The Industrial University of Santander (UIS) hosted the International Meeting “Bridges in Science,” organized by the Erasmus El Bongó Physics Project, with the aim of discussing the challenges and opportunities of internationalizing research and advanced training.
“The objective of this meeting is to join forces with universities in Latin America and Europe to strengthen research at the UIS and all institutions allied with the project,” explained Olga Patricia Ortiz, director of Postgraduate Studies at the UIS.
El Bongó Physics is an ambitious international project in which the UIS participates as one of Colombia’s representatives. Its goal is to contribute to the digital transformation of education by creating communication channels that facilitate the exchange of knowledge, as well as the creation of postgraduate courses, accompanied by their laboratories.
“Since December last year, we have been working on forming communities in different fields of physics: particles, astroparticles, geosciences, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. We also plan to create virtual laboratories and centers for the manufacture of instruments,” said Gabriela Navarro, coordinator of the El Bongó Physics project.
The meeting included keynote speeches, workshops, and a technical meeting that allowed details to be finalized in order to move forward with the consolidation of the project.
“Researchers from 14 countries in Latin America and Europe came together to build bridges of cooperation. The project is progressing positively; in fact, the European Union has decided to continue its funding, which is unusual and reflects the quality of the work and the results obtained,” said Carlos Jaime Barrios, professor at the UIS School of Systems Engineering and Computer Science and guest researcher at the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) in France.
The participating researchers will continue working on preparations to launch courses within the framework of the project starting next year.
“We plan to continue with virtual meetings and open the first courses with students in March 2026, which will allow us to fully implement what we have been planning,” said Luis Núñez, professor at the UIS School of Physics.
The academic agenda for the meeting will continue tomorrow at the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga.
