The winners of the 12th Edition of the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest 2026
The Politehnica University Timișoara, through the Multimedia Center and the Digital and Distance Education Department, organized the 12th edition of the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest (IDMSC) 2026. The competition took place in a hybrid format, in the Multifunctional Hall of the UPT Library and online, bringing together dozens of talented young people from Romania and Austria, who presented 22 new and innovative projects. This edition was of particular significance, as it also marked the 30th anniversary of the UPT Multimedia Center.
Now in its 12th edition, the IDMSC 2026 student competition aimed, as it does every year, to stimulate the creativity and competitive spirit of the participants. This year’s edition brought together 31 students from two universities in Romania (the Politehnica University Timișoara and the West University of Timișoara), as well as international students from the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria, members of the European University Alliance E³UDRES². The competition brought together dozens of creative young minds passionate about technology, who presented projects in the following categories: Web Development, Mobile Development, Internet of Things (IoT), eXtended Reality, and Graphic Design / Audio-Video Production. Participants had the opportunity to interact directly with representatives from the business community, potential employers, as well as with the leadership of the Politehnica University of Timișoara and the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technologies.
student projects in the spotlight
At the opening of the event, the Vice Rector of the Politehnica University Timișoara, Acad. Liviu Marșavina, Ph.D., Eng. thanked the company representatives who took their time to support this competition, emphasizing the opportunity participants have to be evaluated directly by potential employers. Prof. Emeritus Radu Vasiu, Ph.D., Eng., the competition’s initiator, spoke about its tradition at UPT, and Prof. Cătălin Căleanu, Ph.D., Eng., Dean of the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technologies, congratulated the students on their hard work.
The grand prize of the 2026 Interactive Digital Media Student Contest was won by Emanuel Trânc, a PhD student at ETcTI, UPT, for his project Agricultural Digital Twin (Agritwin). This project is an IoT and AI platform for precision agriculture that uses solar-powered sensors in the field and predictive models in the cloud to reduce crop losses and optimize farmers’ decisions. The award was presented by IDMSC partners and the Politehnica University of Timișoara as part of the European project supporting university innovation, Horizon Europe Accelerate Future HEI. Category awards were presented by partner companies: Nokia, ETA-2u, Haufe Group Romania, Lasting, and Cobalt Sign.
modernizing websites, creating short films, and more
In the Web Development category, the winner was the TenueVibe project, presented by Nicolae Daniel Hnatiuc (undergraduate student in Automation and Computing, UPT). TenueVibe is a platform based on artificial intelligence and modern web technologies (Laravel, Livewire, LLMs), designed to automate the modernization of outdated websites, transforming them into current UX/UI layouts in just a few minutes.
In the Internet of Things (IoT) category, the winning project was Steelgate, presented by Andrei Cristian Pop and George Ichim-Andronache (undergraduate students in Automation and Computing, UPT). Steelgate is a compact network-level security and parental control device that allows users to filter traffic, block ads, and apply restrictions (such as digital detox modes) across all screens in the home, without requiring the installation of apps on each individual device.
In the Mobile Development category, the winning project was Swiva, presented by students Kevin Kraushofer, Daniel Studera, and Mona Sigmund (master’s students, University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria). Swiva is a mobile app that centralizes users’ saved ideas, activities, and locations, transforming them into real-life experiences through playful swipe-based methods. The concept eliminates decision fatigue during leisure time, emphasizing spontaneity and social interaction to facilitate the planning of individual or group activities.
In the eXtended Reality (XR) category, the award went to the Historia Virtualis project, created by Serkan Sönmez, Georg Becker, Florian Fussthaler, and Sophia Olesko (master’s students at the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, Austria). Historia Virtualis is a multiplayer Mixed Reality (XR) experience that recreates the city of St. Pölten in the 1st century AD, transforming history education into an interactive and social adventure through hand-tracking technologies and a shared virtual space.
In the Graphic Design and Audio-Video Production category, the winning project was The Last Human Signal, presented by students Abesinghe Mudiyanselage Isuru Udara (undergraduate student, Communication – Public Relations, UPT) and Raphael Shaan Gupta (undergraduate student, ETcTI, UPT). The Last Human Signal is a dystopian sci-fi short film and psychological thriller created with custom visual effects and immersive audio design, which explores artificial intelligence’s control over memory and free will.
Also in the Mobile Development category, a special award was presented to the StrawBoss project, developed by Miroslav Maletici and Mădălin Ghilezan (undergraduate students in Automation and Computer Science at UPT). StrawBoss is a digital platform (React Native, NestJS) designed for the efficient management of the harvesting, transport, and storage of straw and hay bales. The solution eliminates paper-based record-keeping by digitizing the flow between the field and the warehouse, offering full traceability and offline functionality. Through role-based interfaces (operators, drivers, managers), GPS tracking with geofencing, and OCR technology for fuel receipts, the platform prevents quantity discrepancies, optimizes costs, and monitors routes in real time.
12th edition of the contest
“This year, participants in the 12th edition of IDMSC 2026 have once again demonstrated that young students have the ability to transform complex technological concepts into practical, necessary solutions with direct applications in society. Celebrating three decades of the Multimedia Center’s existence provides us with the ideal opportunity to look with pride toward this new generation of future graduates and professionals who will enter the workforce, with a vision and creativity that shape the future of digital transformation,” stated Prof. Emeritus Dr. Eng. Radu Vasiu, director of the Multimedia Center and chair of the IDMSC 2026 jury, at the Politehnica University Timișoara.
The IDMSC 2026 jury was composed of leading experts from industry and academia: Florin Ciocan (Nokia), Arthur Csertus (Cobalt Sign), Mihai Burada (Haufe Group Romania), Octavian Vlad (Lasting), Astrid Olteanu-Heel (ETA-2U), Prof. Radu Vasiu, Ph.D., Eng. (UPT Multimedia Center), Assoc. Prof. Mugur Mocofan, Ph.D., Eng. (UPT Multimedia Center), and Assoc. Prof. Silviu Vert, Ph.D., Eng. (UPT Multimedia Center). The prizes, consisting of both merchandise and cash, were awarded with the support of the IDMSC 2026 sponsors, which were Nokia Romania, ETA-2U, Haufe Group, Lasting, and CobaltSign.
The Multimedia Center and the Digital and Distance Education Department at Politehnica University Timișoara congratulate all of this year’s participants in the Interactive Digital Media Student Contest, proudly recalling the Center’s three decades of excellence, and especially congratulate the winners for their determination to carry out diverse projects and for the innovative way in which they integrated convergent multimedia technologies.
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Article created by: Politehnica University Timisoara