The advanced course follows the software development cycle from inception, to implementation, to validation. For this, and at first, design thinking and user experience guidelines, as well as advanced story-telling teach creative tools and methods for outlining and substantialising the AR application idea. Computational thinking and performance profiling lectures equip students with the required theory and practice for building AR applications. The implementation focused technologies advance from the foundational course to cover now spatial understanding (on top of spatial mapping), abstraction for cross-platform/multi-user/multi-device support, artificial intelligence dialog understanding, open CV foundations, wearable technology and making things talk, and volumetric video capture. Finally, evaluating AR introduces the methodologies available for verifying and validating applications.

Insights into specialist application areas and job perspectives will help sharpen your skill set.

As part of the course, students will be tasked with designing, developing, and evaluating their own Augmented Reality application. Assessment will be made and grades will be based on an interdisciplinary team project, ideally bringing together students of the Computer Sciences with students in Arts and Media.

The Advanced Augmented Reality Course will be piloted as an intensive face-to-face training event hosted by Code Reality partner ITMO university in St. Petersburg on 19–24 April 2020. The training modules are designed and will be delivered by trainers from Code Reality partner universities.

The training week will end with a Hackathon on 25–26 April 2020. All participants will be able to team-up with their peers and create Augmented Reality prototypes applying the knowledge from the advanced Code Reality course and other practical and creative skills.

The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and academic as well as industrial researchers.

You benefit from the course if you already know:

• fundamentals of Augmented Reality (e.g., Basic Augmented Reality course by Code Reality)
• some basic mathematical and programming skills (Python, Java, C or C++, Unity programming or equivalent)
• fundamentals of algorithms and data structures
• linear algebra, especially with respect to 3D transformations
• some basic 3D computer graphics
• fundamentals of media, communications or marketing

Due to the high number of potential applications, the application process has been changed. The applicants are now required to go throug the following steps:

1. Application. Download and fill in the application form. It requires the applicants to (a) describe their prior experience with AR, (b) explain their motivation to join the course and (c) choose if they plan to attent the course, the hackathon or both.
2. Submission. Please, send the application form to mikhail.fominykh[at]himolde.no
3. Review. Wait for the notification of acceptance. The review of the applications will be done by the AR-FOR-EU team that is running the course. Selection criteria: (a) matching knowledge and experience to fully benefit from the course, (b) clear motivation to attend the course, and (c) in case of equally evaluated proposals, the priority will be given to underrepresented applicants.
4. Notifications. We plan to evaluate the applicaitons in two rounds. Everyone who submits the application before February 15, will be notified on February 19 (for those applying from outside of Russia, it is important to submit before this deadline, so that we can issue an invitation letter for a visa application). Those who submit an application before the final deadline on March 29 will be notified on April 1.
5. Payment. For each accepted candidate, our host university ITMO will issue a standard educational service contract, which will contain a contract ID number. The applicants are then instructed to make the payment of the registration fee in the official ITMO payment system, using the contract ID number. Visa and Mastercard cards are accepted.

Due to the waiting time for visa applications for international participants, the application deadline has been changed.

1. First application deadline: February 15. The applicants who submit their applications before this deadline will be notified on February 19. For those applying from outside of Russia, it is important to submit before this deadline, so that we can issue an invitation letter for a visa application).
2. Final application deadline: March 29. Those who submit an application before the final deadline, will be notified on April 1.

We introduced a registration fee mostly to cover the cost of the coffee breaks and lunches. All participants have to cover yourself the cost of the travel and accommodation. The academic program of the course is provided free of charge. However, the registration fee is mandatory.

Standard rates:

• Advanced Augmented Reality Course on 19–24 April 2020: 5600 Rub (~80 Eur)
• Augmented Reality Hackathon on 25–26 April 2020: 2100 Rub (~30 Eur)
• Package Course+Hackathon: 7000 Rub (~100 Eur)

Reduced rates (only for local student participants):

• Advanced Augmented Reality Course on 19–24 April 2020: 2400 Rub
• Augmented Reality Hackathon on 25–26 April 2020: 900 Rub
• Package Course+Hackathon: 3000 Rub

Pulkovo International Airport – LED is located 23 km from the city center and serves as the main gateway to St. Petersburg. The airport has direct routs to the major International hubs and most European countries.

From the airport the city can be reached

• by official taxi (can be booked at the arrivals, more information at https://pulkovoairport.ru/en/transport/taxi/).
• by ride-sharing services Uber / Yandex taxi / Get
• by city bus (to a nearby metro station, more information at https://pulkovoairport.ru/en/transport/bus/).

St. Petersburg can be conveniently reached by train from Moscow and many other cities in Russia. There is a train service between Helsinki (Finland) and St. Petersburg. If you are a foreign national, please note that the Russian e-visa is invalid when entering the country from Finland by train from Helsinki (see visa section for details).

Train tickets can be purchased at the RZD Russian railways website: https://pass.rzd.ru/main-pass/public/en.

The city is also bus services to the Balcit and other European countries.

Formally, we recommend Sokos hotel Palace bridge, which provides high international standard and a very convenient location – just 3 minutes walk from the venue.

However, we can informally recommend a few other hotels that are all of good quality and located within 10-15 minutes walk from the venue. These hotels can be found on and booked via several international online hotel booking portals:

• Art Alleya on Repina (address: 1-ya liniya VO, 34, Vasileostrovskiy, 199004 Saint Petersburg, Russia)
• Hotel Piter on Dobrolyubova (address: Dobrolyubova Prospekt 5/1, Petrogradskiy, 197198 Saint Petersburg, Russia)
• Vasilievskiy Dvor Hotel (address: Sredny Prospekt 11, Vasileostrovskiy, 199004 Saint Petersburg, Russia)
• Shelfort Hotel (address: Tretya Liniya Vasilevskogo Ostrova 26, Vasileostrovskiy, 199004 Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Our local host ITMO University will write official invitation letters to all accepted participants who need a visa to enter Russia. We will try to make the invitations letters shortly after the application deadline (February 15), so that the international participants have enough time to apply for the visa and make travel arrangements.

Please, note that these invitation letters require time to be issued and registered by the authorities. The invitation letters for all EU countries, Norway, China, India, Japan, Iran, Iceland and Latin American countries can be made in 3 working days. For all other countries, the invitation letters can be made in up to 20 working days.

Please, also note that the invitation letter will state Sokos Palace Bridge hotel as the preliminary address of the participant in St. Petersburg. This hotel is very close to the venue, and we recommend it as a very convenient option. However, the participants can book any other hotel in the city.

We also recommend to book tickets and accommodation after getting a visa.

We recommend all international participants to get regular visitor / turist visas. The participants are not going to be enrolled in any formal study programs in Russia and therefore do not need student visas.

Russia has recently introduced e-visas. Such visas can be used by the participants. E-visa application portal can be found at https://evisa.kdmid.ru/en-US/Home/Index.

However, we do not recommend this option because such visas are only valid for eight days, including the day of arrival and the day of departure and because of possible typos or errors in filling the e-visa application. Moreover, not all transport options will be available for the holders of e-visas. Specifically, crossing the border by most trains would not allow entrance passengers with e-visas, including the train from Helsinki.

If you decide to apply for the e-visa, please, make sure that:

• Your arrival and departure dates are not more than eight days apart, where the day of arrival counts as day 1 and the day of departure also counts. For participants with e-visas, we recommend arriving on Sunday April 19 and departing on Sunday April 26. Note that if you arrive on Sunday April 19 with an e-visa, your return ticket should be no later than on Sunday April 26. The time of the day (morning or evening) does not matter for the eight-day rule of the e-visa.
• Please, double check that you fill in your name in the e-visa application exactly as the bollom line of the photo page in your passport (highlighted on the image below). This line will help to correctly spell your name, especially if your name contains letters that do not exist in the English alphabet (for example, ä, ö, æ).
• Please, arrive to St. Petersburg international airport.

We will give more details about the visas and border crossing to all accepted participants and will be able to answer all related questions.