The International Fabric Design Competition which was organized for the 16th time by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters' Association, was held for the first time this year as two separate competitions, "FutureTech" and "FutureBase International", under the brand "Futuretex Istanbul".
The International Fabric Design Competition, organized for the 16th time by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters' Association, hosted the technical textiles competition "FutureTech" for the first time this year. In competition, our Faculty Research Assistant Janset Öztemur and Engineer Semih Özkür's project named Biotexcover was awarded the 2nd prize, while our Textile Engineering Undergraduate and Innovative Technical Textiles Graduate Program alumni Bilge Koyuncu's Smart Suit/Wetsuit Design project was awarded the 3rd prize.
Furthermore, our Textile Engineering students Ayada Umut Çıngay and Kardelen Pekgöz with their sustainable menstrual pad project called “Friendleaf”, and Yağmur Yıldırım with the groundable yoga mat project called “Back to the Earth” took their place among the top 10 finalists.
We would like to thank all our students and alumni who represented our faculty by qualifying for the final.
BIOTEXCOVER
Biotexcover, which was designed by taking inspiration from nature, is a multi-layered smart textile coating material that can change color. Originally inspired by the structural color and shape-changing mechanism of cuttlefish, other nature creatures such as chameleons and morpho butterflies were also inspired. Color-changing fabrics are produced using different technologies. All existing fabrics change color as a result of a certain effect, and this color change is either uncontrolled or at a very limited level and can only control a certain element. It was aimed to take the smart textile concept one step further by combining existing technologies. In this design, where layers can be thought of as one another, one of the layers is the electronic textile surface, which consists of electronic circuits and sensors connected to the computer under the control of artificial intelligence, and components that can produce and control heat, light, humidity, and movement, while the other layer consists of traditional or conventional textile fabrics. Data such as heat, light, and vibration, which are collected by sensors and transmitted to the computer, are processed by artificial intelligence, calculations are made, and commands are transmitted to the electronic textile surface, where the desired color change is achieved by performing the necessary motion, heat, and light manipulations.
SMART DRYSUIT/WETSUIT DESIGN (SUIT FOR WATER SPORTS)
The aim of the project is to develop and produce water sports suits for professional and semi-professional users, including smart technologies that are comfortable, healthy, warm, and easy to use for use in water sports. In this project, a smart water sports suit was designed and developed, which differentiates the product with the unusual use of textile surfaces along with various electronic components. In line with the demands of users such as divers and surfers, the problems experienced by the existing clothing systems have been defined, and among these problems, the threat of cold, which directly threatens the health of the user, has been focused. In addition, another user issue, "the suit causing skin irritations in people with sensitive skin," was also taken into account. The electronic part, which includes technology, is completely designed as heating and cooling systems, and textile surfaces help solve problems in terms of comfort and health. In the smart water sports suit, activation of the heating system was carried out via an interface that responded to the intuitive responses of the body without the aid of buttons or screens. When the user feels cold, the body makes a self-hugging movement as a natural and intuitive behavior, and this activates the system. When the internal temperature of the suit system rises, the user uses body language to help manage the wetsuit and thus turns off the heater that is part of the suit. In smart sportswear, multi-engineering and physical models and calculations were used for many different parameters, from the material and the selection of these materials for layer formation to the optimization of the system thickness, and thus it was possible to present both functional and creative solutions.