Two masters student positions available
This scholarship supports the UTOPIZE project (https://utopize.eu), funded by the European Union, which aims to transform urban and rural areas into sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful spaces aligned with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles. The selected candidate will contribute to the development and evaluation of “UTOPIA Labs”—collaborative spaces where citizens, local authorities, and experts co-design their future neighbourhoods using advanced digital tools.
The successful applicant will investigate how cutting-edge digital technologies can be democratized to foster community engagement and preserve local identity. The research can focus on the technical implementation, user experience, and/or societal impact of rapid digitization and Extended Reality (XR) tools in urban planning.
Work to be developed can address one or more of the following interconnected challenges:
1. Advanced 3D Reconstruction for Urban Digital Twins: Investigate and compare state-of-the-art 3D reconstruction pipelines (e.g., Neural Radiance Fields, Gaussian Splatting, photogrammetry) to create high-fidelity, interactive environments of urban sites. The goal is to determine the most efficient workflows for generating “Digital Twins” that can be used in real-time co-design activities.
2. Immersive Storytelling and Intangible Heritage: Design and prototype immersive applications (VR/AR) that go beyond physical reconstruction to capture “intangible heritage” (oral histories, traditions, and community narratives). This involves exploring how digital overlays can strengthen social cohesion and intergenerational knowledge transfer within a neighbourhood.
3. Societal Readiness and User-Centric Design: Conduct hands-on studies to evaluate the “societal readiness” and usability of fast digitization tools by non-experts. This involves assessing how citizens interact with technologies (like 360° photography or mobile scanning) during co-creation workshops and identifying barriers to adoption in participatory governance.
Expected Outcomes: The project should deliver practical insights into how digital tools can be customized to empower marginalized communities and enhance decision-making in public space transformations.
Grant Recipients: Graduates, in the scientific area of Design and Multimedia, Informatics Engineering, enrolled in a Master’s degree or a non-degree-granting course.
Deadline: April 24 2026