On Trend – High Fashion meets High Technology

Brought to you by The Future Devices & Technologies Group

This essential one-day SIG event will bring together practitioners from fashion design, material science and wireless technology, working at the cutting edge - where fashion and technology meet.

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

With the buzz around wearable technology such as smart watches and augmented reality glasses, this London event takes a radically different look at wearable consumer electronics, providing a fresh approach on the blending together of the physical and digital worlds. From Apple to Vogue, cutting-edge technology is changing retail in the fashion world. Designers are working with specialised start-ups, and technology giants, to create wearable consumer devices, novel materials and augmented reality.

With an impressive line-up of speakers we will be seeking to challenge assumptions and lay out the opportunities in ‘Fashion Technology’. This event will firstly address the importance and implications of the technology and the engineering behind the product.It will then explore the true potential of these future devices – desirable apparel and accessories - which provide a range of interactivity solutions with the digital, wireless and on-line world.

This Future Devices SIG event will draw on experts from many different fields and seek to answer key questions facing the industry such as:

  • What is fashion tech?

  • What do fashion-conscious tech-savvy consumers want?

  • What design factors are critical to success in this emergent space?

  • What materials are available, which allow the embedding of electronics?

  • How do we avoid the risk of the tech industry making wearable appliances rather than fashionable technology?

This exciting one-day event will combine presentations and participatory workshop sessions to ensure that delegates have every opportunity to extend their learning by working together in small teams. They will also be able to apply insights and rapidly prototype possible future designs in a fun and engaging way.

This event is supported by Geoff McCormick of Alloy / User Experience SIG Champion and Cambridge Consultants with prizes donated by Misfit Wearables.

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWFD.

Hosted by University College London

Postgraduate teaching and research

View profile

Agenda

Expand all

The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

09:30

Registration & Networking

10:00

Introduction to Cambridge Wireless Future Devices SIG by SIG Champion, Peter Whale of Qualcomm

10:10

Brief and overview of the Design Sessions by Geoff McCormick of Alloy / User Experience SIG Champion (see Design Brief at the end)

10:15

Welcome and presentation from our host, Dr Sally Day, Senior Lecturer, UCL, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering

10:35

Q&A

10:40

Introduction to the Student Project Programme; Dr Dean Mohamedally, UCL, Department of Computer Sciences

10:45

Let's Not Waste the Power of Fashion; Marina Toeters, Founder & Director, by-wire.net

Fashion designers have a great ability to create acceptance for change. Fashion changes every season. Technologists develop great things that are very relevant. Acceptance, especially of innovative products close to the body, is always difficult. Collaboration could change the world. However, it seems that fashion is only about changing colour and shape instead of implementing new materials and functionalities. Beside this it is one of the most polluting and wasting sectors. If fashion designers and technologists collaborate they have the power to change the world! Collaboration in the vogue world is Marina’s goal. In her hybrid workspace they create prototypes for innovative fashion and textile products.

11:05

Q&A

11:10

Refreshment Break & Networking

11:40

CuteCircuit, 10 years of Fashion Innovation; Francesca Rosella, Co-Founder & Creative Director, CuteCircuit

12:00

Q&A

12:05

Design Session One: Opportunity

Exploring an underlying primal need - such as sex, safety, hunger or status - in order to elicit a product concept.

12:35

Lunch & Networking

13:35

Meaningful Applications with Wearable Light at Philips; Koen van Os, Senior Scientist Intelligent Textiles, Philips Research

Koen will explain how Philips developed medical applications of wearable light in the just closed PLACE-it project. Phototherapy devices came out as an interesting application domain where all aspects of wearable technologies have to be addressed. Based on this knowledge we are exploring other business opportunities which are meaningful in another context but can be based on similar technologies. For example increasing a persons’ visibility on a dark street or environment is a very promising opportunity.

13:55

Q&A

14:00

Design Session Two: Technology/Solutions

Using a design toolkit to look at key design issues to ensure the design is realizable.

14:30

Fashion and Function; Rob Milner, Senior Consultant, Wireless Division, Cambridge Consultants

Almost all of the enduring fashion brands started out with a functional use and this endures, their products are still good at what they do, but fashion adds the allure and desirability. Rob’s talk will focus on the how - what does technology enable, what are the constraints it introduces, how can you keep the function and what is the flexibility within the product design for fashion?

14:50

Q&A

14:55

Design Session Three: Feedback and Debate

Plenary session to provide feedback and discussion on the previous two sessions

15:25

Refreshment Break & Networking

15:55

Smart Watches presented by Zahid Ghadialy, CTO, eXplanoTech

16:05

Wearable Computing presented by Necati Munir, Computer Science Student, UCL

16:15

Design Team Presentations chaired by Geoff McCormick of Alloy

5 minute presentation from each design group presenting final design and announcing winning teams

16:45

Closing remarks by SIG Champion, Abhi Naha of Zone V

16:50

Event Close and Fill in Evaluation Forms

Speakers

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

Geoff McCormick

Geoff has worked as a business consultant in the design industry for over 10 years. In that time he has worked with some of the world's most famous and successful designers, where his role was to help designers, companies and brands to try and maximise the commercial effectiveness of design. His experience covers every populated continent and a diverse range of sectors, including developing a mobile petrol retail station, an interior design system for VIP aircraft, hydrogen powered vehicles, packaging strategies for FMCG brands and innovation programmes utilising Asian sourcing. It is this breadth of experience that he values most. Common across all of his clients and projects is the desire to create truly unique experiences that occupy a space in peoples' hearts and minds.

Robert Milner - Chief Technology Officer, ghd Cambridge

Dean Mohomadally - Department of Computer Science, University College London

Francesca Rosella - Cutecircuit

Koen van Os - Senior Scientist Intelligent Textiles, Philips Research Laboratories

SIG Champions

Nadia Aziz - Innovation Consultant, Unbounded Future Ltd

Nadia is an Evangelist of emerging technologies with an expertise in AR & VR and IoT technologies. She has advised C-level executives in Telecom and Media organisations for digital transformation and M&A projects over more than a decade. While being a SIG Champion of Future Devices and Technologies at Cambridge Wireless, she has recently co-founded Unbounded Future, a Deeptech consulting firm based in London. Previously Nadia led Emerging Technologies at NTT Data UK where she supervised R&D and innovation in Augmented (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR), AI, and IoT. Nadia is a supporter of Women in STEM initiatives and is a mentor at the University College London (UCL) IXN programme. She is an industry advisor to IoTerra, a USA-based B2B marketplace for IoT products and was a co-producer for the GIANT Health Event.

Muhammad Chughtai - Senior Research Specialist (Electronics & Electrical Engineering), Beko

I am a seasoned senior technology and engineering consultant with over a decade of multinational experience in AI & Robotics, MedTech, and thermodynamics. My career seamlessly blends corporate discipline with start-up agility, informed by a deep understanding of system dynamics and a holistic perspective. My expertise centres on empowering companies to gain a competitive edge through innovation, successful solution commercialization & partnerships, and strategic business development, all while upholding industry standards. In addition to my engineering expertise, I hold a PhD in the field, complemented by an MBAE. This dual qualification positions me uniquely at the intersection of advanced engineering and educational dynamics.

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

David Roberts - CTO - Special Projects, Cambridge Wireless, Founder, Jabooh Software

David is a technology leader with over 25 years experience working in the hi-tech arena. He has recently completed a successful project for ghd in conjunction with CW where he carried out the role of System Architect and facilitator.  Prior to this he worked in in the C-IoT space where he ran a multi-national R&D department that developed silicon and software designed for the burgeoning IoT market. He was also responsible for driving an agile transformation programme and assisting the organisation with their integration into a large Chinese multi-national telecoms company. Having started his career as a software developer working for BT and Acorn Computers, he went on to hold senior roles in a number of world-class organisations such as Symbian, Cambridge University and Citrix in the areas of Software Development, Project Management, Product Management, Research, Consultancy and Architecture. His background includes leading and developing teams involved in the creation of large-scale integrated hardware and software products, web-based services and CE devices. He is also highly experienced in large-scale agile development practices, agile coaching/transformation and creating and executing strategies for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations.

Charles Sturman - CEO, TechWorks

As CEO at TechWorks, Charles is driving collaboration between Deep Tech and Semiconductor companies, Academia and Government in order to promote the sector and grow business opportunities for UK companies.

Previously, Charles was responsible for International Business & Marketing at HiSilicon (Huawei’s chipset business) based in Cambridge UK, with responsibility for product strategy, go-to-market and business development in IoT, edge and smart devices fields. Prior to this he led u-blox’ activities in the fast moving consumer IoT segment (wearables, smart-home and entertainment) following the acquisition of the ARM Software Radio spin-out Cognovo, where we was founder and executive VP Sales & Marketing. Charles has held various positions in system design, business development and product marketing within Acorn Computers, TTPCom, Motorola and ARM.

Event Location

Open in google maps

Location info

UCL, Wilkins Old Refectory Room, Wilkins Building, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE

Related resources

Related events

  • Cambridge Wireless

    Backhauling the Rural Mobile Broadband Service

    Register now
  • Cambridge Wireless

    Risk, perception, management and mitigation in RF Safety

    Register now
  • Cambridge Wireless

    Member Networking 2024

    Register now

Subscribe to the CW newsletter

This site uses cookies.

We use cookies to help us to improve our site and they enable us to deliver the best possible service and customer experience. By clicking accept or continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our cookies policy. Learn more

Reserve your place

Join the CW network

CW is a leading and vibrant community with a rapidly expanding network of nearly 400 companies across the globe interested in the development and application of wireless and mobile technologies to solve business problems.

Sign in to your account

Please sign in to your CW account to reserve a place at this event and to qualify for any member discounts.

Start typing and press enter or the magnifying glass to search

Sign up to our newsletter
Stay in touch with CW

Choosing to join an existing organisation means that you'll need to be approved before your registration is complete. You'll be notified by email when your request has been accepted.

i
Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 uppercase character, 1 lowercase character and at least 1 number.

I would like to subscribe to

Select at least one option*