Drexel hosts innovation center

Drexel University, in collaboration with Department of Defense-supported Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), is establishing a statewide center that will help companies, entrepreneurs and innovators take their advanced-textile concepts from prototype to product. The Pennsylvania Fabric Discovery Center is the first hub located outside of AFFOA’s home state of Massachusetts. It will be part of a national network intended to lower the barrier to commercialization for functional fabrics, resulting in advanced textiles that do things like see, hear, sense, communicate, generate and store energy. The Center will have a physical home at Drexel’s innovation-driven economic development venture with Brandywine Realty Trust, called Schuylkill Yards, in 2018.