Due to COVID-19, the International Textile Summer School, which has been held regularly since 2014, unfortunately had to be cancelled in 2020. Nevertheless, in order to give as many international prospective students as possible the opportunity to get to know Hof University of Applied Sciences and its textile technology courses, this event has now been offered in an online format for the first time. Although this was born more out of necessity, the event achieved an outstandingly large reach with 110 registrations from prospective students from India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, Romania, Vietnam, Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria, Mexico, Peru, Philippines and Sierra Leone, which would not have been possible in the presence format.
The varied and interesting ITOW program certainly contributed to this success. In addition to scientifically oriented lectures by the Münchberg professors and the Institute for Textile Machinery and Textile High Performance Materials Technology (TU Dresden), many industry representatives could also be won for lectures at ITOW 2021. Among the lecture topics were textile technology, bio-based man-made fibers, sustainability in the textile industry, digital textile printing, textile coating processes or fluorine-free hydrophobing agents. Detailed information on textile study courses and new plant technology at the Münchberg campus rounded off the ITOW program.
Broad discussion and networking
Presentations took place from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The program included. Prof. Dr. Nico Behrendt guided daily through the week-long program of the ITOW. After the presentations, there was an opportunity for students to ask questions. The discussions were not only about purely technical aspects, but also, for example, about career opportunities in the individual companies. In the afternoons, students were able to exchange ideas and network in a virtual room (Wonder.me). Here, Yash Jagwani also provided information from the perspective of a student about his own experiences from the bachelor’s degree program “Innovative Textiles”
Thanks for support
Unfortunately, a water intrusion in the server room of the university led to the cancellation of the ITOW lectures on 14.7.21, but this could be compensated again in terms of organization. A special thank you goes to the helpers and supporters of ITOW. In addition to the proven and reliable work of Kirsten Gebhardt, great thanks are also due to the colleagues Hisham Nazmy and Andrè Rister from DAL, as they -despite the many online exams- were always available with help and advice in matters of technology during the ITOW.
Even though the International Textile Online Week was born out of necessity, the high number of participants, the many positive feedbacks, the detailed questions about the technical topics and the textile study programs at Hof University of Applied Sciences showed the great interest. We would therefore like to continue the format next year.
Prof. Dr. Nico Behrendt
We would like to take this opportunity to express our special thanks to the external speakers of ITOW 2021 who contributed to the great success of ITOW:
- Dr. Dietrich Wienke, DSM Protective Materials B.V.
- Rainer Tüxen, RotaSpray GmbH
- Norbert Haberer, Rudolf GmbH
- Henning Frank, Textile Machinery Thies GmbH & Co. KG
- Dr. Lars Hahn, TU Dresden
- Helmuth Haas, CHT Germany GmbH
- Sylvia Happel, Lenzing AG
- Michael A. Tuschak and Andreas Meyer, Brückner Textile Technologies GmbH & Co KG
- Dr. Jürgen Thoms, Pleva GmbH
- Jürgen Hanel, A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co KG.
