Textile Waste Recycling and Sustainable Textile Product Development

Thilagavathi G. is Professor and Head of Textile Technology at PSG College of Technology since 2010, with over 30 years of experience in teaching, research, training, and administration. She also headed Fashion Technology (2008-2013). An eminent researcher in Textile Quality Evaluation, Functional and Industrial Textiles, she currently manages sponsored projects exceeding ?50 crores.

Dr Thilagavathi has published over 155 research papers with an h-index of 34 and an i-10 index of 85. She has organized 6 International Conference (Indutech) and many workshops and National Conference. She has delivered more than 50 research papers in International conferences and visited countries like Germany, UK, Singapore, China.

She is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Dr. R. Sundaramoorthy Award for Outstanding Academician of PSG College of Technology (2012-2016) and the Eminent Engineer Award from the Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata. She is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers and serves as Chairman of the Textile Division (IEI). Dr. Thilagavathi holds key positions in academic and policy bodies, including BIS- Technical Committee on Industrial Textiles (TXD 33), IIHT, Central Silk Board, AICTE, Ministry of Textiles (MoT), and various governing and academic councils. Under her leadership, the department received the AICTE-CII Award (2015) and long-term NBA accreditation.

She established a Centre of Excellence in Industrial Textiles with Ministry of Textiles funding (Rs.25 Crores) and developed several advanced laboratories- Focus Incubation Centre (Rs.2.85 Crores), Antimicrobial Finishing and Evaluation Laboratory, Microencapsulation Laboratory, Fibre Manufacturing Laboratory, Electroactive Textile Laboratory, and NTTM funding for R & D and infrastructure (Rs. 10 crores).

Neelakrishnan Subramanyan has a professional career spanning more than 3 decades. His previous assignments at Nava Consultants Private Limited and Alliance Automation Systems, USA involving assembly automation systems.

During his service at PSG Tech for the past 17 years, he has been instrumental in the development of vocational programs for the automotive domain with several leading automotive industries, and with setting up of 15 specialized state of the art laboratories in the automotive and textile domains. He was instrumental in setting up of the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (PACE) Laboratory at PSG Tech with support from General Motors India. This involved funding from the PACE partners to the tune of Rs.1500 Crores. He was also the Co-Principal Coordinator for the technical textiles (industrial and automotive) centre of excellence set up at PSG at a cost of Rs.45 Crore with funding to the tune of Rs.25 Crore from the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

Dr. S. Neelakrishnan has published more than 51 research papers and has a h-index of 12 and i-10 index of 19. He has guided 10 PhD Scholars, with another 5 of them pursuing their doctoral research and has a patent to his credit. Dr. S. Neelakrishnan has carried out several consultancy projects in the areas of automotive technologies. Currently the areas of research are design for manufacturing, automotive acoustics, collaborative product design, and Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

He has successfully carried out funded and sponsored research projects funded by the Government and industries. Dr. S. Neelakrishnan currently heads the department of automobile engineering at PSG College of Technology which focuses on research in the areas of automotive design, emission, electric & hybrid technologies, automotive electronics and automotive functional textiles.

Rangam Rajkhowa is a Professor at the Deakin Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), Deakin University, Australia. He currently leads the Future Fibres Group, with around 100 researchers within the IFM. He has an extensive research and publication record, with over 100 journal papers, 10 full conference papers, and three books. He has also delivered more than 60 conference presentations. He has presented key note and invited presentations in leading international seminars including Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "Silk Proteins and the Transition to Biotechnologies", International Conference on Industrial Textiles (InduTech 2025, 2020, 2018) and a number of leading universities in Europe, USA and India

Dr. Rajkhowa holds two Australian provisional patents and five international PCT applications, of which two have been successfully granted in Australia, USA, UK, France, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Germany. He has supervised 33 PhD scholars, including 16 as Principal Supervisor, with 15 successful completions to date. He has secured approximately $19 million in research funding, including $ 2.9 million as Lead Chief Investigator, from agencies such as the Australian Research Council, Cotton Incorporated (USA), and industries from Australia, Newzealand and Israel and other sources.

Dr. Rangam received the Anthem Gold Award 2024, selected from 2,000 submissions representing 44 countries. In 2017, he was a recipient of the Global Change Award from the H&M Foundation, receiving EUR150,000 in funding; his project was selected as one of only five winning concepts from 2,900 applications across 130 countries worldwide. He was also awarded the VC Award for Outstanding Contribution to Industry and Employer Partnerships in 2019. In addition, he has been honored by the Australian Academy of Science with both the Australia-India Early Career Fellowship (2012) and Mid-Career Fellowship (2018), valued at $20.4K and $24K, respectively

Jaya Bharathi serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Textile Technology at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. She has four years of teaching and research experience in the field of Textile Technology. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Textile Technology from Anna University, Chennai, in 2018, and her Master's degree from PSG College of Technology in 2021. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. G. Thilagavathi, focusing on the development of sustainable textile products utilizing natural fibres and biopolymer. Her research interests encompass Textile Quality Evaluation, Protective Textiles, Fibre reinforced composites and Acoustic Textiles. She has published one research paper and two conference proceedings. In addition to her academic and research pursuits, she has actively contributed to institutional activities by coordinating a Faculty Development Programme and an International Conference under the SPARC project.