Participation In The DIKE (Digitization of Indigenous Knowledge For Extended Reality And Culture) Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Summer School

Masitah Ghazali

Two Faculty of Computing students were selected to be part of the 8-day residential program that was the first of its kind to be organized here in Malaysia. Teoh Xian Yee and Muhammad Luqman Nazam are both second-year students who are currently pursuing their degrees in Bachelor of Computer Science (Graphics and Multimedia Software).

The Summer School was organized from the 3rd to the 10th of March 2023 and was held at the Borneo Cultures Museum, Kuching, Sarawak. The participants had the opportunity to immerse themselves in learning, hands-on exercises, and networking opportunities with local and international experts in the field of AR/VR, Culture and Heritage, Participatory Design, and Human-Computer Interaction.

Getting feedback on the codes. Luqman was working on from other participants

Throughout the summer school, the participants were grouped into four, where each group from various educational backgrounds (computer science, architecture, arts, and humanities) and cultures (Malaysia, Germany, and Spain), worked together. Each group concentrated on different themes where on the last day, the groups successfully developed applications for four cultural heritage entities and practices; ‘Manai Uwi – the art of traditional rattan weaving’, ‘Old Museum of Kuching – a museum time machine’, ‘Silat – warrior techniques’, and, ‘Pua Kumbu – dream weaving’.

Teoh demonstrated the application his group developed (photo credit: DIKE 2023)

The event was a collaboration between the University of Technology Sarawak, Sibu, the University of Applied Sciences Berlin, and the Humboldt-University zu Berlin, Germany. The summer school is sponsored by the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD). Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Masitah Ghazali, from MJIIT (previously Faculty of Computing), was one of the facilitators in the program.

The selected participants all received return flights (up to 100 Euros), accommodations in Kuching from 2nd to 10th March, and food allowance throughout the summer school.

The program witnessed how interdisciplinary collaboration took place and showed the importance of understanding the context and values of stakeholders, especially in developing XR applications related to cultural heritage. Both of the students felt that they were lucky to be part of the program where they learned a lot and got the opportunity to make friends with other students locally and internationally. The program also gave them inspiration and ideas on what they plan to do in their final year projects.