{"id":52829,"date":"2023-09-21T16:41:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T20:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=52829"},"modified":"2023-09-21T16:41:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T20:41:16","slug":"wilson-college-alumna-credits-hours-in-knitting-lab-as-key-to-expertise-career-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/wilson-college-alumna-credits-hours-in-knitting-lab-as-key-to-expertise-career-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson College Alumna Credits Hours in Knitting Lab as Key to Expertise, Career Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Sean Cudahy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been nine months since Zo\u00eb Newman earned her Ph.D from the Wilson College of Textiles<\/a>. But her work to understand the science of knitting and fabrics \u2014\u00a0and to push the boundaries of what\u2019s possible with each \u2014\u00a0is far from over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like once I finished my Ph.D. I was done learning,\u201d Newman says. \u201cIt was really the beginning of honing in on my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, that interest has her working with corporate clients at Stoll by Karl Mayer, a Greensboro-based industry leader in developing textile solutions. Her work includes\u00a0 collaborations with clients on everything from footwear to athletic apparel, medical textiles and fashion-oriented products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zo\u00eb Newman works on a knit computer-aided design file for her job at Stoll. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Newman has her hands in a wide range of projects at Stoll. She\u2019ll spend two to three weeks at a time advising a company as it develops and refines a new product concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll help them understand the basics of knitting,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd following any developments in our TexLab, where we work on prototyping, we will then send the clients to locations that carry our machines, where they can scale up what they want to make.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a push for textile innovation that, in many ways, defined Newman\u2019s academic career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pursuing a deeper understanding of fabrics <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Newman\u2019s interest in the field of textiles took off as a high schooler when she participated in NC State University\u2019s Summer Textile Exploration Program (STEP)<\/a> camp \u2014 a weeklong immersion that introduces rising high school seniors to concepts ranging from fashion to engineering, polymer science and business marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Newman, that early exposure to the Wilson College\u2019s curriculum served as a launching pad of sorts \u2014 one that led her to the fashion and textile design<\/a> program as an undergraduate student beginning in 2015, and eventually, the Master of Textiles <\/a>graduate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A few of the knit samples Newman created for her capstone textile design collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During her graduate education, she began to deepen her research, integrating hemp fibers into knit footwear during for Master\u2019s thesis work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weighing a potential teaching career as she earned her master\u2019s degree, Newman elected to remain at NC State to pursue her Ph.D in Textile Technology Management<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision would ultimately make her the first-ever B.S. in Fashion and Textile Design<\/a> alumna to earn a Ph.D. at the college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strongest force behind Newman\u2019s pursuit of deeper understanding in her field?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curiosity, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Newman works on a wholegarment knitting machine at the Wilson College. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really interested in why fabrics perform the way they do \u2026 which has sort of driven me all throughout my education,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to Newman\u2019s success<\/strong>, though, may be even easier to see with the naked eye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was, she now says, the hands-on experience she had in college\u2019s Knitting Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hands-on Knitting Lab work served as springboard<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since she served as a teaching assistant during her doctoral candidacy, Newman had access to the Knitting Lab and its state-of-the-art equipment to serve the textile industry and the educational and research needs of students and faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allowed her to assist in knitting fabrics in the lab for industry and students. This was no small arrangement: it allowed her to amass an untold number of hours experiencing, up-close, how a fabric is made, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She even served as one of the principle operators of the lab\u2019s so-called \u2018sock robot\u2019 after it arrived in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n