LOPEC 2025 Round Table
Panel Discussion: Design and Printed Electronics
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 15:00 – 16:00 in the LOPEC Forum in the foyer of the ICM. Free Entrance for all LOPEC Visitors.
On the one hand, flexible, organic and printed electronics (OPE) offer thin, lightweight components that can conform to various shapes and surfaces. This is relevant for applications like wearables, where electronic components must follow the natural contours of the human body.
In automotive and smart home applications, flexible displays and sensors can be integrated seamlessly into curved or irregular surfaces, improving user experience. Smart textiles withstand bending, stretching, and impact, which enables use cases in environments where traditional rigid electronics would fail.
On the other hand, the way designers think and act complements the way scientists and engineers work. Design practices foster innovation by focusing on users, identifying their needs and creating user-centric solutions. Product designers go beyond the technical requirements and consider how people experience, interact with and benefit from products.
Design-centered approaches encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to create products that are both functional and intuitive. In consumer electronics, design methodologies enable the creation of devices that integrate seamlessly into users’ lives, merging technology with ease of use and aesthetics.
The LOPEC 2025 Round Table will discuss how flexible electronics is enabling new product designs and how design practices are benefiting flexible, organic and printed electronics:
- What is it like to work as a designer with flexible electronics technologists and vice versa?
- What is valuable to the design community from the technologies and capabilities offered by OPE?
- What can flexible electronics learn from design practices to accelerate the creation of radically innovative products?
- How can OPE-based design increase the uptake and commercial success of OPE technologies?
- What success stories can we share, what can we do to increase mutual wins?
- Is design sometimes or always crucial to success?
- What does a good, practical development process look like - one that integrates technology and design?
The panel is organized and facilitated by Dr. Giovanni Nisato, Managing Director, Innovation-Horizons
Notice: The LOPEC Round Table will be held in English language, there will be no simultaneous translation.
Marie O’Mahony is Programme Leader, MSc E-textiles and Wearable Technology, a new course launching at the University of Southampton in September 2026. She is also a member of the E-textile Innovation Lab at the university and has worked in academia and industry in the field of advanced and smart textiles—including Printed Electronics, for 30+ years.
Marie has published six books on the impact of technology on textiles, five with Thames and Hudson. She is a member of the intelliFLEX Board on PE/FHE in Canada, and her consultancy O'Mahony Consultancy includes clients such as Microsoft, InteraXon, Canadian National Research Council, the Mayo Clinic and NIKE.
Marina Toeters is a Red Dot winning Fashion Tech Designer. She operates on the cutting edge of technology and fashion design. Through her business www.by-wire.net she stimulates collaboration between the fashion industry and technical innovators for a relevant fashion system and supportive garments for everyday use.
As a teacher, coach and researcher, she works for the Eindhoven University of Technology industrial design (TU/e).
In 2019 Marina edited the book Unfolding Fashion Tech: Pioneers of Bright Futures and opened the Fashion Tech Farm, a studio, incubator and small-scale production facility for innovative fashion, based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
More info: www.by-wire.net and www.fashiontechfarm.com
Pete Valianatos is a seasoned professional with over 26 years of experience at E Ink Corporation, currently serving as the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Pete Valianatos aligns Research & Development activities with business initiatives, focusing on outbound education and partnerships to advance the understanding of E Ink's new technology offerings. This focus has driven partnerships and public launches that pushed the limits of E Ink with BMW @ CES (2022 & 2023) and FriezeLA (2024), Delvaux @ Paris Fashion Week (2024), Antolin @ IZB (2024), and Cream Guitars @ NAMM (2025).
Previously, Pete Valianatos led the Ink Materials and Process Development team, overseeing various aspects of materials and process development, to deliver next generation E Ink platforms.
Pete Valianatos holds a Bachelor’s and Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universities of Michigan and Rochester, respectively, with a focus on coating technologies.
In addition to his extensive industry experience, Pete Valianatos earned a Certificate in Corporate Innovation from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. This program equipped Pete Valianatos with key business fundamentals and advanced skills in design thinking, negotiation strategies, and mobilizing for successful change.
More info: www.eink.com
After graduating as an Industrial Designer from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Jurgen Westerhoff worked as a product designer focusing on interactive products. After working for several clients in the Netherlands, Jurgen Westerhoff moved to Tokyo in 2011 and joined a start-up designing open-source radiation sensors.
With this company Jurgen Westerhoff designed his first PCB’s and the compact housing for the radiation sensor. The product was awarded with the prestigious ‘Good design award’ in the category of open source hardware.
After returning to the Netherlands Jurgen Westerhoff’s career in the printing industry started when he joined Canon Production Printing (formerly Oce technologies) as an application researcher, and later on moved to a role in Product Management. After successfully managing and launching key products on a global scale, Jurgen Westerhoff moved into 3D printing by joining a Dutch scale-up called Additive Industries. In this role Jurgen Westerhoff got involved with clients in extremely diverse markets, ranging from bakery equipment to rocket engines.
In his latest move Jurgen Westerhoff joined SPGPrints and now heads the global marketing team, responsible for all marketing communications and driving global marketing and product strategy. One of the main strategic decisions in this role was to focus the company on industrial and functional print applications, with special attention on rotary screen printing for Printed Electronics.
Giovanni Nisato is a seasoned facilitator specialized in collaborative innovation. He has a rich background in printed electronics with roles at Philips, CSEM, OE-A, and as co-editor of the book “Organic and Printed Electronics, Fundamentals and Applications”