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Smart Fabrics Virtual Summit 2019 will be held in Spring 2019. Stay tuned for more information.
Smart Fabrics Virtual Summit 2019
Emerging Trends in Research, Technology and Public Policy
Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) will host the Smart Fabrics Summit 2019. This year, the summit will be conducted virtually May 14-15, 2019.
Newly titled as the “Smart Fabrics Virtual Summit” this online event will provide a forum for public and private sector leaders in technology, apparel, and textiles to highlight recent developments in the smart fabrics industry, identify opportunities for collaboration and discuss key industry challenges.
Advances in technology have brought together the apparel, technology, and textile industries to develop new capabilities in fabrics with the potential to change how athletes, patients, soldiers, first responders, and everyday consumers interact with their clothes and other textile products.
Known as “smart fabrics,” these new high-tech products have the ability to interact with their user or the environment, including tracking and communicating data about their wearer or environment to other devices through embedded sensors and conductive yarns. The applications for these new capabilities are broad with most smart fabric product development currently seen in the fields of defense, sports/fitness, health, and public safety.
Reaching the market’s full potential will require not just overcoming technical challenges but also bridging differences in how these distinct industries approach product development and addressing various public policy issues, including trade policy.
To foster greater collaboration between the U.S. apparel, technology, and textile industries and to identify the public policies that could accelerate the design and manufacture of smart fabrics products by U.S. companies, the Department of Commerce in partnership with the Industrial Fabrics Association International will host the Smart Fabrics Virtual Summit on May 14-15, 2019. This event will build on the success of the 2018 and 2016 Smart Fabrics Summits and highlight emerging trends and new technology in this growing market.
Through two half days of webinar format presentations, the Virtual Summit will:
- Bring together industries that need to collaborate in order for the emerging smart fabrics industry to meet its full potential and accelerate its development by U.S. manufacturers;
- Improve mutual understanding of the needs of private sector industries and the roles of public sector agencies;
- Spur original thinking among public and private sector organizations about how new or existing policies affect current and future smart fabrics products; and
- Provide invaluable conference education presented by experts without the expense of travel.
The issues that will be explored at the Smart Fabrics Summit include: (1) research and development funding, (2) intellectual property, (3) standards, (4) data security and privacy, (5) product development trends, and (6) commercialization of products.
DAY ONE | MAY 14 | EST TIME
11:00am: Introduction
DAY TWO | MAY 15 | EST TIME
11:00am: Introduction
GOLD SPONSORS
ALL SPONSORS
For more information on sponsorship, please contact:
Mark Berriman, meberriman@ifai.com, 651-225-6909.
Brad Holschuh
Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
Brad Holschuh, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Wearable Technology and Apparel Design in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, and Co-Directs the UMN Wearable Technology Laboratory (WTL).
He is a faculty affiliate in the MnDRIVE Initiative (Robotics, Sensors, and Advanced Manufacturing focus area), and holds additional graduate faculty appointments in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, Human Factors/Ergonomics, and Design. He earned B.S. (Aero/Astro ‘07), dual M.S. (Aero/Astro ‘10, Technology and Policy ‘10), and Ph.D. (Aerospace Biomedical Engineering ‘14) degrees from MIT before transitioning to UMN in 2016. Dr. Holschuh’s research focuses on the use of wearable technology to improve human performance both in space and on Earth, with a specific focus on integrating active materials technology into wearable systems. His work encompasses wearable technology, biomedical device development, human factors design, textile engineering, aerospace engineering / bioastronautics, and materials science.
Chris Jorgensen
Director of Technology Transfer,
IPC—Association Connecting Electronics Industries
Chris Jorgensen is Director Technology Transfer with IPC—Association
Connecting Electronics Industries, a worldwide trade association for the
electronics interconnect industry. As a member of IPC’s technical department,
Chris’s primary responsibility is staff liaison to standards development
committees. These committees include the IPC D-70 E-Textiles Committee, IPC
D-70-INT-EU E-Textiles Committee in Europe and IPC D-60 Printed Electronics
Committee.
Chris also represents IPC as a member of AFFOA – Advanced Functional Fabrics of America and NextFlex–America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute, for which he is a co-lead of its Standards, Reliability and Test Technical Working Group.
Chris has nearly 20 years of experience in standards development, nonprofit management and marketing. He received his degree in communications from Columbia College in Chicago.
Matthew Kolmes
Executive Vice-President,
Supreme Corporation, USA
Mr. Kolmes is the Executive Vice-President of Supreme Corporation, USA. Supremes’ Mission is to make the highest quality cut, slash, and abrasion resistant yarns, fabrics, and safety products in the world, utilizing proprietary coatings engineered to provide antimicrobial, flame retardant (FR), durable water repellent (DWR), and other desired protective finishes. Matthew has a degree in Economics from New York University (1994) and graduated from New York Law School in 1997. He has a background in Civil Litigation and Intellectual Property Law.
After 10 years as a Litigation Attorney, Mr. Kolmes joined Supreme Corporation in 2007 as a salesman and travelled extensively until 2009 launching and promoting the Tuff-N-Lite® brand all over the world. In 2009, Mr. Kolmes made the transition to In-House Counsel for Supreme Corporation and manages the Patent, Trademark, and Trade Secret aspects of Supreme’s Intellectual Property portfolio. In 2011, Mr. Kolmes became the Executive Vice-President of Supreme Corporation, and continues to work as In-House Counsel, and focuses on new Product Development, and Operations Management. The development of new technology, and the Licensing and Commercialization of that technology are his prime focus at Supreme Corporation.
Madison Maxey
Founder & Technologist , LOOMIA
Madison Maxey is an award-winning technologist who is passionate about materials and creative technology. She focuses on bringing flexible, robust circuitry (e-textiles) to scale as Founder of LOOMIA. Throughout the course of her work at LOOMIA, she has developed e-textile prototypes and workshops for fortune 500 companies. Maddy’s work has built the foundation for several pending patents and has led to invitations to lecture at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, NYU and University of Illinois Champaign Urbana.
In addition to e-textiles, Maddy has performed computational design and physical computing work for the F.I.T Museum, Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, CNBC’s Jump Jive and Thrive and Google Creative Lab. She has also held creative technology residences at the School of Visual Arts, Autodesk, and Pratt’s BF+DA where she won the BF+DA Technology Innovation Award. She is a former Thiel Fellow, Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, TED@NYC selected speaker, and Lord & Taylor Rose Award Recipient.
Stephanie Rodgers
Director of Advanced Product
Development, Apex Mills
Stephanie Rodgers has been at the forefront of textile and component
product development for luxury and flagship automotive interiors for General
Motors, Magna International, Fisker Automotive and newly emerging electric
vehicle companies for the majority of her career, however also, the first
textile engineer at Microsoft Corporation, she challenged and collaborated with
XBOX and SURFACE researchers and engineers to design and develop with textiles.
Receiving two Microsoft applied US Patents pending in integrated electronic
textile applications and for developing a user attachment for handicapped XBOX
players. Stephanie is also a specialist in color development and is passionate
about the use of engineering simulation, rapid prototyping as predictive
development tools and manufacturing.
She has been putting her Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Engineering from Philadelphia University to work for 30 years. In addition to traveling the global textile community, she has lectured about textiles to design and engineering students of all disciplines. She currently works as the Director of Advanced Product Development for Apex Mills using yarn as a vehicle for innovation. Additionally, she is an advisory panel member of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America Institute and co-chairs the IPC committee developing the first industry consensus standard for e-textiles materials.
Evan Sills
Director, Good Harbor Security
Risk Management
Evan Sills is a Director at Good Harbor Security Risk Management, where
he advises corporate executives and boards of directors on cyber risk
management, helps prepare clients for cyber-related crises, and provides best
practices guidance to other institutions. He is the editor and rapporteur of A
Playbook for Cyber Events, a project of the American Bar Association’s Standing
Committee on Law and National Security that serves as a guide for legal and
cybersecurity professionals on the interplay of legal, operational and
technical issues that arise when preparing for and responding to cyber
incidents. Previously he worked at the Cyber Security Policy and Research
Institute at the George Washington University and the National Security
Division in the US Department of Justice. Evan is a graduate of the George
Washington University Law School and Elliott School of International Affairs.