Prof. Elina Ilén
Professor, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech
Prof. D.Sc. (Tech.) Elina Ilén has years of experience in leading, researching, developing, educating and commercialising functional and smart textiles and textile-based wearable technology both in business and academia. Since 2018 she has been developing textile based wearable technology for medical research and diagnostics by detecting neurological disorders of infants and integrating solar cell technologies into textiles to create autonomously operating textile electronics products in Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland. In addition to research and teaching her current work in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, Spain includes the leading of research projects from research idea to a consortium constructing and applying the funding to implementing and managing the projects. Moreover, she provides product design research and development services globally via her own company, Planno. She got her M.Sc in Fiber, Textile and Clothing Science at Tampere University of Technology, Finland 1999 and her dissertation (2015) from Tampere University of Technology discusses decontamination of textile body sensors for the medical environment. She is a co-inventor in five patents concerning textile based wearable electronics. She is keen on designing and developing textile-based products that support their users’ wellbeing and that have a demonstrable societal impact added with high enthusiasm for resource-wise material use and circular economy.
Presentation Title:
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Longevity and End-of-Use Aspects of E-Textile Applications
Presentation Summary:
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The textile and electronics industries are both well-known as one of the most polluting industries in the world. E- textiles combine both industries aiming for high value-added products for instance to improve user’s wellbeing and safety. Even though e-textiles have been a hot topic over two decades which can even save user’s lives, less research and concern are stressed to the longevity and end-of-use aspects of those products. The presentation comprehensively discusses the state of art of longevity and reviews the end-of-use aspects in current e-textile research. It also discusses the different integration levels of electronics with textiles and how that relates to resource wise usage of materials and recyclability of the end-product. It highlights the challenges in developing more sustainable and longer lasting e-textile applications but also provides considerations for the researchers, how to tackle these challenges better in the future. The presentation uses the case example of sun powered textile application in concretizing the context of longevity and end-of-use or e-textiles.
E-Textiles 2023 