Valerie Lamontagne, Smart Textiles Researcher

3lectromode

Valérie Lamontagne is a digital media designer-artist, theorist, and curator researching performance and fashiontech. She is the founder and director of 3lectromode.com, a design atelier dedicated to developing wearables combining DIY practices and technologies with current fashion research. Lamontagne is presently a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) at Concordia University, Montréal, investigating “Performativity, Materiality and Laboratory Practices in Artistic Wearables” where she teaches in the Department of Design & Computation Arts. She is as well a trendcaster and contributing blogger for Fashioning Tech where she has published numerous interviews, and articles on fashion and technology.

• 6557 Clark, Montreal, H2S 3E8, Canada

Tricia Wilson, President / Principal

Fabric Works

Dr. Wilson received her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan and her B.S. from M.I.T. Previous to founding Fabric Works in 2005, Dr. Wilson was Principal Scientist in the Electronic & Biomedical Materials & Systems Division of Foster-Miller, Inc. Between 1998 and 2005 she was the lead technologist developing a business area in electronic textiles. Her past and present work investigates how to use common conductive textile materials and techniques to build integrated networks, antenna systems and higher-level input-output devices. Through numerous military and commercial product launches she became known as a leader in this emerging field. She has served on a number of conference boards, edited chapters and books on electronic textiles and served as a technical advisor to an exhibit entitled “Extreme Textiles: Designing for Performance” which debuted at the Smithsonian in April of 2005. Dr. Wilson formed Fabric Works in 2005 with an interest in applying her knowledge of wearable systems to commercial product design. Since founding Fabric Works, she has built a stable of clients in the medical and commercial products industries.

• 6 Upland Rd West, Arlington, 02474, USA

Tom Martin, Associate Professor, Bradley Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tom Martin is an associate professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he is the co-director of the Virginia Tech E-textiles Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. His current research includes electronic textiles, location-based applications, and interdisciplinary design teams for pervasive computing. Martin is vice-chair of the IEEE Technical Committee for Wearable Information Systems and has published more than 50 refereed technical articles. In 2006 he was invited to the White House to receive the NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for his research in e-textile-based wearable computing.

• USA

Stacey Burr, VP Wearable Sports Electronics

adidas

Stacey Burr is a leader in the field of smart fabrics. Following a career at DuPont, she founded and served as CEO of Textronics Inc, a pioneer in electro-textiles. Textronics lead the commercialization of e-textiles with the first wearable sensors for fitness and health. In late 2008 she successfully sold the Company to adidas and currently serves as Vice President, adidas Wearable Sports Electronics.

• USA

Sarah Sutton, Project Engineer

System Planning Corporation

Ms. Sarah Sutton hails from Arlington, Virginia, where she works as a Project Engineer at System Planning Corporation. In her current role, Ms. Sutton provides technical and program management support for the Warrior Web program within the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prior to her current position, Ms. Sutton spent several years supporting production operations at Lockheed Martin Corporation, including a role developing and integrating new technologies to improve manufacturing efficiency for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Ms. Sutton earned a M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University and a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University.

• USA