Research Statement
I work at the intersection of computational textiles, soft systems, and biofabrication. My goal is to make textiles behave less like passive materials and more like engineered interfaces (sensing, heating, or scaffolding biological growth) while staying manufacturable through repeatable digital pipelines.
I’m especially interested in systems where structure becomes function. Small changes in loop geometry, yarn placement, or material routing can shift electrical response, thermal transport, mechanical compliance, or growth behavior. That leads to my core research question:
To answer this, I build end-to-end workflows that connect design intent to digital pattern generation, machine fabrication, and experimental validation. In practical terms, I treat the textile, the fabrication process, and the measurement setup as one coupled system, and I iterate until the physical behavior is stable and interpretable.
Theme 1: Computational textiles as sensors and interfaces
In my knitted sensing work, I focus on how textile structure and conductive material placement translate deformation into a measurable signal. I’m drawn to sensing not as a standalone electronics problem, but as a materials and geometry problem: what structural changes produce stable signals under real constraints like repeatability, noise, and packaging? The projects in my portfolio document a full loop: pattern iteration, fabrication, benchtop characterization, and analysis.
Theme 2: Closed-loop soft systems for wearable thermal regulation
Thermal wearables are a direct example of where textile fabrication meets control. A heater that can’t regulate safely is not a wearable. My work here treats the textile heater, contact conditions, and the controller as a coupled system. I implemented and tuned closed-loop PID temperature control and built a logging/analysis workflow for rapid iteration and evaluation. While some pattern details are pre-publication, I share what’s transferable: controller design, validation methodology, and system-level integration decisions.
Theme 3: Biofabrication and architectural-scale textile formworks
I’m also interested in textiles as scaffolds for biomaterials and as modular building blocks at larger scales. In the 16 cubits mycelium modules project, I developed modular knitted formworks and a reproducible fabrication pipeline using Knitout/Dat outputs. The process documentation (sketches, prototypes, and site build) captures how digital fabrication becomes real under time pressure, material uncertainty, and assembly tolerances.
Methods and future direction
Methodologically, I’m motivated by research that combines physical prototyping with computational design tools (simulation, optimization, and data/ML-guided search) while staying honest about fabrication constraints. My computational fabrication coursework strengthened this toolkit: robust geometric representations, deformation, FEM, multi-objective optimization, and Bayesian optimization. I use these methods to make textile design more systematic and reproducible.
Design Tools
Helping engineers specify target behavior (signal sensitivity, heat profile, compliance) and generate manufacturable structures.
Validated Prototypes
Demonstrating textile systems as reliable interfaces that operate beyond a lab and scale beyond a single installation.
Across these projects, the throughline is closing the loop between idea and evidence: making systems you can fabricate, test, and iterate until they behave predictably; and documenting that process so it can be understood, reproduced, and extended.