Centennial College is pleased to announce that it has received significant, multi-year funding from The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to develop products for the global e-textile market, and support Canada’s leading role in this industry. Centennial’s Technology Access Centre, WIMTACH, was the lead applicant for this award, partnering with Sheridan College, Humber College, and the KITE Institute at the University Health Network.
Together, the project team will receive $2M, distributed over 2 years, pooling the award along with their equipment and expertise to support medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, in Toronto and across Canada.
“SMEs have requested support with issues facing the e-textile industry in Canada,” says Dr. Purnima Tyagi, Director of WIMTACH. “As strengthening GTA employer relations is a key area of excellence for Centennial, this research collaboration will actively facilitate training and research with our SME partners. We will engage deeply and intentionally with them to directly support business goals related to the design and manufacturing of different e-textile components.”
E-textiles integrate digital components such as biometric sensors, minicomputers, circuits and electronics into fabrics, giving them added value such as data collection, energy transfer and communication. E-textiles can monitor, collect and communicate health data to inform treatment. The potential of these technologies is vast: they can enable virtual care outside of the hospital, which will be invaluable to the elderly and people living with chronic illness, disabilities or neurological disorders.
The colleges are members of a network named FIBRE, which stands for FabrIc-Based REsearch. FIBRE is the world’s first multi-institution research, development, and commercialization platform for textile computing technologies led by UHN’s KITE, the world leader for rehabilitation science. Together, the research partners have the expertise, manufacturing capacity and channels to take the project outcomes to market, leading to jobs, revenue, and health, social and economic benefits to Canada.
For more information, email aries@centennialcollege.ca.