Research is an important component of the doctoral program in the NCSU College of Textiles. We were challenged by the faculty in the Department of Textiles and Apparel Technology and Management to submit a research abstract for the Textile Institute 81st World Conference. Ten months later, we were boarding the plane for an extraordinary trip to Australia.

The Textile Institute 81st World Conference was held in Melbourne, Australia, April 1st-4th, 2001. This annual conference is held in a different country each year and industry and academic researchers present their textile related research and share information and progress in the field. The 2001 theme was "AN ODYSSEY IN FIBERS AND SPACE", which was appropriate given the Australia location.

The Welcome Reception on Sunday evening was a great opportunity to meet new industry and academic contacts in an atmosphere surrounded by an eclectic array of foods and local wines. On Monday and Tuesday, the conference consisted of lectures by speakers from all over the world. Topics ranged from the use of textiles by NASA to the future of the textile and apparel industry and marketplace. Some of the presentations provided insight into the Australian textile industry. In all, there were 14 plenary speakers, 62 parallel speakers and 20 poster presentations. Of these, approximately 60 percent were related to the technical aspects of textiles and 40 percent were related to management and education.

Erin Dodd presented a poster, "Future Trends in Short Staple Spinning", which summarized her Master of Science thesis that she defended in December 2000. A complete copy of her thesis is available .

Severine Gahide presented her research paper on "Smart Sensors to Monitor Warp Tension and Breaks on a Weaving Machine". This was one part of her doctoral research. More details of her work can be found .

Severine's presentation

Eun-Kyung (Eunice) Lee presented a paper on "Forecasting of Apparel Demand under Dynamic Consumer Behaviors." In this paper, she analyzed U.S. apparel market in two different points of view: macro and micro. A complete copy of this paper is available in the proceedings of TI 81st World Conference.

The students' advisors (Drs. Hodge, Oxenham, Seyam, Suh) made it possible for the graduate students to attend and present research work. What a great privilege for graduate students to be exposed to a gathering of international experts!

The Conference Dinner

The conference dinner, held at the Melbourne Crown Towers, was a great opportunity to exchange information with international colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere. The final day, participants traveled to Geelong to see the operations included in the production of wool fabrics, from sheep sheering to spinning to fabric production. It was a wonderful learning experience, especially for residents of North Carolina, where the primary industry focus is cotton and polyester/cotton blends.

As graduate students, this opportunity allowed us to network with industry and academic persons. We were able to get feedback about our research interests. We also became better acquainted with our advisors and college faculty since NCSU College of Textile had 11 representatives at this global conference.

College of Textiles
P.O. Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
Telephone: (919) 515-6632
FAX: (919) 515-3733
JTATM Privacy Policy

Last Site Revision:
January 15, 2009