Role
Tilak Dias is the Professor of Knitting at Nottingham Trent University. After studying Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1969 Tilak obtained a ‘Diplom-Ingenieur’ in textile engineering from the Technische Universität in Dresden in 1981, and obtained a ‘Dr.-Ingenieur’ from the Universität Stuttgart in 1988. Professor Dias has held the chair in knitting in the School of Art and Design since 2010 and is the Head of the Advanced Textiles Research Group. He has over 40 years of experience in knitted structure design and knitting technology, and has been developing electronic textiles since 2002. Tilak has given 60 invited talks and has over 170 scientific papers in leading journals and conferences. His research focuses on the development of electronic textiles and advanced knitting technologies.
Research areas
Professor Tilak Dias's research is centred on the disciplines of textile material properties, performance and design and has been largely interdisciplinary in nature, involving the relationships between structure, properties and performance. Since 2000 Professor Dias has focused his research activities in two areas:
- advanced textile structures
- integration of textile technology with electronics.
The above research focus has led into such diverse fields as:
- embedding of micro-chips within the fibres of a yarn
- embroidered antennas
- knitted sensors
- electrically heatable knitted structures
- knitted structures for prostheses
- eczema garments
- varicose ulcer and lymphoedema treatment systems
- burns garments
- wearable cooling systems.
More information about Professor Dias's work is available at www.e-yarns.com.
External activity
Professor Dias has developed three novel core technology platforms; which have resulted in the formation of three spin out companies in the UK for their commercial exploitation; ATM Ltd, SmartLifeInc Ltd. and EntellFibres Ltd.
Press expertise
Tilak's areas of expertise are:
- Textiles (Electronically Active Textiles - EAT);
- Textiles (knitted medical textiles; Knitting).