Introduction to Smart and Intelligent Textiles

Smart textiles are fabrics that have been designed and manufactured to include technologies that provide the wearer with increased functionality. These textiles have numerous potential applications, such as the ability to communicate with other devices, conduct energy, transform into other materials and protect the wearer from environmental hazards. Research and development towards wearable textile-based personal systems allowing health monitoring, protection and safety, and healthy lifestyle gained strong interest during the last few years.

Smart fabrics and interactive textiles’ activities include personal health management through integration, validation, and use of smart clothing and other networked mobile devices as well as projects targeting the full integration of sensors/ actuators, energy sources, processing and communication within the clothes to enable personal applications such as protection/safety, emergency and healthcare. The purpose of the course is to train an "Expert for research and innovation in the smart textile sector" by teaching the essential basics of textile technology and deepening the new development trends relating to materials, processes, ICT application and markets.