Plenaries
"Industrial applications and challenges for textile composites at Short Brothers – A Boeing Company"
Oran Walsh
Principal Composite Specialist, Short Brothers, A Boeing Company
Oran Walsh obtained his Honors Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Limerick in 2008 after which he joined Short Brothers (formerly Spirit Aerosystems & Bombardier Belfast). He was part of the R&D team to develop the award-winning Resin Transfer Infusion (RTI) process for the Airbus A220 wing.
Oran is currently responsible for the strategic development of composite technologies & intellectual property across the organisation. He provides specialist technical knowledge & composite expertise across all market segments including Commercial, Business, Space & Defense. He holds numerous patents in the field of composite materials & processing and has been instrumental in the continued development of Belfast’s RTI technology.
Oran is the project lead for the ATI Innovate UK funded project “IVI” (Isothermal Variable volume Infusion) to develop Short Brothers high-rate composite manufacturing capability. He currently sits on the Royal Aeronautical Society Structures & Materials Specialist Group and several Industrial Advisory Boards providing a crucial link between technology development & industrial needs.
"A History of Textile Composites"
Stepan Lomov
Emeritus Professor, KU Leuven
Stepan Lomov graduated from School N30 in Leningrad (1972) and the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1978) after which he undertook his PhD on terminal ballistics (1985). He achieved his Dr Hab. on textile materials science (1995), at St. Petersburg State University of Technology and Design. Since 1999 he worked at KU Leuven, Belgium in the Department of Materials Engineering. He was coordinator of the Composite Materials Group between 2013 and 2020, and Toray Professor from 2015 to 2020.
Stepan’s research areas span composites and textiles science and engineering: internal structure, manufacturing, in-service mechanical behaviour, nano-composites, experimental damage mechanics, micro- and meso-level geometrical and mechanical models.
Stepan is (co-)author of the WiseTex and VoxTex software tools for geometrical modelling and XCT analysis of textile composites. He has (co-) authored more than 350 journal papers and book chapters, and is (co-)editor of four books (Elsevier – Woodhead, Wiley), including most recently the extensive text on History of Composites (Elsevier, 2026). He is a member of numerous Editorial Boards (CSTE …) and Scientific Committees (ECCM …).
"Advancing the Future of Healthcare through Electronic Textile Innovation"
Kai Yang
Professor of E-Textiles in Healthcare, University of Southampton
Kai Yang received her BSc in Material Engineering from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in 2004 and PhD in Colour Chemistry from the University of Leeds in 2009 after which she moved to Southampton to take up a Research Fellowship.
Kai has 17 years’ experience in developing e-textiles for wearable healthcare applications. Examples include e-textiles for health monitoring, musculoskeletal pain relief, and neurological rehabilitation. Her research expertise includes user-centred design, e-textile materials and engineering, and medical device innovation. She has secured £12 million in research funding as PI/Co-I supported by UKRI (EPSRC, AHRC, MRC, Innovate UK), NIHR, and Horizon Europe.
She is the Lead of the Winchester School of Art (WSA) E-textile Innovation Lab and is Co-chair of the E-textiles Network. She has over 90 publications. Her work has been featured by Sky News, BBC, and ITV.