"100 Years of University Campus in Timișoara Celebrated through an Event Showing How Art, Culture, Science, and Technology Can Improve Our Lives"

"100 Years of University Campus in Timișoara Celebrated through an Event Showing How Art, Culture, Science, and Technology Can Improve Our Lives"

The Conference Center of Politehnica University Timisoara hosted, on November 17, 2023, the event "100 Years of UPT Campus," a unique initiative of the UPT Campus Creativ project that brought together students, faculty members, and other members of the UPT academic community, as well as people from Timișoara attracted by the event to celebrate together the power, importance, and relevance of a university campus within the city and community.

The event brought to the European cultural capital in 2023, the city of Timișoara, an innovative concept that combined elements of video mapping, mural painting, a documentary film projection, an ambient lighting concept, speeches reflecting innovative international thinking, and a concert by the Berlin-based band Noblesse Oblige.

The distinguished guest of the event was Swedish designer Anna Rosling Rönnlund, an expert in data visualization and co-founder of Gapminder, the foundation that developed the Trendalyzer software, an application that was sold to Google. Anna spoke about Gapminder and the mission of this foundation, which is to provide a fact-based view of the world that everyone can understand, aspects that are also reflected in her book "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think."

"Be humble, be curious, and remember that there is a huge gap between how we perceive the world and what the data actually reveals about it," was one of the conclusions of the conference held by Anna Rosling Rönnlund in Timișoara, which concluded with a book signing session by her.

"The campus reflects the innovative, cosmopolitan, and dynamic character of the city of Timișoara," as explained by Carmen Lidia Vidu, a theater, film, and events director, who implemented the entire creative concept of the "100 Years of UPT Campus" event.

The screening of the documentary film produced by Carmen Lidia Vidu presented the history of the 100 years of the UPT campus and was one of the most anticipated moments of the evening. The documentary speaks about the evolution of the campus and the city, the history hidden behind the walls of the buildings that today make up the UPT university campus, and the beginnings of Politehnica, which also included elements of sports and culture, among other things.

"The 100 years of the university campus are indeed the years of modern history of the city of Timișoara," is one of the conclusions of the documentary film, as well as of the entire event.

"100 Years of UPT Campus" represented the signature event of the entire UPT Campus Creativ project, designed to encapsulate a century of history, culture, and heritage of the epicenter of Politehnica University Timisoara into a unique event.

The UPT Campus Creativ project brought together throughout the year 2023 events in the fields of art, culture, technology, and architecture to celebrate the entire academic community but also to celebrate the liveliness of a campus that contributes to the growth of the city.

1,500 students, 60 young researchers, 130 university teaching staff, 50 specialists and invited experts, and 10 project partners have been involved so far in this pioneering project that hosted exhibitions, events, workshops, urban and artistic interventions.

The UPT Campus Creativ project is part of the National Cultural Program "Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023" and is funded through the Grow Timișoara 2023 program, carried out by the Project Center of Timișoara, with funds allocated from the state budget, through the Ministry of Culture's budget.