How Wearable is Your Wearable? 
Dr. Tricia Carmichael, PhD

Visiting from the University of Windsor, chemistry and biochemistry professor Tricia Carmichael, PhD, will discuss the intimate connection wearable electronics create between humans and devices. The demand for wearables is growing, with market projections reaching $150B annually by 2027. Although today's smartwatches, fitness trackers and virtual reality goggles are noticeable and bulky items, the vision for future wearable electronics involves closer integration with humans through the fabrication of new devices that soft, comfortable and unobtrusive. These will will enable us to better monitor human health, detect disease, sense and record motion, display illumination and provide a seamless tactile interface with virtual reality systems. 

Dr. Carmichael will address how combining functional electronic materials with soft elastomeric substrates and textiles will mean devices can be worn on the skin, in the body or inconspicuously in everyday clothing. A fundamental change in this field, however, involves the integration of functional electronic material with substrate materials - which often present problematic surface chemistries and topographies. She'll describe research by the Carmichael Group on new solution-based methodologies to prepare gold films on elastomers, nitrile gloves and textiles that overcome these issues to provide conformal and conductive coatings. Applications such as wearable strain sensors, stretchable light-emitting devices and e-textiles will be presented.

Tuesday,  Oct. 22, 2019
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
KNB 133, University of Calgary (Main Campus)