Workshop at International Summer School “Smart Textiles”
Emanuel Gunnarsson | 9_2023
Measuring Skin-Electrode Impedance (Kopie 1)
Workshop at International Summer School “Smart Textiles”
Emanuel Gunnarsson | 9_2023
Design Thinking-Workshop
Wim Deferme | 03_2024
BA-Workshop
Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer | 11_2025
Hands-on Workshop at Winterschool
Ulrich Moosheimer | 02_2025
BA-Workshop
Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer | 10_2024
Masterclass-Workshop
Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer | 11_2025
Workshop at International Summer School “Smart Textiles"
Barbro Scholz | 09_2023
Workshop for Teachers and Staff
Marja Rissanen | 02_2023
Workshop at International Summer School “Smart Textiles”
Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer | 09_2023
Smart textiles combine electrical engineering with textile and Clothing Technology in an innovative way, creating textile electronics solutions for a wide range of applications.
The Hochschule Niederrhein develops practical orientations for fashion, wearables, sport & lifestyle, automotive, medicine & healthcare, environmental and resource protection, architecture, home textiles and interior design, logistics and many other areas.
The Faculties of Textile and Clothing Technology and Engineering and Computer Science have many years of experience in smart textiles, functional coatings and micro- and nanotechnologies. Thanks to close interdisciplinary cooperation, electronic components can be realised on textiles and even completely made of textiles at the university.
The fields of research and development include
The Hochschule Niederrhein thus offers a unique environment for the development of innovative smart textile solutions - from the initial idea to prototype production and practical orientation.
Teaching education
The double degree "Smart Textiles and Textile Innovation" is a unique international Bachelor's degree programme offered jointly by The Hochschule Niederrhein and the University of Borås (Sweden). The programme combines state-of-the-art expertise in the fields of smart textiles, textile technology, design, production and innovation management.
At The Hochschule Niederrhein, students complete six practical and project-orientated Smart Textiles modules in which they acquire advanced technical skills and develop functional prototypes for real-world applications such as Fashion, Performance Textiles, Health Care and Wearables.
In the 5th and 6th semesters, they study at the renowned University of Borås - the Swedish centre for textile innovation - and deepen their knowledge of textile innovation, recycling and sustainable fibres as well as textile structures. The studies are completed with an innovation-orientated Bachelor's thesis in an international environment. Both locations offer state-of-the-art laboratories, creative spaces and excellent research networks.
Graduates receive two Bachelor's degrees - the B. Sc. Textile and Clothing Management from The Hochschule Niederrhein and the B. Sc. Textile Production and Innovation from the University of Borås - and thus acquire excellent international career opportunities. With a strong focus on interdisciplinarity, digital learning, sustainability and high practical relevance, students are ideally prepared to actively shape the future of the global textile and smart textile industry.
The double degree is also open to students from the University of Borås: they transfer to HSNR for a year and focus on modules in the field of smart textiles.
The Hochschule Niederrhein has been offering Textile Electronics as a new specialisation for the Master's degree programmes in Electrical Engineering and Textile Products since the winter semester 22/23.
Innovative materials, pioneering processing technologies, complex analytical processes as well as aspects of sustainability, product design and project management are just some of the selected contents that are offered in an interdisciplinary, collaborative and project-oriented manner.
Qualifications in systems and applications as well as materials and processes from the disciplines of Electrical Engineering, Textile Technology and Clothing Technology are taught with concrete application examples, for example from the fields of fashion, sport and lifestyle, medicine, automotive and architecture.
The specialisation is aimed at Bachelor's graduates in Electrical Engineering, Textile Technology and Clothing Technology as well as related disciplines. The course can also be taken part-time in accordance with the respective Master's degree programme.
Webschulstr. 31
Reinarzstr. 49
by arrangement
Workshops
Teaching projects
From 2022-2025, the Edu4SmartTex project (DAAD - HAW.International) developed interdisciplinary, digitally supported teaching modules on Smart Textiles and Textile Electronics taught in English, which enable project-based and hands-on learning in international teams. The innovative modules combine content from technology, design, computer science, sustainability and entrepreneurship and promote research- and practical-orientated work in which students develop their own prototypes. The courses were developed in close cooperation with partner universities in Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Indonesia. They are incorporated into a double degree programme with the University of Borås (Sweden) and sustainably strengthen internationally oriented, practical emphasis / orientation in teaching education.
Programme line: German Academic Exchange Service - HAW.International Module B (2022-2025)
Funding amount: 903,423 euros
Prof Dr Ekaterina Nannen (Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science) and Prof Dr Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer (Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology) received a tandem fellowship from the Stifterverband for their Smart Electronic Textiles project at Hochschule Niederrhein. They developed an interdisciplinary Master's module in which students developed smart electronic textiles and worked on digital teaching content in a blended reality internship. Augmented reality enabled location-independent, interactive teamwork, and the students' results were published in video blogs. The course was then made available to other universities in the EU context in order to promote interdisciplinarity and digital media skills.
Programme line: Stifterverband, Fellowships for Innovations in Digital University Lecturer (2019)
Funding amount: 100,000 euros
Research
Research projects and collaborations with industrial partners provide impetus for developments in the field of smart textiles.
Here are brief insights into some of the projects.
Workspaces
Latest news
The aim of the SmartSeam project (IGF project 09689/19) is to utilise seams for functional integration in garments. Using a combination of conductive materials and other functional threads, sensors and actuators can be incorporated into a textile without an additional processing step by means of crossing and interlacing points in the seam. To achieve this, a lockstitch machine with two separate thread laying units is used. A modular protective waistcoat with integrated optical filaments has already been realised to increase the wearer's visibility. Demonstrators with integrated movement and body physiological sensors are also being developed. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the University College Ghent (Belgium) and is funded by the AiF as part of the programme for the sponsorship of joint industrial research IGF by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.
This project is supervised by Prof. Dr Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer, Prof. Dr Kerstin Zöll and Prof. Dr Thomas Weide
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