DoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lecture Series 2025-2026: Session 4

DoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lecture Series 2025-2026

The DoWell research group offers an expanded interdisciplinary workshop and lectures series this year to provide the opportunity for colleagues to explore an exciting range of different topics, including practices and approaches to co-designing in various health and care contexts. The format of the monthly sessions is more flexible this year, including online presentations and panel discussions as well as in-person workshops for colleagues to get hands-on experience and get involved in the different approaches to co-design. The workshops aim to provide a forum and time for colleagues to meet and get to know each other’s work, and to foster discussion and cross-faculty collaboration.

We are looking forward seeing you all in the workshop.

Kristina Niedderer & DoWell group

Session 4: Fashion & Textiles for Health & Wellbeing

This session explores how fashion and textile research can enhance health and wellbeing, presenting innovations in wearable heating, adaptive knee-brace design using metamaterials, and inclusive apparel research through ethical, user-centred, and technology-led approaches.

Dr Prabhuraj Venkatraman, Dr Tasneem Sabir, Dr Elizabeth Kealy-Morris

Speaker Bio:

1. Dr Prabhuraj Venkatraman: Senior Lecturer specialising in technical textiles and sustainable fashion innovation.
2. Dr Tasneem Sabir: Senior Lecturer in textiles technology with expertise in textile science and sustainable materials
3. Dr Elizabeth Kealy-Morris: Senior Lecturer focusing on dress, identity, and belonging.

Abstract:

Prabhuraj Venkatraman: ’Advances in wearable heating systems: Optimised conductive embroidery designs for technical textile applications.’

The project uses an embroidered design with conductive threads, enabling efficient heat distribution on conventional knitted and woven fabrics. Its low power and current consumption make it suitable for battery- or power bank-powered heating pads, ensuring portability and prolonged use. Such heated textile pads can find applications for a wide range of healthcare applications, such as socks, gloves, and medical bandages.

Tasneem Sabir: ‘Knee injuries, knee braces, and the potential for metamaterials.’

The presentation explores common knee injuries in females and the limitations of current brace designs. It highlights how metamaterials, engineered materials with unique mechanical properties, could improve knee brace performance by improving stiffness, support, and adaptability for females in sports rehabilitation.

Elizabeth Kealy-Morris: ‘Pilot study: ‘Assessing the apparel needs of people with disabilities.’

The on-going international pilot project Assessing the apparel needs of people with disabilities exemplifies ethical design in practice. Conducted by researchers in the UK and US, the mixed-method study integrates surveys, wardrobe interviews, and state-of-the-art 4D body and motion scanning to investigate how disabled participants experience, select and represent clothing. By capturing bodies in motion rather than static postures, the methodology reveals forms of exclusion and accommodation that remain invisible in conventional apparel research. This presentation will discuss early findings from on-going data analysis.

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Host or Publisher Arts & Humanities Research & Innovation