This is the second of a series of interdisciplinary challenges organized within the DATEMATS project, an international learning experience involving students and teaching staff from the universities involved in the project: Aalto university, Politecnico di Milano, Tecnun Universidad de Navarra, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology. The workshop is held at Politecnico di Milano, Design School – 12-16 July 2021.

The interdisciplinary EM&Ts challenge is a workshop made of a combination of hands-on experimentation, design activities, and lectures and presentations by the teaching staff of the four universities and by partnering companies. Twenty-six students will work together in multidisciplinary teams to find solutions for this challenge and to produce product concepts, prototypes, and material samples. Students will apply a new design methodology developed within the project to design with four Emerging Materials and technologies (EM&Ts). The method and tools will support students in understanding, exploring and shaping, and applying EM&Ts, and finding design opportunities from their intersection. Indeed, the main EM&Ts explored in the workshop is Interactive Connected and Smart Materials (ICS Materials), but all the other EM&Ts researched in the project will be integrated: Nanomaterials, Experimental Wood-based Materials, and Advanced Growing Materials.

“Designing with ICS Materials: a dialogue between e-textiles and active lighting technologies”
In this interdisciplinary challenge, a real-life design brief is given to students by the cooperation of two partnering companies: Comftech and SCILIF. The joint challenge is about using the two technologies produced by the companies – a textile sensor by Comftech, and SunFibre active lighting system by SCILIF – as a platform to develop interactive, connected, and smart tangible interfaces for new application sectors focused on stress management and relief, from wellbeing to safety.