ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FASHION DESIGN
Andy Liu is an Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at FIT, specializing in luxury and high-end fashion. He earned his BFA from FIT and a postgraduate degree from Institut Français de la Mode in Paris. Some of the companies he worked for included Hermès, Lanvin, Christian Lacroix, and Façonnable. His personal research interest is in sustainable design such as adapting 3D-printing materials for apparel use and recycling energy through thermoregulatory or piezoelectric materials.
ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FASHION DESIGN
Sandra Ferrara is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at FIT. She holds her AAS, from FIT.
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Sebastian Pattinson is a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at MIT. He uses materials chemistry, additive manufacturing, and machine learning to realize entirely new devices and materials that interact with the human body and enhance lives. Pattinson has been supported by an NSF Postdoc Fellowship, MIT Translational Fellowship, (Google) X Moonshot Fellowship, and received a PhD in materials science at the University of Cambridge in England.
PROFESSOR, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Gregory Rutledge is a professor of chemical engineering at MIT. Research interests include: molecular engineering of soft condensed matter, polymer science and engineering, statistical mechanics and molecular simulation, and electrospinning and electrospun fibers. Rutledge holds his PhD from MIT and his BS from the University of Virginia. He has received numerous awards, most recently including being elected AIChE fellow in 2017, and fellow of the American Chemical Society, PMSE Division, in 2015, and receiving the Fiber Society Founder’s Award in 2014.
CEO, AFFOA
Yoel Fink is the CEO of AFFOA and former director of the research laboratory of electronics (RLE) at MIT. RLE is MIT’s first interdisciplinary lab, with over 700 researchers and an annual budget of $60 million.
Fink is also a professor of materials science and electrical engineering at MIT. His research group has pioneered the field of multimaterial multifunctional fiber devices, and is focused on extending the frontiers of fiber materials to encompass electronic, optoelectronic and even acoustic properties for textile and composite applications.
He holds a BA in physics and a BSc in chemical engineering from the Technion in Israel, and a PhD from MIT in materials science and engineering. He is the recipient of multiple awards, among them the National Academies Initiatives in Research (2004), the MacVicar Fellowship (2007) for outstanding teaching and the Collier Medal (2016). Fink is a co-founder of OmniGuide Inc. (2000) and served as its chief executive officer from 2007 to 2010. He is the coauthor of over ninety scientific journal articles and holds over fifty issued U.S. patents on multimaterial fibers and devices. As RLE Director, he initiated the Translational Fellows Program, a postdoctoral initiative that facilitates research-derived ventures, and the Low Cost Renovation effort.
DIRECTOR OF FIBER DEVICE TECHNOLOGY, AFFOA
Jason Cox is the director of fiber device technology at AFFOA. He earned his PhD from MIT and is an organic chemist with over 6 years of industry experience in the creation, optimization and transitioning of compelling technologies towards products that alleviate customer pain points. He is a recognized innovator with several pending patents.