The Computational Textiles Lab, or SOFTLAB, in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing is a research group in which faculty and students examine how lightweight and soft computational materials and computational textiles are made and /or manufactured, how the material itself is used and the ways in which it may be applied in architecture, furnishings and clothing. In this area of research a variety of scales are examined as today even Nano scaled elements or computational clothing can have profound effect in environments. In addition to producing/testing/creating artifacts made with soft computational materials and textiles in this research area faculty and students develop theories and methods about how designers might re-consider ideas of materiality in general.
SOFTLAB is also a space in which researchers can use machines and equipment for fabricating and developing soft and lightweight materials in conjunction with other laboratories in the Stuckeman School. There is a small electronics studio available, a programmable sewing machine, programmable knitting machine as well as hand operated tools for fabricating textiles.
The lab is led by Felecia Davis.