On 19 January, in the final of the Spatial Joy 2024, the global AR application development competition, two teams guided by Professor Zhang Jingping from the College of Arts Technology and Management stood out from over 200 participating teams at home and abroad, winning three major awards: the Campus Group Silver Award, the Best Technical Innovation Award and the Best Commercialization Award.
The Spatial Joy 2024 is the largest application development competition globally. More than 200 teams from around the world, including well-known enterprises from the industry, universities at home and abroad, business teams from the society and individual developers, participated in the four-month competition. These teams developed applications spanning entertainment, gaming, medical, transportation, education and industrial scenes. Actively participating in the competition, the students and teachers from the College of Arts Technology and Management saw two of their teams advance to the final through rigorous selection and testing.
The competition's final was a star-studded event, with teams categorized into social and academic groups, each showcasing their projects in pitch presentations. Some projects focused on creating lightweight, user-friendly AR applications, while others pursued highly immersive and complex gesture-interactive scenarios. Judges evaluated the entries based on user experience and value, technical implementation and performance, and visual effects. After extensive assessment, the two teams from the College of Arts and Technology Management performed exceptionally well, and both won significant awards.
This outstanding achievement highlights the strong capabilities of the College of Arts Technology and Management at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in the integrated innovation of arts technology. The college emphasizes the integration of arts and technology, encouraging teachers and students to break traditional academic boundaries and participate actively in innovative practices that combine arts and technology. The award-winning teams were guided by Professor Zhang Jingping, who incorporates cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Spatial Computing, and Extended Reality (XR) into art practices in his graduate course "Interactive Design and Creation for Performing Arts" and undergraduate course "New Media Interactive Design for Performing Arts", fostering compound talents with innovative and interdisciplinary thinking.
Students of MFA in Arts and Technology guide the audience in experiencing AR works
Industry mentors share AR innovation cases and application prospects with graduate students
Graduate students experience AR interactive works in class
Industry mentors share AR innovation cases and application prospects with undergraduate students majoring in Digital Media Art
Success in this global AR application development competition not only highlighted the remarkable talent of STA students, but also brought the school international recognition for its innovative integration of AR technology and art. This achievement has encouraged more students to confidently pursue the intersection of art and technology, dedicating their creativity and efforts to advancing artistic innovation.
