1. General considerations

The International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest 2021, henceforth called ISHSC 2021, is organized by the Politehnica University of Timisoara as part of the “Spotlight Heritage 2021 – Fabric – Worlds beyond Destinies” project, financed in 2021 by the Center for Projects of the Timisoara Municipality.

The partners of this contest are Aalborg Universitet from Denmark and Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia from Italy.

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 2021.

2. Mandatory conditions for registration in the ISHSC 2021 contest

In order to register for the participation in the ISHSC 2021 contest, the participants need to be students at one of these three 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)

Participants must fill in a form, accessible at the link https://form.123formbuilder.com/6007144/, 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 2021 contest – outcome, jurying, awards

The contest will require that students work in international teams either from 2 or from all 3 universities. 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 2 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.

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:

1. Registration: 4.10.2021 – 17.10.2021
2. Team formation (where needed): 18.10.2021 – 24.10.2021
3. Implementation of the idea: 25.10.2021 – 2.12.2021
4. Presentation / pitching / jurying: 2.12.2021

The projects will be judged by a panel composed of professors from all the three universities and the results will be announced on the same day.

There will be two equal prizes, of 1500 Euros each per team, and 1 special prize of 600 Euros per team; the prize value will be split equally between team members.

The winners will be nominated for the EU Medeea Awards 2022 https://www.medea-awards.com/ (student section). All the three places will be nominated for the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest 2022.

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

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.

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.