The initiation of cooperation with the Colombian partner university EAFIT is a strategic step to extend AWARE to further countries in Latin America. In 2018, Dr. Dagmar Tomanek participated as keynote speaker in a workshop on Industry 4.0 organized by EAFIT, and, in return, THI hosted a group of EAFIT professors and students to attend the first International Autumn School on Industry 4.0.
Since 2014, THI has been fostering a closer cooperation with EAFIT in Colombia, a university with approx. 13,400 students and 1,000 professors located in Medellín. The exchange became especially vivid through the developing contact between Dr. Dagmar Tomanek, research assistant focused on Industry 4.0 and digitalization at THI, and the Department of Production Engineering at EAFIT. Tomanek was invited twice to EAFIT: In 2017 to teach a four-day seminar on smart factories and digitalization and in 2018 as the keynote speaker for a workshop on Industry 4.0 with more than 120 participants from industry and science.