The Immersive Tech Week Hackathon is a three-day hackathon held at the yearly Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Participating students accept one of the many challenges posed by industry leaders, non-profit organisations and public institutions and develop a project that solves a specific problem or use case, using immersive technologies.
Students Zizi, Mats, Jasmijn, Daan, Steven, Thomas and Fatih are studying Minor Digital Humans at Rotterdam Hogeschool, and were encouraged by their teachers to take part in the hackathon. From over 10 challenges, this team of students decided to work on the challenge posed by Europeana: Showcase an immersive way of storytelling in a 3D environment with real-time interactions to experience history and/or culture, using content from europeana.eu.
So, how did the team approach the challenge?
Step 1: Ideation and planning
The three-day hackathon was described as a whirlwind of creativity and collaboration. Coming from diverse backgrounds, the group found joy in working intensely together, forming a strong bond and gaining a deeper understanding of each other. Despite the challenges of managing numerous tasks, they described the experience as both hectic and enjoyable.
'The hackathon was really hectic, we had to tackle a bunch of different tasks at once, but this also really made us bond together as a group. You really get to know each other when you spend three days together non-stop!' said Jasmijn Oorschot.
After brainstorming and researching, the team identified that they wanted to create something which would:
Excite and engage people through European history and culture
Appeal to younger generations by creating a gamified immersive environment as a learning experience
Acknowledge that cultural heritage institutions often grapple with their contentious pasts, legacies of looted objects and colonial structures.
The team came up with a game that tackled the issues at the intersection of these strands. 'Heritage Heist,' is an XR game you can play using a VR headset or by using an AR app on your phone. The game revolves around the issue of stolen artefacts, raising awareness about the provenance of many objects while also being a fun and engaging learning experience.
For their proof of concept the Heritage Heist team won first place in the 'Best Solution to the Challenge' category. They perfectly answered Europeana's challenge by creating a creative immersive experience that was not only fun, but also tackled relevant social dilemmas.
Find out more
You can visit the virtual museum where the Heritage Heist takes place through Fectar!
Are you inspired to create a project using Europeana data? Then get started with our [APIs (https://api.europeana.eu/) or send us a message with your idea at [email protected].