Textile Institute Centenary Conference - a huge success

03 Feb '11

4 min read

In November 2010, a very special event took place in the heart of Manchester City Centre, textile professionals and academics joined together to celebrate 100 years of The Textile Institute. The Textile Institute Centenary Conference was a huge success with almost 90 oral presentations and over 40 poster presentations covering a vast array of topics from design, fashion and footwear to healthcare and medical textiles; from sustainability to marketing and management.

To highlight the excellent standard of presentations given at the conference, The Textile Institute presented some very special awards in recognition of the commitment many of the presenters put into their work; awards were given for the following; Best Paper, Best Poster and Best Student Paper.

A panel of judges, which included the Session Chairs as well as chosen academics and professionals, assessed the strengths of each paper and poster. Each winner was presented at the closing ceremony of the conference at Manchester United by Professor Subhash Anand MBE CText FTI, chair of the conference, the winners were awarded a certificate and a received a cheque for GBP£500.

The winner of the Best Paper award was Mei-chun Cheung, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University for her paper entitled 'Brand Names in the Brain: An EEG Study'. This paper discussed how brand names are recognised in the brain using the results of a study which tested the EEG coherence of 32 participants during 4 reading conditions. This study found that brand names have a distinct neural substrate response in the brain and are processed at the semantic level. The judges felt that this paper had the best content and most industry relevance and also had the most publishable material from all the papers presented at the Centenary Conference.

The Best Poster award was given to Arunangshu Mukhopadhyay, National Institute of Technology, India for his poster entitled 'Impact of Operating Parameters on Particulate Emission and Related Characteristics during the Pulse-Jet Filtration Process'.

This poster outlined an experimental study in which the effect of different operating parameters and material consolidation of nonwoven fabric on the filtration parameters and emitted particulate characteristics were investigated in a real operating situation in a pulse-jet filter unit. The poster also discussed the results of the study which include; that the emission is reduced with the increase in punch density and punch cycle time but it increases to a certain extent with the increase of air to cloth ratio. The judging panel believed this poster to have the most innovative information, industry relevance and publishable material.

The judging panel felt that the final award of Best Student Paper should go to Kanchi Govarthanam Karthick, University of Bolton, for his paper titled 'Development of an Advanced Personal Protection Equipment Garment for Protection Against Slashes'. The judges felt that this presentation had the best content and had used the best investigative techniques of all student presentations. The objectives of the research were to develop a novel cut resistant and slash proof material that is lightweight, comfortable and efficient.

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