Keynotes speakers

STAR GUEST

THE IMPACT AND LEGACY OF OUR CLOTHING IS TO IDENTIFY US AS A NATION
Tracy Toulouse

Tracy Toulouse is from the North Shores of Lake Huron, a proud member of Sagamok Anishnawbek. Tracy is an apparel and a traditional craft artisan. Tracy’s artistic vision incorporates authentic Woodland storytelling motifs with modern clothing design dedicated to quality, comfort, and identifiable style. Tracy’s mode infuses applique, leather, fur, antler bone, birchbark, beadwork and ribbonwork. Tracy’s designs reinforce the Indigenous spirit and its connection to the land, showcasing this spirit in a wearable voice to be heard and felt by all. Each design carries the tradition and spirit of the Woodland Indigenous people.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

HOW ESITH WAS ABLE TO SUPPORT THE OPERATORS OF THE MOROCCAN TEXTILE SECTOR DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS
Omar Cherkaoui

Omar Cherkaoui has a doctorate in chemistry since 1996 at the University Claude Bernard of Lyon. He has been a professor-researcher at ESITH since 1997. His subjects cover textile chemistry, textile finishing, polymer chemistry and unconventional “technical textiles” textiles. Since 2009, he has been in charge of the textile research laboratory “REMTEX”. Currently he’s R&D Director at ESITH since 2015. He is responsible and member of the organizing committee of the ITMC International Conference on intelligent Textiles and Mass Customization or Mass Customization. He is an expert in finishing, wastewater treatment, resource efficiency, engineering, laboratory design and testing, chemical risks and technical auditor of ISO 17027 testing and inspection laboratories. His scientific research focuses on the functionalization of textile fibers and the valorization of natural fibers and textile waste into products with high added value and in development of advanced textile materials. His scientific output is over 150 publications in indexed journals and 24 patents.

FIBER-BASED MATERIALS: FROM NANO TO MACRO SCALE
Raul Fangueiro

Prof. Raul Fangueiro is currently Full Professor and senior researcher in the School of Engineering at the University of Minho, Portugal. He is the Director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Head of the Center for Textile Science and Technology of the same university with expertise in advanced materials (nano, smart, composites) and structures (3D, auxetic, multiscale) with 45 researchers. He is the mentor and the coordinator of the FIBRENAMICS – Institute of Innovation on Fiber-based Materials and Composites (www.fibrenamics.com) including 350 partners developing promotion, dissemination, technology transfer and research activities on fiber-based advanced materials. He has more than 180 published papers in international reputed scientific journals, 450 conference publications, 36 books and 40 patents. He is the scientific coordinator of several national and international research projects on advanced fibrous and composite materials, mainly for building, defense, architecture and health-care applications. He supervised various PhD and Pos-Doc scientific works and is the chair of AUXDEFENSE – World Conference on Advanced Materials for Defense and ICNF – International Conference on Natural Fibers. Raul Fangueiro is the founder of the WANFR – World Association of Natural Fibers Research, member of the editorial board of several leading international scientific journals on composite and fibrous materials, and member of several working groups of the European Defense Agency and NATO.

THE ROLE OF SMART TEXTILES IN THE FUTURE OF HEALTH

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier is co-founder and CEO of Montreal-based Hexoskin (www.hexoskin.com), a world leader in smart clothing for vital signs monitoring and AI software for clinical applications. Hexoskin was founded in 2006 and launched in 2013 the first iPhone compatible smart clothing for health monitoring, which won several international awards. In 2018 Hexoskin launched Astroskin, a set of smart garments for clinical research that has been adopted for the remote health monitoring of astronauts in the International Space Station. Pierre-Alexandre is also an advocate for transparency in healthcare, patient empowerment, and healthcare innovation through design.

PATTERNMAKING FOR ATTRACTIVE CLOTHING FOR MASS CUSTOMIZATION

KyoungOk Kim

Dr. KyoungOk Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Textile and Kansei Engineering, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University and Division of Fashion and Smart textile, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, Japan. She received her Ph.D. from Shinshu University in Textile Engineering. Her research interests are clothing engineering, textile engineering, and Kansei engineering for both apparel and textile fields.

SMART MATERIALS&SYSTEMS: HAS EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY BECOME VITAL TO COMMERCIALISATION ?
Marie O’Mahony

Dr. Marie O’Mahony is a sole proprietor of O’Mahony Consultancy with more than twenty years’ experience in smart materials and wearable technology. She is also Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art (RCA) and has written six books on smart materials and advanced textiles, five of these published with Thames and Hudson. She has previously served on the Australian Government’s Textile, Clothing and Footwear Innovation Council (TCFIIC) and is currently a Leadership Council Member with intelliWEAR.

INTELLIGENT GARMENTS FOR ONLINE MONITORING OF HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Xianyi Zeng

Xianyi Zeng is a distinguished professor in ENSAIT Textile Engineer School, France, Director of the GEMTEX Laboratory. His main research interests include artificial intelligence, digital fashion, sensory analysis, intelligent wearable systems, computerized garment design and customized production management. He has published more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and presented more than 200 papers at international conferences, and supervised more than 30 PhD students. In addition, he has been a PI of three European projects such as FBD_BModel (H2020 Program) and a number of national and regional research projects as well as industrial projects in cooperation with international groups in France and Europe.

THE COLLABORATIVE AND COLLECTIVE APPROACHES : A MAJOR STAKE IN MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF TOMORROW
Bruno Mougin

Bruno Mougin started with chemical engineering studies at the National School of engineering in Clermont-Ferrand. He specialized in polymeric materials. At the same time he obtained a master in chemistry of interactions at the Blaise Pascal University and finalized his education with a PhD degree at Claude Bernard University in Lyon in 2005, on the reactive extrusion process for the elaboration of nanocomposites materials. He collaborated in academic environments (Claude Bernard University, French national research centre CNRS, Technical University Clausthal). Bruno Mougin has a strong experience of the industry. He actually worked for Rhodia (Solvay today), Exxonmobil, Hermès, Sofileta, Arjowiggins, Thuasne and other companies in the field of research and development. He joined the association Techtera (the French textile cluster of competitiveness) from 2011 and accumulated several missions : business development, interclustering, management of quality and collaborative projects of innovation mainly at the European level. Bruno Mougin has a strong experience in innovation, at the interface of the academic research and the industrial needs.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY DEPLOYMENT IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Daoud Aït-Kadi

Professor Daoud Aït-Kadi holds an engineering degree in mechanical engineering from École Mohammedia d’Ingénieurs (1973), a Master of Science in industrial engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal (1980) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research (1985). Throughout his education, he has regularly taught courses in reliability/maintenance (Poly. Montreal), in operations management (UQAM) and targeted training in reliability/maintenance for industry (Hydro-Québec, Alcoa, Centrale Nucléaire Gentilly, Renault (automobile and agricultural tractors), SNECMA MOTEURS (France), OCP (Morocco), RAMQ, IRSST... In 1990 he joined the mechanical engineering department at Laval University (Quebec). In 1990 he set up the first Bachelor’s degree program in Industrial Engineering at Laval University. He also actively participated in the creation of the FOR@C research team and the CIRRELT and CIRODD research centers of which he is still a member. Professor Aït-Kadi has supervised nearly 200 researchers at the doctoral, master’s and graduate levels in industrial engineering. Nearly twenty graduates of Professor Aït-Kadi’s team currently hold faculty positions in Canadian, Moroccan, French, African and Asian universities. Professor Aït-Kadi has authored and co-authored nearly 400 scientific publications and reference books. He is a resident member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology of the Kingdom of Morocco. He has obtained several honorary distinctions in both teaching and research. The University of Valenciennes (France) awarded him a doctorate Honoris Causa for his scientific contributions.

FROM MILKWEED TO VEGETO.
Ghyslain Bouchard

After holding a teaching position in textile sciences at the CEGEP of St-Hyacinthe for several years, he was appointed as operations manager for textile and clothing companies. From 2010 to 2018, he was named head of the Soft Textile Materials cluster administered by the Ministère de l’Économie et Innovations, a group within which he consolidated relationships with stakeholders and his global vision of the industry.

In 2019, he took on the role of General Manager of VEGETO’s milkweed division to lead the development and commercialization of an innovative thermal insulation. In addition to overseeing production, Ghyslain mobilizes the team with his formidable leadership and goodwill. Passionate, knowledgeable and critical, Ghyslain Bouchard does not hesitate to get his hands dirty with the soil and raw materials when necessary.

EVOLUTION OF AUTOMATED PLACEMENT OF REINFORCING FIBERS IN THE MANUFACTURING OF COMPOSITE PARTS

Nicolas Juillard

The Monterey Group is the largest weaver in Canada, serving the defence, protection, composite materials and many other sectors where specialized high performance fabrics are required. With more than 30 years of experience in composites and textile reinforcements used in a wide variety of technical applications, Nicolas Juillard now puts his knowledge of both manufacturing processes and applications requiring outstanding performance at the service of a major North American group. Helping to increase performance, reduce the cost of both reinforcements and downstream implementation processes, or the right choice of materials, such is the passion and know-how that he puts at the service of a dynamic sector in full expansion.

CONNECTING INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA FOR SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION IN TEXTILES

Chris Deloof

In 2021 Chris Deloof switched to a career in the academic world after having worked for 30 years in the textile industry. As a textile engineer with a postgraduate degree in business management he has built experience in managing innovation within an international context. He relies on cross-industry networking and co-creation as essential spark for open and transformative innovation.

Chris now manages TEX IS MORE, a business development center at Ghent University Association in Belgium with a dedicated focus on textile innovations for protection, comfort and care. His mission is to build bridges between academic research and industrial applications in textiles.
As a people manager, Chris strongly believes that clear and transparent communication is key to help people and organizations grow.