The EuPaC Hackathon brings together students and researchers to explore publicly available cultural heritage datasets related to European history. The event will take place in Plzeň, Czech Republic, from May 21 to 24, 2025. Over three days, participants will collaborate in teams of 7–10 members on predefined case studies, combining domain expertise with computational methods. Each team will be supported by one domain expert and one computational expert. On the final day, teams will present their findings as academic posters.
The primary goal of the event is to foster an international research community that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries while promoting EUPeace values, such as the free circulation of knowledge and inclusion. The analyses will emphasize best practices in open science, including adherence to the FAIR data principles.
The event is organized by CCS-Lab (University of West Bohemia) in collaboration with Marburg University and Justus Liebig University Giessen. It is proudly supported by the EUPeace University Alliance.
Who can participate
The hackathon is open to all students and researchers with any disciplinary or institutional background—from the humanities to engineering (e.g., history, art history, cultural heritage, philosophy, computer science, etc.). The main precondition is it be eager to step outside the comfort zone of your discipline and engage in highly collaborative, interdisciplinary teamwork.
Seats are limited! Accepted participants will be selected by a committee of representatives from the three organizing institutions. For applicants from the University of West Bohemia, Marburg University, and Justus Liebig University Giessen, a limited number of fully funded seats are available, covering travel and accommodation expenses.
Accepted participants are expected to attend the entire event.
Important Dates
Call for participation opens: January 6, 2024
Call for participation closes: February 9, 2025January 31, 2025
Announcement of acceptance: February 21, 2025
Preparatory online meeting for all accepted participants: April 21-25 (TBA)
Hackathon event: May 21-24, 2025
Datasets
- NOSCEMUS (https://wiki.uibk.ac.at/noscemus): a corpus of ~1,000 works of Early Modern scientific literature in Latin. For the hackathon, we will have access to these texts in a machine readable and morphologically preprocessed format, accompanied with rich metadata. The corpus invites us to dive into semantic history of many important scientific concepts, including the concept of science (lat. scientia) itself.
- GRAPHIKPORTAL (https://www.graphikportal.org/): an online platform for discovering, cataloging, and accessing historical visual materials such as prints, drawings, and photographs. It aggregates collections from numerous institutions, offering advanced search and filter options for metadata and high-resolution images. Aimed at researchers, educators, and the public, it facilitates scholarly exploration of visual culture and art history. For the hackathon, we will employ data mediated through the Graphikportal.lab platform, currently under active development, where selected records are published in the LIDO XML format via a dedicated gitlab environment.
- SCRIPTUM (https://scriptum.cz/): a database of Czech Samizdat and Exile Literature. For the hackathon, we will have access to more than 10,000 documents from this dataset in a machine-readable format. For instance, the dataset invites analyses highlighting the significance of information circulation amidst political oppression.
- LIST (https://zenodo.org/records/10473706): a database of ~500,000 Latin inscriptions with machine-readable spatial and temporal metadata and a number of additional attributes. For the hackathon, the dataset invites many forms of spatio-temporal, textual or network analyses, exploring transregional cultural patterns of exchange during the Roman Empire.
Venue
The EuPaC Hackathon event will take place in the main building of the University Library at the University of West Bohemia (Knihovna Bory, Univerzitní knihovna).
Address: Univerzitní 2746, 30100 Plzeň, Czech Republic
Preliminary detailed schedule
Wednesday (May 21):
- Before 15:00: Arrival of foreign participants
- 15:00-15:30: Registration and refreshments
- 15:30-18:00: Group work
- 18:30: Reception
Thursday (May 22):
- 9:00-12:00: Group work
- 12:00-13:30: Lunch
- 13:30-15:30: Group work
- 15:30-17:30: Plenary lecture on recent NLP developments
- 18:00-21:00: Informal social event
Friday (May 23):
- 9:00-12:00: Group work
- 12:00-13:30: Lunch break
- 13:30-15:30: Q&A
- 15:30-18:00: Group work
- 18:00-19:00: Dinner
Saturday (May 24):
- 9:00-11:00: Case studies showcase
- 11:00-12:00: Concluding discussion
- 12:00-13:30: Lunch
(free social event)
Costs
Participation is free.
For applicants from the University of West Bohemia, Marburg University, and Justus Liebig University Giessen, a limited number of fully funded seats are available, covering travel and accommodation expenses.
Travel and Accommodation
Plzeň is located approximately 100 km west of Prague and is easily accessible by public transport (train or bus) or by car via the E50 highway (Prague–Nuremberg). It is also easily reachable directly from Germany, particularly from Nuremberg, Regensburg, or Munich. For example, a direct train runs between Munich and Prague, stopping in Plzeň.
If you are traveling by plane to Prague Airport, take bus 100 to the Zličín stop (17 minutes; ~1 €). From there, you can transfer to a direct bus to Plzeň operated by Flixbus or RegioJet (60 minutes; ~5 €). We recommend purchasing your bus ticket in advance.
Accommodation tips TBA.
For participants from Marburg University and Justus Liebig University Giessen, travel and accommodation will be coordinated.
Contact
For more info, contact the main organizers: Vojtěch Kaše (kase@ff.zcu.cz), Jana Švadlenková (jsvadlen@ff.zcu.cz),