Month: January 2026

HealthTech Forward 2026 is a technology showcase hosted by ST Innovations, featuring live demos, client success stories, and networking with industry, ecosystem partners, and government representatives.

Date: February 25, 2026, 10 AM – 12 PM
Location: Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Research Innovation at the University of Alberta

Join us to celebrate health technology innovation and connect with collaborators across Alberta’s innovation community.

For more information and to register, click HERE.

In 2024, a transdisciplinary team from the University of Alberta received an award from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund to co-create a project titled “Co-designing a Smartwear Revolution,” a complex, transdisciplinary 6-year research project that involves an iterative co-design process engaging multiple stakeholders, from various disciplinary and methodological backgrounds, as well as people with lived experiences.

The technology development of the project is led by the following 6 domains: Actuators/Fibres, Sensors, Power, Control/AI, Textile, and Biomechanics. Positions are available in all domains:

  • Textiles and Design Integration: Projects focus on designing and prototyping comfortable, serviceable smart garments by integrating sensors, actuators, and electronics directly into textile and garment structures for diverse user needs.
  • Actuators/Fibres: Projects develop and manufacture advanced smart fibres and soft actuators, optimizing materials, fabrication processes, and textile compatibility for reliable, scalable integration into garments.
  • Sensors: Projects create and validate textile-integrated wearable sensing technologies (e.g., pressure, strain, EMG, tilt) to monitor body motion and muscle activity.
  • Control & AI: Projects design modelling, control, and AI frameworks that estimate user intent and adapt garment assistance in real time through human–garment co-simulation and predictive control.
  • Power: Projects develop safe, high-energy-density, textile-compatible power systems, including solid-state batteries, wireless charging, and early-failure detection for wearable smart garments.
  • Biomechanics: Projects support all domains by quantifying human movement, muscle activity, and body variability to inform garment design, sensor placement, and evaluation of assistance effectiveness.

Work at the intersection of textiles, actuators, sensors, control & AI, power, biomechanics, and human-centred design to help shape the future of wearable assistive technologies – co-created with diverse stakeholders and people with lived experience.

Visit the link to apply via the interest form (rolling interviews): https://forms.gle/4zR5T3S8FDje9iAg9