European Museum Night 2025: Over 400 visitors and hundreds of participants, in the UPT Technical Museum
Over 400 people, dozens of guided tours and just as many minds captivated by the past, history and technology explored UPT Technical Museum, within the 21st edition of the event European Night of Museums!
On May 17, 2025, Politehnica University of Timișoara, through the UPT Technical Museum and the Department of ID/IFR and Digital Education, Multimedia Center and together with the cultural project SHeritage Timișoara spotlight were part of the European Museum Night 2025 program. Also offering a program of guided tours, UPT Technical Museum came to life during the evening and invited visitors to discover the fascinating history of information technology. Over 400 people crossed the threshold of the museum, having the opportunity to see MECIPT-1 – the first computer in the Romanian university environment (1961), but also the latest virtual reality and mixed reality applications.
The event was designed for all ages, offering participants the chance to interact with engaging edutainment applications, developed by UPT students and professors within the project. Spotlight Heritage TimișoaraAn important point of attraction was the latest virtual reality (VR) and Mixed reality (AR/MR) applications. Spotlight Heritage Timișoara, through which the public could explore a complex real-virtual world, using state-of-the-art digital technologies to present landmarks of Timișoara and national heritage objects from the collections of the National Museum of Banat, a partner in the project.
The UPT Museum brought together a wide range of participants, from enthusiastic children and curious young people to seniors eager to reminisce, as well as a group of young people from social protection services, who explored the exhibits with fascination.
Among the visitors was Ion Cotârlă, settled in Detroit, a former student of the Computer Department of UPT (class of 1970-1975), an effervescent period marked by the development of MECIPT. Mr. Cotârlă, who had the privilege of knowing Vasile Baltac, but also Iosif Kaufmann and of doing an internship at MECIPT during his student years, before a long career at the General Motors computing center, visiting Timișoara, found the opportunity to share precious memories of the pioneering Romanian computer science.
Visitors also discovered unique digital installations that combine art and technology, such as:
- Interactive applications with educational and entertaining values for children, developed within the project Heritage in the Spotlight/ Spotlight Heritage Timișoara
- The latest achievements of the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project in the field of virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR/XR), offering sophisticated ways of interacting with significant landmarks of the city of Timișoara, mediated through state-of-the-art digital technologies.
- A documented foray into the history of information technologies, including a visit to the MECIPT-1 prototype, the first university computer in Romania, alongside a relevant collection of technological equipment illustrating the evolution of the sector.
- The VR application “Bell Labs Expo”, created by UPT students at the 100th Anniversary of Nokia Bell Labs, dedicated to the development of communications equipment, from the first transistor to today's phones
- Patterns of Poetry: an interactive installation (artist: Marius Jurca, 13m10j) that proposes an exploration of the Timișoara landscape through the synergy between poetry and chromatic elements, inspired by the literary creations of the writer Robert Șerban, brought together under the title "Poems about Domnișoara Timișoara", an integral part of the Heritage in the Spotlight project.
- A set of original digital installations, which materialize the fusion between artistic expression and technological innovation:
- Physic AI Garden: a dynamic virtual ecosystem populated by virtual botanical and mycological entities (artists: Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, in collaboration with CAPABLE Project and BioArt Revolution, with the support of the Romanian Science Festival). This installation offers insight into the growth and interaction processes of virtual organisms, as well as the impact of pharmacological agents on their development.
- Games based on augmented reality (AR), which facilitate an immersive interaction with artifacts from urban cultural heritage.
The European Museum Night 2025 event was held on Saturday, May 17, marking its 21st edition. Eagerly awaited every year, Museum Night 21 took place throughout the day and late into the night, in sync with similar events across Europe.
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