Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1355791
92 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2021 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE by Vladan Koncar I am currently a distinguished professor at ENSAIT, the textile engineering institute at the University of Lille, in Northern France. My scientific background is related to electronics and microelectronics and my PhD thesis was focused on the decentralized control of complex systems. I started my academic career as a young assistant professor at ENSAIT in 1991, in Roubaix, France. As the main application field of ENSAIT is associated with tex- tiles, I had to adapt my courses and my research activities. For the first time, I focused on the modeling and control of complex textile processes, and in the late '90s, I started to develop my scientific activities in the area of commu- nicated textiles, even though at that time, it was pretty unclear to me how to connect the electronics—as well as the control and communication theories—to the textile structures. In the beginning, we developed flex- ible textile displays based on the weaving of optical fibers for France Telecom, and their research depart- ment. In April 2005, an article describing these first displays, "Optical fiber fabric display—OFFD," was published in the journal Optics & Photonics News. Currently, almost all the research activities of my group are focused on e-textiles. Many collab- orative and B-to-B projects with French and EU companies are ongoing, and this activ- ity has a steady growth rate. After Decades of E-Textiles Work, a Rising Star Award