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Agenda

The agenda has been announced for WEAR 2023! Featuring speakers from the NBA, Microsoft Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, AFFOA, AATCC, Qualcomm, Exponent, NuCurrent, and more.

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Please Click on the Dates below to see each Day's Program


   
Registration and Continental Breakfast
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Ashli Speed, Conference Producer, Smithers 
Session I: Exploring Industry and Opportunity
KEYNOTE: Wearables Validation, Integration, and Use: Current and Future Lessons from the NBA
What insights can professional sports provide us about the future of wearable technology for consumers and in the workplace? Professional sports was one of the first workplaces to adopt wearable technology—the NBA opened up the NBA G League to in-game wearables in the 2012-13 season. Sports league have innovated on wearables across many verticals: implementing new forms of validation, integrating wearables directly into the workplace, linking wearables with broader visualization platforms, and applying AI/ML to population-level data for health and performance insights. Yet several issues have sometimes slowed the advance of wearables: negotiations regarding data rights, discussions regarding commercial use of data, competition from rapidly-advancing computer vision, and the lack of certain ideal wearables measureables and form factors. The NBA and its affiliate leagues have been closely involved with all of these developments for more than a decade and remain deeply involved and invested in the future of wearables and how to overcome existing challenges to improve health and performance measures and outcomes.
David Weiss | Senior Vice President, Player Matters, National Basketball Association (NBA)
AI-Powered Wearables: The Impending 10x Revolution
The wearables segment has grown at an unprecedented pace over the last decade with strong smartwatch adoption, wireless headsets becoming ubiquitous, emergence of VR and AR, and new form factor innovation such as the ring. With AI taking center-stage, this wearables growth is expected to experience 10x accelerated growth by bringing AI-at-the-edge, AI-based personal assistants becoming a reality, and a host of verticals including healthcare, sports-n-fitness, education, and others embracing AI-powered wearables. As an intrapreneur turned investor, Pankaj will discuss the role of AI+wearables over the next decade and provide a sneak peek into highly innovative start-ups he is investing in to shape this next decade.
Pankaj Kedia | Founder and Managing Partner, 2468 Ventures
Panel: Pro Athletes, Soldiers, Industrial Workers - The Benefits and Challenges of Workforce Wearable Adoption
Soldiers, Professional Athletes, and Factory Workers are all part of workforces in which their employers are adopting the use of wearables. This panel discussion will explore the unique aspects of adoption, measurement and data, performance outcomes, and user acceptance in various workplace scenarios.

Moderator: Stacey Burr, Consultant

Panelists:
  • Christopher Tabor, Ph.D., Polymer and Responsive Materials Research Team Lead, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory
  • David Weiss, Senior Vice President Player Matters, NBA
  • Gabriel Glynn, CEO, MākuSafe
Networking Break
Session II: Wearable Apparel Smart Textiles
Soft and Flexible Materials for Wearables within the Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory has been supporting emerging efforts to develop, test, and utilize materials for wearable devices to better capture data from war fighters for general awareness, better decision making, and enhancing performance. Efforts include supporting joint wearables programs at the DoD level, participating in exercises, developing new prototype devices, and exploring fundamental materials development for current technical gaps. In this talk, I will provide a general overview of materials development for wearables within AFRL, how we partner with academia, industry, and non-profits to develop new technology, and some perspective directions on future R/D.
Christopher Tabor, Ph.D. | Polymer and Responsive Materials Research Team Lead, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory
The Future of Wearable Technology is in the Fabric
By 2028, the wearable technology industry is estimated to grow to an astonishing $380 billion (according to VICERT). With wearable technology available for purchase through many world-renowned tech brands such as Apple, Oura and Fitbit, it comes as no surprise that the wearable technology industry is advancing at such an exponential rate. The built in health and fitness tracking capabilities serve a plethora of benefits for both healthy and medically impaired individuals, delivering real time health data specific to your very own body, straight to your device. As we continue to watch the wearable technology industry take the world's population by storm, it is safe to assume that the future of wearable technology will continue to evolve into new uncharted territory. While wearable tech is known to monitor your physiological state, consumers and brands alike should start looking at the future state of wearables. After all, what good are the wearable insights if you’re not using them to actively improve your physiological state? The evolution of wearable technology is creating products that benefit your body, rather than just monitoring it, and marrying the two together for optimal results. In the past, medical devices were historically known to be used within hospitals and medical facility settings and monitoring of these devices was solely the responsibility of assigned medical professionals. Fast forward to the present day, the commercialization of medical devices has allowed individuals to use these devices on their own terms, reviewing the data in real time on their own accord. While not all wearable technology is designated as a medical device, this has opened the flood gates to further evolving what the definition of a medical device looks like to the everyday consumer, empowering them to take their health and well-being into their own hands
Seth Casden | CEO & Co-Founder, CELLIANT
Networking Lunch
Addressing Manufacturing Challenges in Commercializing E-Textiles
Gaps in the manufacturing of e-textiles in volume as well as in the industry infrastructure required to release new products to market in a timely manner persist. AFFOA will provide an update on the activities in the domestic ecosystem aimed at addressing challenges in commercialization. Updates on the industry infrastructure elements will also be discussed.
Michelle Farrington | Vice President of Strategic Growth, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA)
The Right Tools for the Job
The unique properties that make e-textiles an interesting and important category of materials also make them a challenge to process and test. We will discuss the many (sometimes overlooked) considerations required for an accurate measurement of electrical resistance and how the right tools can make all the difference. Data from a variety of probe styles will be presented, explained, and translated into practical recommendations for testing various e-textile materials. Research was completed as a collaboration between AATCC RA111 and North Carolina State University Wilson College of Textiles.
Diana Wyman | Executive VP, AATCC
Networking Break
Session III: Human Centric Wearable Design
KEYNOTE - Embr Wave: Lessons Learned from our First 10 Million Hours
Embr Wave is an intelligent wristband that delivers warming and cooling thermal sensations to augment how people feel. Thermal sensations have a profound impact on the human experience and are a clinically-validated tool for health and wellness. Matthew Smith, CTO and co-founder of Embr Labs, will discuss the user-driven evolution of Embr Wave from a crowdfund in 2017 to a 2nd generation product today, and share lessons learned from delivering our first 10 million hours of thermal delight to customers. 
Matthew J. Smith Ph.D, | Chief Scientific Officer, Embr Labs
Biocompatibility and Chemical Safety in Wearables
The demand for wearable technology continues to increase, giving rise to new smart product designs that come with their own set of safety concerns. As these advancements in technology and applications continue to blur the line between lifestyle and clinical devices, wearables have the potential to reconfigure the healthcare and lifestyle landscapes — and improve human health by expanding value-based, personalized medicine at a mass scale. Development of these new products will require a robust biocompatibility framework to mitigate adverse safety effects.
Naomi Clayman | Managing Scientist, Exponent
Academic Perspective
Presentation to be confirmed
Current Research, Case Study
Networking Reception
Start- Up Pitching Hour
Registration and Continental Breakfast
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Ashli Speed, Conference Producer, Smithers 
Session IV: Wearables Filling the Gap
Current Market and Future Innovation
KEYNOTE
Dino Bekis is the vice president and general manager of the wearables and mixed signals solutions business unit for Qualcomm Technologies. In this role, he is responsible for leading two critical expansion platforms for Hearables/Shareables and Smart Watch/Wearables, the broad portfolio of power management solutions, and our security product offerings.  Bekis started his career as an engineer, and for more than 25 years, has helped define new technologies, create new businesses, and drive the expansion and scaling of existing product lines.
Dino Bekis | Vice President and General Manager of Wearables and Mixed Signal Solutions, Qualcomm
Presentation to be confirmed
Networking Break
Session V: Wearable in Healthcare
Keynote: Wireless Charging for Wearables and Medical Implantable
Step into the realm of tomorrow with Alberto Peralta, an industry-leading technologist and Chief Technology Officer of NuCurrent, as he shows you the captivating world of wireless charging and its remarkable advancements in wearables.
In this presentation, Alberto will break down the diverse spectrum of applications, features and benefits, that come via wireless power and data transfer. From life-saving medical devices to cutting-edge sport wearables, witness the transformative impact of this groundbreaking technology
Alberto Peralta | CTO, NuCurrent
Journey to Market – Challenges and Lessons Learned
Presentation to be confirmed
Panel: Getting the Right Fit
Panelists to be confirmed
Networking Lunch
Panel: Industry Lessons & Market Timing : Changes and Growth in the Wearables Landscape
This panel will take a look a reflective look at the companies that have come and gone, product successes and failures, timing trends and the impact. What can we learn from those who have entered the space and left.

Moderator: Teddy Seyed, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research | Lead of The Future of Wearables Team

Panelists to be confirmed
End of Conference