I’m in my second semester of my bachelor’s and I want to start a personal research project next semester. I’m interested in textiles, especially functional or unique ones with new properties. I’m most interested in working on something related to fashion, since that’s a direction I might want to go in later. maybe a visually or texture-wise unique material, or something more functionally useful.
I want to start a project around these themes, but I know creating a completely new textile is probably unrealistic at my level. I’m doing this partly to build a stronger profile for applying to better universities later, but also because I’m interested in the topic and want to learn more by actually working on something.
The problem is I don’t really know where to start. I’m still early in my studies, so I’m struggling to see how I could do anything that’s actually new, especially since it feels like in natural sciences you need a full research group to do something original.
I study at ETH Zurich, so there are good facilities available, although I’m not sure how realistic it is to get access to a good lab.
I’d really appreciate any advice on how to approach thsi and how to find a good idea, make it somewhat meaningful, and actually get started. And if anyone has specific research ideas in this area, I’d love to hear them. ty!