The Awards Ceremony for the VWEC Student Challenge 2025 was well attended by instructors, tutors, lecturers, students, participants, judges and more this year. All the students were presented with the individual certificates marking their completion of the challenge. In addition, The Red Team was presented with the trophy for Second Place overall winner and the Blue Team received the certificate for the Most Authentic Exhibit. Congratulations to all the students who participated in this year’s challenge. Well done! Huge thanks to the instructors who mentored the three teams and to all the guest speakers who shared their knowledge and experience over the semester.
Congratulations to the Red Team who were presented with their certificates. Photo courtesy of Acuppa Tae.John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae) accepted the trophy for Second Place on behalf of the Red Team. Photo courtesy of Acupp Tae.Congratulations to the Blue Team who were presented with their certificates. Ersin Ïnal (Ginger) accepted the certificate for Most Authentic Exhibit on the team’s behalf. Photo courtesy of Acuppa Tae.Congratulations to the Green Team who were presented with their certificates, with Lia Pop.
The student teams have been working hard on their projects for the last two weeks and today we finally saw their completed presentations. Çağla Solak, aka Merino, joined us to record the videos for each team and also made a really nice introduction to the student Team Projects for the VWEC Student Challenge. All the team members were present and took part in the tour of their builds and the presentations. The work was very impressive and the performances were word perfect and delivered with confidence and professionalism. Amber Selenium also joined us to take the team photos.
Here is the introduction to the project from Çağla Solak, aka Merino (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
.
RED TEAM: Konrad Karolkiewicz (KONRAD1), Laura Bota (LauraBota), Vanesa Hotca Francesca (Vanesa26), and Derin Nur Özer (nyxiebiyxe). Team mentor: John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae). (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
.
BLUE TEAM: Alina Sandor (AlinaMarsiposa), Ava Fenton (phroggg), Emma Long (Emmagukkie), and Tuğçe Çetinkaya (tugcecetinkaya). Team mentor: Ersin İnal (Ginger). (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
.
GREEN TEAM: Oliwia Kowalczyk (oliwiakowalczyk), Dana Rusu (DanaR2507), Andreea Pasca (Pasca Andreea), and Raluca Pascaniuc (Raluca1984). Team mentor: Lia Pop. (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
.
Amber Selenium took the team photos starting with the Red Team: from left, nyxiebiyxie, Vanesa26, LauraBota, KONRAD1. (Photo courtesy Amber Selenium.)
.
Blue Team: Ava, tugcecetinkaya, Emma, AlinaMariposa. (Photo courtesy Amber Selenium.)
Virtual Environments: Is one life enough? 