RAJ BHAKTA

Welcome About Me Resume Future of Fabrics + Wearables Art + Dance Contact

  • ENTREPRENEUR.
    INVENTOR.
    DANCER.

     

     

    RAJ BHAKTA, PHD

  • broken image

    I'm a '0-to-1' idea executor in the world of:
    wearables + smart fabrics + materials science

    ​

    Born in Riverside, CA and raised in Houston, TX - I grew up in the paradox of poverty + promise for a better future. My parents emigrated to the USA from remote villages in the entrepreneurial state of Gujarat, India. They were farmers, ayurvedic doctors, and hustlers. They came here with nothing but a taste of the 'American Dream' and eventually saved up enough $ working an odd number of jobs to buy a small motel business which I helped run growing up in a rough neighborhood in Houston, TX. We couldn't afford toys so I would make them myself from a Lego set my scientist uncle gave me. I made everything from swords to robots to houses to cars. Science, Engineering, and Philosophy were always a natural state of mind for me - it started from asking' Why?' from the moment I learned how to talk to discovering Quantum Physics and Metaphysics via the annals of Wikipedia. From hanging out at the public library to hustling to get scholarships while running my parent's small business, I taught myself science and sales at a young age.

     

    Fast forward, I got my BS in Physics at University of Texas-Austin with a custom minor in Philosophy of Physics in 2014 and then a PhD in Fiber & Polymer Science with a focus on Entrepreneurship from NC State University College of Textiles and ASSIST Wearables Research Center in 2018. I also taught myself how to dance via YouTube and became Co-Captain/Choreographer of the competitive Bollywood-Fusion dance team known as Texas Nach Baliye and a Top 10 dancer on the dance reality TV Show called 'Dance India Dance: North America 2015'.

     

    The Entrepreneurial bug never left me so in 2018 I was awarded SBIR grant funding from National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and Activate/Cyclotron Road (deep-tech start-up incubator) to work on the 'Future of Apparel & Fashion' via fundamental '0 to 1' technology to help build a smart + sustainable future. My start-up is called Funxion.

     

    I believe the future is for those who think of it first.

     

    It's time to B U I L D!

  • Selected Resume

    things that happen when mind-meets-matter

    Funxion (our mission is to make our clothing do more for us) | 10/2017 - 05/2020

    • Co-authored multiple proposals to bring in non-dilutive funding (~$575,000), co-inventor on 6 provisional patents and 1 int’l PCT, lead business and product development to create innovative products (health + fashion), landed a paid pilot for smart undergarment wearables with United Health’s Population Health Group, and managed a team of 3 FTE + 2 PTE
    • Worked on the world's first color changing leather handbag from idea + market / user research (ie, A/B Google/FB/Instagram testing, surveys, interviews, etc) to fully functioning, smartphone App driven prototype 
    • Explored direct-to-consumer, sports & fitness, digital health, and military markets for smart undergarments
    • Awarded NSF SBIR Phase I ($225,000, <15% acceptance rate), Cyclotron Road fellowship for entrepreneurial scientists funded by DOE AMO (~$350,000 total value, <5% acceptance rate) at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and admission into Silicon Valley based Plug-and-Play Tech Start-up Accelerator for Materials & Packaging in 2020 (<2% acceptance rate)
    • Funxion Platform Technology Pitch Deck (old)
    • Funxion Digital Health Wearables Pitch Deck (old)

    Selected Articles:

    Where are the Smart Clothes? | Textile World | April 2019

    Technical Textiles: When do possibilities drive demand? | What They Think | September 2019

    Wearables Market Q&A | Printed Electronics Now | April 2020

     

    Selected Presentations:

    WTiN ReThink Materials 2019 | What are the ways to make Textile Electronics? | NC State University, Raleigh, NC | May 2019

    IPC E-Textiles 2019 | in-situ Test Methods for Identifying Failure Modes in Textile Electronics | September 2019

    FashionTech NYC 2019 | Convergence of Smart Fashion + Textiles | September 2019

    WTiN ReThink Materials 2020 | Smart Textiles in the 2020s: Predictions | March 2020

    WEAR 2020 | Lessons Learned at Funxion + Prototypes Developed | October 2020

    Blockchain / web3 / Wearable Health Data Marketplace

    • After exploring the idea of a 'marketplace for health data from wearables' where users can get rewarded in tokens for healthy behaviors 
    • Identified grants to apply to at NIH, drafted grants proposals, and drafted a patent application 
    • Completed market research on over 100+ stakeholders over data analytics, hospital systems, and early adopter consumers who'd like to 'sell their health data for rewards / tokens'
    • Recruited a team of 3 MBAs + 3 PhDs working on the market for 'wearables health data'
    • Took the team to Cryptolina, North Carolina's biggest Crypto/Blockchain conference in Summer 2018
    • Recruited business advisors from Digital Health Companies + IBM Blockchain 
    • Ultimately realized that we / blockchains were a 'technology looking for a problem to solve' and the market timing wasn't quite there yet (ie, too early)

    ThermaWear ('Google Nest + Fitbit for Heated Back Wraps') | 3/2017 - 5/2018

    • Co-invented Direct-write printing and curing technologies that automated the production of smart textiles and smart garments in 5 min as compared to State-of-the-Art of 3 hours – innovation was 36x faster at 5x lower cost  
    • Lead the SAS Data Analytics - ASSIST collaboration for acquiring EKG data for population health management via EKG Smart Garments and was on the R&D team that demonstrated the world’s first ‘self-powered EKG Shirt’
    • Managed 4+ undergraduates and 1 high-school student on research and product development
    • Delivered 12 conference presentations in the UK, Germany, and all over the USA at prestigious conferences
    • Won 5 start-up/product design awards, scholarships ~ $60,000, and lead generation of ~$250,000 in industry R&D

    Selected Presentations:

    IDTechEX | E-Textiles and Stretchable Electronics Masterclass | Berlin, Germany | May 2017

    Moogfest | Future Thought - Evolution of Textiles as a Second Skin | Durham, NC | May 2017

    FLEX 2017 | A paradigm for automated textile electronics | Monterrey, CA | June 2017

    MRS 2018 | In-situ Test Method for Identifying Failure Modes in Conductive Printed Materials used in Textile Electronics | Boston, MA | November 2018

    Raj Bhakta's PhD Final Defense Presentation | Direct-write Printed Wearable Electronics | NC State University, Raleigh, NC | December 2018

    Selected Articles:

    Wearable Electronics | Textile World | March 2017

    Smart Wearables Interview | Berlin Art Link | May 2017

    PhD in the Nano-Extended-Textiles (NEXT) Research Group at NC State + ASSIST | 1/2016 - 12/2018

    • Co-invented Direct-write printing and curing technologies that automated the production of smart textiles and smart garments in 5 min as compared to State-of-the-Art of 3 hours – innovation was 36x faster at 5x lower cost  
    • Lead the SAS Data Analytics - ASSIST collaboration for acquiring EKG data for population health management via EKG Smart Garments and was on the R&D team that demonstrated the world’s first ‘self-powered EKG Shirt’
    • Managed 4+ undergraduates and 1 high-school student on research and product development
    • Delivered 12 conference presentations in the UK, Germany, and all over the USA at prestigious conferences
    • Won 5 start-up/product design awards, scholarships ~ $60,000, and lead generation of ~$250,000 in industry R&D
    • Helped build an EKG Dress ('Pulse Dress') with a fashion designer (Jazsalyn McNeil) that responded to the wearer's EKG (electrocardiogram, heart-rate) and had soft embedded LEDs to connect visuals

     

    Selected Presentations:

    IDTechEX | E-Textiles and Stretchable Electronics Masterclass | Berlin, Germany | May 2017

    Moogfest | Future Thought - Evolution of Textiles as a Second Skin | Durham, NC | May 2017

    FLEX 2017 | A paradigm for automated textile electronics | Monterrey, CA | June 2017

    MRS 2018 | In-situ Test Method for Identifying Failure Modes in Conductive Printed Materials used in Textile Electronics | Boston, MA | November 2018

    Raj Bhakta's PhD Final Defense Presentation | Direct-write Printed Wearable Electronics | NC State University, Raleigh, NC | December 2018

    Selected Articles:

    Wearable Electronics | Textile World | March 2017

    Smart Wearables Interview | Berlin Art Link | May 2017

    Patents

    Undergraduate Honors Thesis
    Philosophy of Physics: The Nature of Space in the Quantum Wave-Function

    The quantum wave-function is at the heart of quantum mechanics. It is the physical state of a quantum system before a measurement is taken. This wave-function is described mathematically by the formulation of matrix mechanics and represents the evolution of the quantum wave-function. In contemporary philosophy of physics, the wave-function’s nature of space is hotly debated. Contemporaries such as David Albert, who posits an ontology which is based off the mathematical features of the wave-function, claim that the dimensionality of our physical space is proportional to 3N, where N is equal to the number of particles in the universe. Others such as Bradley Monton claim quantum mechanics to be a false theory from the outset due to its incompatibility with general relativity and posit a much more realist property-based-physics ontology. However, these ontologies have their problems. Albert’s ontology takes the mathematics of the quantum wave-function at face value and disregards the distance properties of metric space to misconstrue the phase space nature of the 3N-configuration space as a metric space. Monton, on the other hand, questionably grounds his thesis on the incompatibility of quantum mechanics with general relativity and on common sense rather than on observation and experimentation, as required by the scientific method. In this thesis, I discuss the viewpoints of Albert and Monton in detail and explore the nature of space in the quantum wave-function in an attempt to reach a better understanding of the fundamental nature of space in the quantum wave-function.

    Click Here to Read

    More Info

    Skills

    • Voice-of-Customer and Lean Start-up Methodology
    • Business Development + Sales + Strategy
    • Materials + Nanotechnology + Manufacturing 
    • Materials Science: Polymer Processing + Synthesis + Ink Development + Nanomaterials 
    • Sensors: Bioimpedance (EKG + EMG + EEG, Capacative, etc) + Biochemical (Glucose, etc) + Signal Processing (SNR, HR, HRV, etc)
    • Printing: Screen-Printing + Direct-write Printing + Inkjet Printing 
    • Electronics: Connectors + Conductive Yarns/Fibers + Conductive Inks + Printed/Stretchable/Flexible Electronics 
    • Prototyping: 3D Printing + Soldering + Laser Cutting / Die Cutting + Heat-Pressing + Molding/Casting + Lamination
    • Product Management
    • Prototyping + MVP Development
    • Grant + Patent Writing/Submission/Strategy
    • Technical/Scientific Publishing
    • Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Slack, etc
    •  Statistical Data Analysis

  • thoughts about the future of apparel + wearables

    everything has gotten smarter around us - our TVs + our phones + ours cars --- but what about the things we wear?

  • my journey as an artist + dancer 

    dance is poetry-in-motion

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