Industry Keynote

Melanie Höerr

Melanie Hoerr studied Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. After earning her diploma, she spent 5.5 years at the Department of Textile Technologies at RWTH Aachen as a research assistant and team leader of the research group Functional Textiles and Smart Textiles. She also completed a research internship at the Printed, Textile & Flexible Electronics Laboratory at Microsoft’s Applied Science Group in Redmond, WA.

Since June 2016, she has been Head of Product Design & Innovation for Smart & E-Textiles at ZSK TECHNICAL EMBROIDERY SYSTEMS, supporting customers worldwide with e-textile product development. In January 2023, she founded 3E Smart Solutions, an SBU of ZSK, focused on mass-producible e-textile development, training, and consulting.

TITLE OF PRESENTATION: From Thread to Function: Industrial Embroidery as a Platform Technology for E-Textiles

Industrial embroidery has evolved far beyond decorative applications — today, it represents a scalable, programmable manufacturing platform for functional electronic textiles.

This keynote examines the practical realities of embroidery-based e-textile production from four perspectives: First, it introduces the fundamentals of embroidered conductors, including material selection, design parameters and the limitations encountered in production environments. Second, it explores moss-embroidered electrodes for biosignal acquisition, including ECG, EMG and EEG, and discusses their potential in relation to signal quality, comfort and wearability. Third, it presents methods for integrating rigid and flexible printed circuit boards directly into the embroidery process. Finally, it addresses the transition from laboratory prototypes to industrial production, drawing on lessons learned from real customer projects.

The talk closes with an honest assessment of where the field stands today — and an open discussion on what still needs to be solved before embroidery-based e-textiles can reach their full industrial potential.

Academia Keynote

Dr. Laura Devendorf

Dr Laura Devendorf is a design researcher working at the intersection of craft and engineering. Her personal practice explores how technology shapes reflection, particularly around experiences of motherhood. As director of the Unstable Design Lab, she works collectively with faculty, students, and visiting artists to build communities around “experimental weaving,” a term that captures a broad range of approaches to and applications of woven structures across art and science. Over the last several years, she has also led the design of AdaCAD, an open-source computer-aided design tool that applies the principles of computational design to the creation of woven structures. Her research has received several Best Paper Awards in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and has been supported by a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Laura is an Associate Professor of Information Science in the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her PhD from the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and studio art from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Title of presentation: Weaving Counterfactual Narratives of Technical Progress

Counterfactual thinking is a form of asking “what if” questions that consider how the present might have unfolded if historical events had different outcomes. In this talk, I draw from my research as an artist, computer scientist, and design researcher to present a counterfactual narrative of technical progress rooted in my deep fascination with and immersion in the world of complex weaving—the practice of creating complex 3D, electronic, and/or robotic structures. For example, how might our relationships with devices change if we handcrafted them from fiber, mended them with thin metals, and adapted them to our changing bodies with crochet hooks? I weave together historical narratives of textiles and technology with the work of students and artists-in-residence at the Unstable Design Lab to craft a vision of technology that emphasizes humility, care, and community.