Designer, researcher, author, Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, IDSA, is the founding principal of RPF Industrial Design. Rebeccah is pioneering research in design methodologies, smart materials and wearable technology – the field she will be in as a research fellow at the BF+DA.

She has held positions as Design Director for Fila, Champion and Nike and teaches in both the Fashion and Industrial Design departments at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she combines fashion, innovation and technology. Her work has been published internationally, she is the author of the upcoming book Designing with Smart Textiles and she blogs about her work and life as a design entrepreneur.