CAREER: Investigating Novel Tools and Collaborative Programs for Smart Textiles Innovation at the Intersection of Engineering and Craft

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From clothing to blankets to upholstery, we are surrounded by textiles. Smart textiles offer the potential to transform work and leisure experiences and activities. Integrating smart (conductive, sensing, actuating) and functional (environmentally responsive) materials—at the yarn-level—is expected to transform textiles into display surfaces, power generation systems, and sensor networks in a range of work contexts, including medicine. A problem is that current research uses the most basic, oldest form of stitching for integration. This research will bring craftspeople and engineers together to invent the future of tools and programs. Novel yarn-level integration will leverage 9000 years of innovation in textile structures to discover radical new methods for coupling structure and function. By investigating collaboration as a socio-technical practice, this research will create: (1) generalizable findings about how participatory design methods can be adapted to support smart textiles innovation; (2) open-source tools that make state-of-the-art textile design workflows tools available to researchers and the public more broadly; and (3) novel programs for broadening participation in STEM through novel integration of research with university teaching, artist residencies, and multi-generational design workshops.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.