 Kimberly
Titus
Research Assistant
Professor
College of Textiles
North Carolina State
University
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 B.S. -- Physics
& Mathematics (double major); Stetson University
PhD -- Physics
(Experimental Solid State); North Carolina State University |
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Research Assistant
Professor, developing sensors for apparel automation as well as
teaching classes at the university. |
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"Being a woman in
physics has not always been easy, because it is primarily a male
field. Sometimes you have to push your way on in, and learn
things the hard way. And it's been challenging, but I think the
doors are opening wider and wider for women." |
Titus:
"The area that I'm working in and that is developing sensors for apparel
automation, is actually an area in which relatively little research has
been done. That's one of the things that excites me about what I'm doing,
is that there's so much opportunity. We brainstorm and come up with all
these ideas. And we hardly know where to start sometimes. I'm trying to
look at those seam folds and stitch folds throughout the industry. And of
course, there's a large volume of knit fabric as well as denim fabric.
They're probably the largest areas of apparel manufacturing. Often as the
industry's moving toward apparel manufacturing being more automated,
you're removing the operator, therefore, you're moving you quality
control. And if you do that, for the United States to remain competitive
at all, you've got to have some way of determining the quality of seam."
Titus:
"Most of my teaching is done primarily three days a week and a lot of my
preparation is outside of my work time here. So really I have close to 40
hours a week devoted to research and specifically it's in the area of
aperonimation (PH) -- doing a lot of the fundamental work needed to
develop sensors or sensing techniques to monitor seam and stitch quality.
I interact with faculty members which are not a very homogeneous group
actually, as you have in a lot of fields. Faculty members are from a
variety of engineering backgrounds: mechanical, electrical, industrial,
and computer engineering. There are number of chemists and some other
physicists as well or faculty members who have even undergraduate/graduate
degrees in physics. I also work with a number of students also from a very
diverse background. And there are also a number of industrial people which
pass through that I get to speak with and rub elbows with."
Titus:
"Being a woman in physics has not always been easy, because it is
primarily a male field. Sometimes you have to push your way on in, and
learn things the hard way. And it's been challenging, but I think the
doors are opening wider and wider for women."
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