Innovation never goes out of style at UMass Lowell
03/01/2025
By Brooke Coupal
You’re running late for work.
As you scramble to throw together a lunch, stuff everything you need into your bag and find your left shoe, you realize your cellphone battery is at 2%. You don’t have time to wait for a wall charge, so you pull on a power-generating sweatshirt, stick your phone in the pocket and rush out the door.
You’re relieved when a beep signals that your sweatshirt is charging your phone. But it’s one of those days, so as you hustle to your car, you don’t see the broken glass next to your driveway. A jagged piece tears a chunk of the sole from your shoe; luckily, you’re wearing your self-healing boots, and soon, the chemical binding agents are doing their thing
By now, you’re wishing you had just stayed in bed, but you were up late creating slides for a 9 a.m. meeting, and you’re not going to miss the chance to show off your animation skills. You glance at the clock as you jump in the car and realize it’s going to be tight. You start to panic, and your smart socks waste no time letting you know. An alert has you glancing at your watch, which displays the socks’ reading of your rising heart rate and blood pressure. After a few calming, deep breaths, you see the numbers start to normalize and put the car in drive. Is it Friday yet?
Although they’re not yet in every closet, the innovations above are already under development—and researchers at UMass Lowell are working on many of them.
“People want more from their clothes than just protection,” says Ramaswamy Nagarajan ’98, ’00, a distinguished university professor in the Department of Plastics Engineering. “Fabrics are continuously evolving.”
Innovations in fashion are nothing new to UMass Lowell. In 1895, UMass Lowell’s predecessor institution, the Lowell Textile School, was established to develop a skilled workforce for the textile industry and help direct its future. Roughly 130 years later, UMass Lowell is still leading the way in functional fabrics.
“The university has always been on the cutting edge of textiles and growing with its evolutions,” Nagarajan says. UMass Lowell is home to the Fabric Discovery Center, where startups, small businesses and large companies partner with the university to drive innovation in functional textiles. The center, which opened in 2018, is the only site in the United States that integrates discoveries from three Manufacturing USA Institutes.
In the Fabric Discovery Center and labs across campus, dozens of faculty researchers are pushing the boundaries of fashion by creating the fabrics of the future. Their innovations go beyond the initial intent of garments, further improving lives.
Power Generating Clothes
Researchers in HEROES (Harnessing Emerging Research Opportunities to Empower Soldiers) are working on an invention that could one day make it possible to power electronics with our clothing.
A partnership with UMass Lowell and the U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center in Natick, Massa- chusetts, HEROES develops advanced technologies to help improve soldiers’ combat protection, sustainment and effec- tiveness. While the work of HEROES researchers focuses on the military, their innovations have the potential to be integrated into everyday life, just like previous military inventions, including the internet, duct tape and cargo pants.
“Our work not only helps the soldier, but also the civilian market,” says Claire Lepont, senior technical program man- ager for HEROES and the Fabric Discovery Center.
Lepont and Nagarajan are part of a HEROES research team that is creating power-generating fabric. They work alongside Physics Prof. Jayant Kumar, DEVCOM Research Chemist and HEROES Co-Director Ravi Mosurkal and sev- eral students and postdoctoral researchers.
The fabric created by the research team generates electricity by converting energy from light, which can come from the sun or artificial sources such as light bulbs. The generated electricity can charge small devices that require low amounts of power, like sensors. Many everyday devic- es, including cellphones and smartwatches, require large amounts of power to recharge.
“At present, the power conversion efficiencies (of the fabric) are still low,” says Nagarajan, co-director of HEROES and the Fabric Discovery Center.
Through grants totaling nearly $1 million, the research- ers intend to increase the energy efficiency of the fabric’s solar yarn, also called organic photovoltaic fiber. Among other improvements, the team is exploring new methods for connecting the fibers in collaboration with Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Scott Stapleton and investigating ways of integrating the fabric with flexible batteries with Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Ertan Agar.
For Lepont, the possibilities of the power-generating fabric are abundant and wide-reaching.
“In the future, we can see anyone using it,” she says.
Worn-Out Sneakers, Heal Thyself
“The cushion and support provided by new shoes are ideal for overall comfort and preventing joint pain and other health problems. However, new shoes wear out, and those benefits disappear.
According to RunRepeat, a company that has tested and reviewed more than 800 shoes, casually worn sneakers should be replaced every six to 12 months, running shoes after 300 to 500 miles and walking shoes every three months for those who walk an hour a day.
Chemistry Assoc. Prof. James Reuther and his lab group are developing a way to keep shoes in commission longer. HEROES awarded Reuther and industry partners two grants totaling more than $1.1 million for their work, with roughly $265,000 going to UMass Lowell.
“Our research is specifically being applied to combat boots, but because of the way we designed this chemistry, it can be broadly applied to all footwear and beyond,” Reuther says.
The bottoms of combat boots, known as the outsole, are traditionally made of rubber. In collaboration with Maine-based Polymer Laboratories and Solutions and Germany-based BASF, Reuther is looking to replace rubber outsoles with polyurethane, a synthetic resin that is lighter than rubber and easier to break in, making the boots more comfortable.
Reuther and his lab group created dynamic chemical bonds that they incorporated into the polyurethane to pro- vide a self-healing property to boot outsoles, in which a tear would mend itself.
“That’s our secret sauce,” Reuther says. “Because of this dynamic bond exchange, the outsole can heal itself sponta- neously when we apply heat or pressure.”
Partnering with Acton, Massachusetts-based Haartz Corp., Reuther intends to incorporate the same self-healing property into synthetic leather. They envision this leather replacing cowhide leather in the upper part of combat boots, such as the tongue. As with polyurethane, synthetic leather is lightweight compared with cowhide and easier to break in.
When a person is ready to retire their self-healing shoes or boots, Reuther has a way to keep them out of landfills: By integrating specific chemical bonds, the researchers can break down the material into byproducts that can be upcycled into medical devices and other items.
“Our goal is that you can introduce these chemical bonds to applications that pose the biggest sustainability problems, preventing them from entering landfills,” he says. “We’re seeing how commercially viable this could be."
Exoskeletans Enhance Movement
Yi-Ning Wu doesn’t have to put much thought into grabbing a cup to take a sip of water, but she un- derstands that a task considered simple to many is an impossible feat for some.
The associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Kinesiology is on a mission to help people who have difficulty moving their arms by advancing the design of exoskeletons—wearable devices that enhance human capabilities.
“Exoskeleton design does not just require engineering and computer science,” she says. “Health sciences play a very important role as well.”
At the UMass Lowell New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center, Wu and her research team are investigating how the body reacts to an exoskele- ton—a brace composed of sensors and motors—on the arm. Insights into the body’s muscle movements can lead to better exoskeleton designs.
“Exoskeletons give people the ability to do things that they might not be able to do anymore, like the stroke popu- lation, who might have a small amount of muscle activation, but not enough to complete a task,” says Hannah Allgood ’23, a physical therapy doctoral student working with Wu. “As we learn more about these assistive devices, we can apply them to different populations so they can be used more in everyday life.”
Holly Yanco, chair of the Miner School of Computer & In- formation Sciences and the director of the NERVE Center, is collaborating with Wu and Physical Therapy and Kine- siology Assoc. Prof. Pei-Chun Kao to develop an arm-worn exoskeleton that adapts over time to a person’s changing capabilities. Yanco and Kao are also developing comfort- able sensors for exoskeletons that can measure a person’s fatigue in real time, allowing the exoskeleton to provide as-needed assistance on demand.
The National Science Foundation is funding both projects through grants totaling more than $1.3 million. The researchers are using exoskeletons created by Dephy, a Maynard, Massachusetts-based company, and Myomo, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, to conduct their studies. “We live in such a fantastic area to be doing robotics,” Yanco says. “There are all these companies that we can work with.”
Alternatives to Toxic Chemicals
When it comes to the protective gear that firefight- ers wear to keep them safe on the job, there are dangers lurking. PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” which are used in the manufacturing of firefight- ers’ garments, are highly toxic and may lead to cancer and other serious health issues.
Awareness of these harmful effects has been growing. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill last summer to phase out the use of PFAS in firefighters’ protective gear. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, manufacturers and sellers will be prohibited from knowingly selling firefighter gear containing intentionally added PFAS.
“This bill is an important part of our efforts to protect the health, safety and well-being of our firefighters in Masachusetts,” Healey said when she signed the bill.
Since the 1940s, PFAS, or poly- and perfluoroalkyl sub- stances, have been used in a wide variety of products, from nonstick cookware to water-repellent clothing, due to their appealing ability to resist grease, oil, water and heat. The discovery of PFAS’s harmful effects has prompted a need for alternative protective coatings for textiles and other products, a challenge that UMass Lowell researchers have taken on.
About 10 years ago, Plastics Engineering Prof. Joey Mead developed a coating in collaboration with researchers at Shenkar College in Israel that could repel water. The only problem was that this coating contained PFAS. As more information about the toxic chemicals came to light, Mead realized the importance of removing PFAS from the coating. The researchers successfully modified the coating’s chemical composition, so it kept the same water-repelling property without using PFAS.
Now, Mead is seeking to make the coating oil-repellent, with the goal of scaling the coating production so it can be used in the manufacturing of textiles. Mead envisions textiles being sprayed or dipped in the coating, giving them water- and oil-resistant properties.
“Bigger applications of the coating would be for military and firefighting garments, but everyday people might very well want to wear the coated garments too,” she says. “Say we dribble some salad dressing on our clothes. With the coating, we could wipe it right off.”
Clothing can protect against fire through the incorporation of flame retardants, a diverse group of chemicals that are added to manufactured materials. However, flame retardants often contain halogenated compounds, which, like PFAS, are toxic and persist in the environment.
Nagarajan’s work on halogen-free flame retardants has led to multiple patents and the creation of a new company, Raksha Innovations Inc., which is being incubated at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub. Through Raksha, Nagarajan plans to scale up the process of making the patented coatings.
“By spinning out this company from our research, it allows us to bring our inventions to scale, so they benefit so- ciety,” says Nagarajan, Raksha’s founder. “Eventually, when we grow enough, we will be hiring UMass Lowell students.”
From Cooling Vests to Heated Clothing
Whether you’re hiking Mount Washington on a hot summer day or trekking to the grocery store during a blizzard, the elements play a role in your safety and well-being.
To keep people comfortable, researchers from the Francis College of Engineering and the Kennedy College of Sciences are developing garments that cool off people in the heat and warm up people in the cold.
Funded by a $450,000 grant from HEROES, Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Hunter Mack is enhancing the effec- tiveness of cooling vests in collaboration with Plastic Engineer- ing Profs. Meg Sobkowicz Kline and Stephen Johnston ’05, ’07. The team is focusing on the materials used in the vest, rather than developing a dramatically different cooling system.
“If we borrow components from existing cooling vests and leverage approaches that have already been proven in the field, it increases the likelihood of success,” Mack says.
The researchers collaborated with the Fabric Discovery Center to create prototypes of the vest, which consists of a small, battery-powered pump that circulates water through a closed-loop system. The cooling tubes are made of special formulations of polymeric materials, which resulted in a 10% increase in the system’s cooling performance compared with previous benchmarks, Mack says.
While this work is being done to enhance the performance of military members, the researchers see their vest also being used in sports, aerospace, medicine and high-heat jobs such as firefighting and construction.
Over in the Department of Chemistry, Asst. Prof. Michael Ross is working with Reuther to make heated clothing. Their goal is to integrate nanomaterials into textiles that generate heat by absorbing light.
“The primary challenge is to identify materials that generate sufficient heating through light absorption and to durably incor- porate them into an array of coatings and textiles,” Ross says.
Their research, which is funded by a $250,000 HEROES grant, is aimed at keeping soldiers warm in the Arctic; how- ever, it can also be applied to civilian applications, similar to Mack’s cooling vest.
Elsewhere on campus, researchers are developing sensors to improve helmets. They’re creating more durable and protective eyewear. Others are printing metal inks on fabric to boost Wi-Fi signals. Some are combining nanoparticles with peptides, or short chains of amino acids, to design sensors that, when integrated into clothing, alert people of elevated pH levels. These early-stage innovations have the potential to redefine fabrics and fashion, impacting not only what we wear, but also our performance and comfort in our jobs and daily activities.
“Just like the university did 130 years ago,” says Nagarajan, “UMass Lowell is developing the next generation of textiles— textiles that have the potential to revolutionize our daily lives."