NEWS
RMIT hosts global textile material experts
The current state of play and potential future advances in the field of textile materials were discussed and debated at the TBIS-APCC conference at RMIT’s Brunswick campus in July.

The conference – bringing together the 9th Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Symposium and the 6th Asian Protective Clothing Conference (TBIS-APCC) – was hosted by the Centre for Advanced Materials and Performance Textiles (CAMPT) in the School of Fashion and Textiles from July 12 to July 15.
The TBIS-APCC symposium and conference is a unique global platform for those working in the textiles supply chain, ranging across materials, fibres, apparel and technical textiles as well as related industries such as biomedicine, fashion and sports.
Over 135 delegates from 20 countries attended the three-day conference, which brought together academics, researchers, students and industry participants from around the world. The conference was supported by local Australian industry representatives Bruck Textiles, TFS Australia, Bekaert Deselee, Australian Wool Testing Authorities and Merino and Jumbuck.
Across ten plenaries, 31 keynotes, 41 oral presentations and 37 posters, the conference covered a diverse range of topics including textile materials bioengineering, thermal bioengineering for protective clothing, and electro-bioengineering.
Associate Professor Jessica Bugg, Deputy Head of Research at the School of Fashion and Textiles, said RMIT was proud to host a conference of TBIS-APCC’s stature.
“The School was honoured to host this international conference, which provides a collegiate, cross-disciplinary and engaging research exchange within and across our subject disciplines, between international researchers, industry and our HDR community.”
Head of the School of Fashion and Textiles, Professor Robyn Healy, and CAMPT Director, Professor Rajiv Padhye, welcomed delegates to the conference before it was officially opened by Professor Paul Gough, Pro Vice-Chancellor Design and Social Context and Vice President.
Padhye said feedback from attendees at the conference was “very positive”.
“Participants greatly enjoyed the chance to meet like-minded people from so many countries, the opportunity to network, and the Australian hospitality. Great achievement for CAMPT,” Padhye said.
The Conference Proceedings, comprising 98 papers on various aspects of the textile material industry, will be published in book and online formats and will be EI indexed.
Story: Bradley Dixon