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a new economy UMass Dartmouth
By Ron Gamache ‘74
builds on the region’s
Smart bandages healing burns!
textile roots to create
Organs engineered from living tissues!
the foundation for an explosion in biomaterials research
Fabrics that clean themselves!
T
hey read like supermarket tabloid headlines, but what sounds like fiction is really science —real science. And it’s going on now in the laboratories of UMass Dartmouth where biologists and chemists are forming new collaborations with engineers. In essence, these interdisciplinary teams are marrying their knowledge of machines, materials, and the human body to improve all three. Fast forward, really fast, from the days of the Bradford Durfee Textile School in Fall River and New Bedford Textile School. These were institutes founded in 1895 by local leaders of vision who recognized that innovation was the fuel of regional industrial prosperity. That meant focusing education on the thenprosperous textile industry. Today, more than four decades after the two textile schools merged to form the Dartmouth campus, Massachusetts is a hotbed of biomaterials and bioengineering. And the university’s roots in the mature textile industry are providing the foundation to support emerging biotechnology and advanced materials industries in southeastern Massachusetts. “The life science and biotechnology clusters are at the nucleus of the emerging innovation economy in our region and across Massachusetts,” said Paul Vigeant ’74, assistant chancellor for economic development. “Our inter-disciplinary research discoveries and innovative business partnerships enable UMass Dartmouth to serve the Commonwealth by making its economy more globally competitive.”
(counterclockwise from top) detail of “3-D Braiding Machine” in the Department of Materials and Textiles; quilling machinery at Bradford Durfee Textile School circa 1913; Peter Stetkiewicz ’95, Quality Assurance Manager and Gerald Mauretti ’65, President of Engineered Yarns. A l u m n i
M a g a z i n e
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Fall 2006