Textile Engineering Program

 1. Background

Textile Engineering is a field of study that deals with all activities and methods which are involved in the process of textile manufacturing. It contains the principles, law, and scientific techniques which are utilized for the development and manufacturing of all types of textile fabrics and yarns from textile fibers. The textile products include both conventional and technical textiles.

Conventional Textiles: Textiles that are used in daily routine to meet the primary requirement of humankind. As it is known, one of the basic needs for humans is clothing which is fulfilled by Conventional Textiles. These products are used to protect our bodies from the surrounding environment and show wealth and status.

Technical Textiles: refer to the application of textiles in relevance to their technical properties and performance rather than appearance or other aesthetic characteristics. They are produced to meet specific functions. Technical Textile is a fast-growing technology having a strong interaction with many technologies. Technical textiles can be divided into many categories, depending on their end-use. The following applications are some of the technical textiles.

Agrotech (Agro-textiles)                                               Buildtech (Construction Textiles)

Medtech (Medical textiles)                                           Clothtech (Clothing Textiles)

Geotech (Geotextiles)                                                   Hometech (Domestic Textiles)

Indutech (Industrial Textiles)                                       Electronic Textiles

Mobiltech (Textiles used in transport; automotive and aerospace)

Ecotech (Ecological Protection Textiles)                    Packtech (Packaging Textiles)

Protech (protective Textiles)                                       Sportech (Sports Textiles)

For instance, Textile electronic devices are an excellent platform for people to simultaneously experience audio, video, allowing haptic, multimodal sensory inputs, and movement in graphically rendered objects or environments. Perception devices transform various perception models in the virtual world to multi-channel stimuli (e.g., tactile, visual, and hearing signals) for detection.

2. Professional profile

Textile Engineering is a profession that deals with the application of scientific and engineering principles to the design and control of all aspects of fibers, yarns, woven and knitted materials, technical textiles, nonwovens, products, and machinery. These include natural and manmade materials, interactions of materials with the machine, safety and health, energy conservation, and waste and pollution control. Additionally, the professionals are enabled to do textile plant design and layout, textile manufacturing design improvement, and designing and creating textile products. The tasks, which professional textile engineers undertake, are too many to list them all. Some of the typical manufacturing tasks the professionals are expected to deal with are:

• Textile fibers
• Yarn manufacturing
• Fabric manufacturing
• Textile fibers testing
• Textile machine design
• Product development, manufacturing, and improving
• Plant design, equipment selection, plant erection, commissioning operation, and maintenance
• Textile factory and technical service.
• Management in capacity of general manager, technical manager, operation manager, maintenance manager, sales manager.
• Test textile products to ensure accuracy and integrity of meeting customer requirements.
• Lead quality programs.
• Support continuous improvement
• Review, and analyze return data and customer comments, then identify causes and actionable items.
• Identify problems and offer workable solutions in the short and long term.
• Train cross-functional teams for quality improvement and train others in design for quality
• Implement applied research work to solve problems in manufacturing, process development, and improvement of existing products
• Have close contact with research organizations
• Implement quality control, along with material testing, within the workplace in accordance with national and international standards 

3. Course details

The major features of the curriculum include the following:

Core textile science courses give a brief understanding of textile fibers, Yarn processing, weaving technology, knitting technology, fabric structure and design, technical textiles, non-woven, textile testing, textile chemical processing. Core engineering constrained courses to give adequate knowledge and skill about electrical, mechanical know-how, programming, and designing techniques, managing, leading, planning and controlling, and so on. The Core garment engineering course brings an adequate understanding of the apparel manufacturing process, fundamentals of fashion design to the students. 

The practical education aspect of each course, laboratory/workshop exercises, project work, and industrial internships are given adequate scope. Project work will be started in the final year first semester in Project Proposal stage and four-month intensive student research will be continued in the final year second semester. The students can select specific project title according to the requirement of different areas of employment and his/her interest and aptitude. Courses are arranged in modules, which are envisaged to be helpful in organizing facilities and planning staff requirements/development in a more structured way. The practical education aspect of each course, laboratory/workshop exercises, and project work are given adequate scope.

In order to gain practical skills, the students will be working in the textile industry as part of the program. The importance given to this aspect can be seen from the fact that the students will be spending their full time in the textile industry for one semester with an ECTS credit of 28.

In order to accredit the program by European Accreditation Institution, the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) is used. ECTS credits are a value allocated to courses to describe the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the quantity of work each course requires concerning the total quantity of work required to complete a full year of academic study at the institution that is, lectures, practical work, seminars, private work in the library or at home, and examinations.

The institute prepared the curriculum mainly based on the needs of the industrial sector and the capacity building of higher educational institutions.

4.   Career Prospects

Depending on the Manufacturing tasks, the professional textile can have professional titles like: 

Production department heads, Quality control head, Management titles/jobs like general manager, Technical manager and rendering services in the field and research institutions, Financial institutions rendering service to the textile industry, Quality and standards institutions rendering service to the textile industry. 

Generally, they are employed in departments of textile plants/companies and related institutions varying from small to big scale, i.e., production, planning, quality control, sales or marketing agencies, etc. Textile engineering professional with a bachelor degree is equipped with skill sets that enable him/her to work at the middle up to higher levels of management in research and development work, production management, quality management, maintenance management, financial and cost management, carrying out of Project formulations, conducting viability studies and so on. Ethiopia, presently, does not have professionals in Textile engineering who specialized in the yarn and fabric manufacturing field to work at this middle up to higher levels and this is keenly felt in the industry. It is hoped that the graduates of the program will rise to the levels expected of them to make the Textile Industry of Ethiopia as one of the engines of growth.

5.   Job profile:

As Ethiopia needs to diversify its exports from agricultural products to strategic sectors giving a high focus on textiles, Textile Engineers are highly demanded in public as well as private sectors.

Some of the typical tasks the professionals are expected to deal with are:

1. Testing of yarns and fabrics

2.  Design and development yarns and fabrics for different end-use requirements

3.  Developing quality system and maintaining product quality assurance

4.  Developing and selecting textile manufacturing systems & technology

5.  Planning, monitoring, and controlling textile production operation

6. Machine development & maintenance engineering of textile machinery.

Eligibility and duration of study:

The duration of study for the B. Sc. in Textile Engineering will be 5 full academic years covering 307 ECTS with 18 modules; each academic year will consist of 2 semesters each. On instructions from the department, the students will have to work on specific tasks such as project work and similar works in the semester breaks and annual breaks.

Eligibility Criteria 

The main target groups are graduates who have obtained university entry qualifications can apply for the study program. Diploma holders or with the appropriate background can join based on the criteria set by the institute. TVET trained students who acquire the qualification and level of education set by the institute to join the university can also apply. 

Academic and technical staffs

    Contact person:

Eyasu Ferede WoldeSamual (Lecturer)

Textile Engineering Department Head

Ethiopian Institute of Textile & Fashion Technology

Bahir Dar University

Mobile: (+251) 921282549

Email: Eyasuferede1982@gmail.com

P.O.Box: 1037