The new center is committed to using AI throughout the entire development process and tailoring it to specific company requirements. This allows recurring tasks to be automated, data to be intelligently linked, and processes to be optimized. This is not just about improving existing processes, but also about opening up completely new innovation paths. AI-supported copilots - similar to a "ChatGPT" for engineers - open up a wide range of possible applications and give companies decisive competitive advantages. The copilots help to analyze complex relationships more quickly and make well-founded decisions.



"Our goal is for German industry to recognize and use AI as a decisive competitive advantage. With the breakthrough of generative AI, the boundaries of what is possible have shifted. The close integration of AI and engineering not only means significant efficiency gains, but also completely new possibilities for product design and development. Our goal is for German industry to recognize and use AI as a decisive competitive advantage," explains Prof. Roman Dumitrescu, Director at Fraunhofer IEM and Managing Director of it's OWL.



A current example of an engineering copilot is a solution for finding identical parts in the agricultural machinery industry. Developers identify the right component from millions of components in just 13 seconds. This significantly reduces manufacturing, development and sales costs. AI is also making decisive progress in automation technology. Fraunhofer AI experts, together with Phoenix Contact, developed a local language model for generating structured text (ST) for PLC programming in accordance with IEC 61131-3.



"The new performance center is an award for the work done so far in our region and an investment in the future viability of the OWL development location. It accompanies industry as a partner - from the initial idea to the practical implementation of AI in development work," emphasizes Prof. Jürgen Jasperneite, Director of Fraunhofer IOSB-INA and, together with Prof. Dumitrescu, initiator and spokesperson of the new performance center.

The strong culture of cooperation in OWL shows how companies, research institutions and universities work together successfully to develop and implement concrete AI solutions. Examples of successful it's OWL initiatives are the  Data Factory.NRW  , the  AI Marketplace  , the  AI Real Lab  and the  Competence Center Arbeitswelt.Plus  . "Our region has been building up excellent AI expertise in its universities for years. The performance center is the ideal format for transferring knowledge from outstanding research to industry - and will further sharpen our profile as a technology location," says Prof. Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk, President of Bielefeld University and Chairwoman of Campus OWL, the association of regional universities.



Benefit from the offers now



The establishment of the high-performance center's office is being funded by the Fraunhofer Society. Companies now have the opportunity to benefit from a wide range of services - from practical live demonstrations and use case workshops to individual consultations and the direct integration of AI-supported copilots into existing development processes. Highlights are the GenAI Incubator in Paderborn and the SmartFactoryOWL in Lemgo: In the GenAI Incubator, companies work together with AI experts from Fraunhofer IEM and student teams on new AI solutions for development.



In a protected environment, companies can test these approaches in a targeted manner, validate them and put them into practice at high speed. In SmartFactoryOWL, companies can use AI for automation under real conditions with experts from Fraunhofer IOSB-INA and thus significantly reduce setup times for machines and systems, for example.



Interested companies can contact Dr.-Ing. Christian Fechtelpeter (  send email  ) and Dr. Gesa Benndorf (  send email  ).