The x-CITE project, aiming at the digital transformation of European cities under the Digital Europe Programme, has been granted!
Within the scope of the "Developing CitiVerse" call of the Digital Europe Programme for the period of 2021-2027, focusing on the "Cloud-Data and Artificial Intelligence" specific field, the "Expanding the Experience of Citizens through Extended Reality (x-CITE)" project has been accepted. Sabancı University will be a research partner for this project with a budget of 6.5M EUR. The background of the project is based on the development of the CitiVerse platform, which has critical importance for smart city transformation with people and environment in the center, in line with the objectives of the Digital Europe programme.
With the implementation of the project, through the eXtended Reality (XR) tools to be developed, a sustainable interaction model will be provided by prioritizing citizen engagement in smart urban planning, cultural heritage, and tourism domains. Leading smart cities of Tampere (Finland), Flanders (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands) and İstanbul (Türkiye), along with the participation of technology providers and academic institutions will conduct pioneering efforts collaboratively in the project through various use cases to ensure open, interoperable, ethical solutions, fostering the advancement and expansion of a digital twin models for European cities.
In the Türkiye pillar of the project, focusing on tourism, cultural heritage, and environmental improvement in the historical peninsula of Istanbul, XR layers will be created in collaboration with İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Bites and Sabancı University and enriched with multimedia content and stories in order to provide users with an interactive and immersive experience including virtual tours and touristic guidance. We extend our congratulations to our faculty members; Selim Balcısoy, Erchan Aptoula, Bülent Çatay, Orçun Çetin and Çağla Aydın.