality/augmented reality experience. You will be able to create other multimedia or digital artefacts (e.g. 3D images), to integrate other functionalities or connect with your local/national/international stories. You should be able to work in English with your international team.

The digital artefacts will need to be able to run on Meta Oculus Quest 2 (VR) and/or Microsoft Hololens 2 (AR/MR).

Spotlight Heritage resources are available in Romanian and English on the website https://spotlight-timisoara.eu/ and in the mobile applications for Android and iOS that you can find on the app stores with the name “Spotlight Timisoara”. These resources will be made available to the participants in raw format upon their request.

Timeline of the contest:

• Registration: 11.10.2023 - 25.10.2023
• Team formation (where needed): 26.10.2023 – 27.10.2023
• Implementation of the idea: 27.10.2023 – 16.11.2023
• Presentation / pitching / jury: 17.11.2023

The projects will be judged by a panel composed of specialists from the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project, and the results will be announced on the same day. The pitching and jurying will take place, as a standalone section, during the annual Interactive Digital Media Student Contest organized by the Politehnica University of Timisoara.

The winners will receive prizes and will be nominated for the EU Medeea Awards 2024 https://www.medea-awards.com/ and the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest 2024 edition

The 2022 participation in the Medea Awards is featured here:

International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest 2021 finalist at the 2022 MEDEA Awards

Evaluation criterias:

• Creative use of Spotlight Heritage Timisoara multimedia resources and the digital storytelling perspective
• Technical evaluation – mandatory AR/VR final product, complexity and interactivity of the final product and its possibility to be integrated in existing SH applications
• International perspective of the team and ideas

Prizes

There will be maximum of 3 prizes in total amount of 5000 euro(*). Contributions will be deducted from the prize amount.

Politehnica University of Timisoara reserves its right to adapt the project evaluation and prize values, depending on the number and value of the final products produced by teams.

4. Protection of personal data

The Politehnica University of Timișoara, as organizers, undertake to comply with the provisions of General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), regarding the protection of personal data, stored during the registration and the contest itself. As such, the organizers undertake to keep the personal data of the participants in this contest confidential and to use them in accordance with this procedure and the legislation in force.

By simply participating in the contest, transmitting personal data to the organizers and other information requested in the context of this procedure, or by communicating personal data, participants agree that their data should enter the organizers’ database, be processed and used in the future by organizers or legal entities authorized by them, to inform participants about new projects, advertising and marketing campaigns. At the express written request of the participants, the organizers will no longer use their personal data.

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(*) The prizes in total amount of 5000 Euro (funded by the Center for Projects of the Timisoara municipality) will be splitted between the different prizes and equally between the team members, and it will not include the participants students from University of Agder, as their contribution is covered from EEA and Norway Grants.

Spotlight Heritage Timișoara is a digital cultural initiative of Politehnica University Timișoara in partnership with the National Museum of Banat, part of the Cultural Programme Timișoara 2023 European Capital of Culture. Cultural project co-financed by the Municipality of Timișoara through the Project Centre, Timișș County Council, Ministry of Culture, EEA and Norway Grants. The Virtual Spotlight Heritage Timisoara project benefits from a grant of € 97.000 from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA and Norway Grants.