Date: 22nd January 2021
UNESCO TechCul award for UCTS and Fuzhou World Heritage Gallery
The project, titled ‘Cultural Engagement in Digital Interactive Museum (CEDIM)’, won the Entrepreneur award which recognises innovation and excellence in developing digital solutions for culture and creative sector.
The students team of Service-Learning and HCI 3553, led by the staff of School of Computing and Creative Media, University College of Technology Sarawak, Sibu worked with Fuzhou World Heritage Gallery to digitize it’s collection and archives. The team contributed 400 gross man-hours of community service and developed 6 Augmented Reality applications, a database, gallery’s website and a digital game based on the story of Fuzhou arrival and early settlement in Sibu Sarawak. Digitization of its present and future collections is one of the gallery’s strategic objectives. Due to the global pandemic, in October 2020 UNESCO launched TechCul Initiative to bring together tech and culture leaders with startups and entrepreneurs to develop innovative digital solutions to address challenges faced by the culture and creative sector across the Asia-Pacific region. A total of 443 participants from 34 countries registered for the UNESCO Online Ideathon event. After reviewing the submissions of ideas, the UNESCO selection team shortlisted and invited 25 teams to enter the dedicated pitch event which was held on 9 Jan 2021. The final evaluation was then made upon seven criteria; relevance, business potential, solution design, technical implementation, scalability, collaboration, and inclusiveness. “I, my colleagues, the gallery staff and students are delighted to receive this award and ready to replicate the model in other cultural institutions of Sarawak,” says Associate Professor Dr Tariq Zaman, the CEDIM project leader.
