Working at the Intersection of Design & Engineering

I'm a designer and materials engineer focused on inter-sectional things like soft electronics (e-textiles).

I spend most of my time working on the LOOMIA ELECTRONIC LAYER

(pictured above - a heating LEL that can reach 200 degrees F)

about

About

Madison Maxey is passionate about materials. She focuses on bringing flexible, robust circuitry (e-textiles) to scale as CEO and founder at Loomia. Throughout the course of her work at Loomia, she has developed e-textiles prototypes and workshops for companies like North Face, Google, PVH, Flextronics, Adidas and Corning.

Maddy’s work has built the foundation for several patents and has lead to invitations to lecture at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, NYU and University of Illinois Champaign Urbana.

In addition to e-textiles, Maddy has performed computational design and physical computing work for the F.I.T Museum, Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, CNBC’s Jump Jive and Thrive and Google Creative Lab. She has also held creative technology residences at the School of Visual Arts, Autodesk, and Pratt’s BF+DA where she won the BF+DA Technology Innovation Award.

Accolades

Forbes 30 under 30 Member, TED@NYC selected speaker, Thiel Fellow, Lord & Taylor Rose Award Recipient, Future of Storytelling Fellow, Project Diane Founder (a database of 28 black women who have raised over $1m in venture funding).

Appearances

Project Runway, Intel’s America’s Next Top Maker, Good Morning America, CBS’s Jump Jive and Thrive, NPR.

Previous Work

Before Loomia, Maddy worked at General Assembly and interned at Autodesk, Tommy Hilfiger and NYLON Magazine.

Research

PROJECTS

LOOMIA: Drapable & Flexible Circuitry Layer

Maddy has spent 5 years researching the flexible and drapable circuitry layer that comprises LOOMIA’S core technology today. This circuitry layer is creasable and washable, bringing functionality to textiles in apparel and beyond. Similar to how one can pattern a PCB to carry out an incredible number of functions, LOOMIA’s electronic layer (the LEL) can be patterned to be an antenna, light up LEDS, sense Cap touch, and heat.

Autodesk: Stretchable Conductive Ink Development

Maddy researched and developed a formula and machine for direct-to-textile deposition of conductive ink onto textiles. The stretchable conductive ink could maintain low enough resistance to light a LED while being stretched. The ink could be sintered at 400 Degrees F with a household iron for additional conductivity on natural fibers.

Pratt’s BF+DA: CNC Machinery for Direct to Textile Deposition of Conductive Inks

Maddy built a foldable tension plotter for direct deposition of conductive ink to textiles. Luis Rodriguez developed the second, rigid version of the plotter which could be used to print muslin cap touch circuits using Maddy’s conductive ink formula.

Autodesk: Large Surface Area Capacitive Touch Textile

During a 2nd Autodesk Residency, Maddy developed a proof of concept for a foldable, drapable, large surface area capacitive touch textile. The idea is a large user interface that can be folded and carried for creative work.

Julianna Bass: Large Surface Area Color Changing Textile (thermochromic)

For a client project under LOOMIA, Maddy and collaborator Ezgi Ucar developed a large surface area circuit for thermochromic color changing. The color changing is controlled with a switch within the garment.

Autodesk: Conductive Nylon Synthesis

Nylon is created through a process called interfacial polymerization. Using this process, Maddy created nylon fibers where conductive particles are synthesized into Nylon during polymerization. These fibers could be spun to make a conductive thread.

Corning & Project 61: Germicide Textile Exploration

A POC developed during a workshop for Corning & Project 61 to explore applications of Corning versalume fiber optics. Along with collaborator Ezgi Ucar, Maddy ran bacterial tests for the idea of textiles killing germs with UVC light.

Autodesk: Conductive Leather Development

During her residency at Autodesk, Maddy developed a formula for a flexible, soft and highly conductive synthetic leather material. This material has been used to make user interface cap touch pads for e-textile proof of concepts.

Autodesk: Methods of Computational Fabrication for Altering Mechanical and Visual Properties of SLS and SLA Print (3D Printing)

While at Autodesk, Maddy researched file generation methods for 3D printing with SLA printers. Maddy combined this work with personal research on file generation for SLS printers into a paper focused on computational fabrication.

School of Visual Arts: Actuating, Tessellated Textile

An SMA actuating textile that could be controlled with a laptop computer, built in collaboration with Mari Kussman. This led to a research document and visit with the MIT Man Vehicle lab who developed similar actuation methods for their space suit.

Loomia

E-Textiles

Loomia designs and manufactures soft, flexible electronics for use across industries.

Explore Loomia

LOOMIA was voted 2016 startup of the year by Wareable magazine.

Book Features

Geek Girl rising

Heather Cabot (2017)

Crafting Wearables

Sibel Deren Guler, Madeline Gannon & Kate Sicchio (2016)

20 Billion Under 20

Stacey Ferreira & Jared Kleinert (2015)

The Design Process

Karl Aspelund (2014)

Computational design

Forbes 30 Under 30 Computational Vision Algorithm

Maddy’s Computational design work uses code and computer programs to make visual patterns that can be printed onto textiles. In her work, she uses popular algorithms and customized datasets to make striking visuals.

CBS Jump Jive and Thrive: Bullseye

For CNBC’s Jump Jive and Thrive, a cancer benefit featuring celebrated gymnasts such as Nastia Luken, Maddy created a pattern using perlin noise. This pattern was then printed onto the gymnast t-shirts and auctioned off as part of the benefit.

Photochromia: Epitrochoids

Epitrochoids are the name of the shape that make up spirographs. Using the equation for a spirograph, Maddy created design elements for Photochromia, a UV sensitive collection featured on outlets such as Fast Company, Wired & Cool Hunting.

FIT Museum: Perlin Noise

A custom print made for the FIT museum using the Perlin Noise Algorithm. This pattern was printed onto fabric to make a no-waste garment that was featured in FIT’s Black Fashion Designer’s Exhibit and highlighted by the New York Times.

Forbes 30 Under 30: Sin & Cos

A computer vision algorithm that took the main colors from the cover of the FORBES 30 UNDER 30 issue and generated a pattern using sine and cosine waves. This pattern was presented on stage to show how digital fabrications can change design.

Autodesk & The Near Future Summit: A Random Walk

This pattern drew from a dataset of conference attendees and a TinkerCad Motif to visualize a random walk. The graphic was printed onto a fabric and turned into a Julianna Bass dress that was worn by Soshana Berger of Ideo.

Additional Prints & Patterns

This personal collection of prints uses Cellular Automata, Sinusoidal waves and other popular algorithms to make visual patterns.

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