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622 XIE ET AL.

in greater detail in the next section. Our team won stretchable conductive materials on the market is
second place in the final business pitch competition, the stretchable conductive ink from DuPont, which
which was highlighted on the local news (48). The has limited stretchability. In addition, the quantita-
second event is the Blue Hen Proof of Concept Pro- tive analyses on the customer discovery interview
gram (BH-POC Program) (49) organized by UD data, shown in Figure 9, reveal that conductivity and
Horn Program in Entrepreneurship and College of stretchability are the two most important challenges.
Engineering. A direct quote from one of the interviewees incisively
summarizes this: “The challenge for stretchable con-
Customer Discovery Interview ductive material lies in how to reach high stretchability
To develop an understanding of customer needs, without compromising conductivity.” Therefore, we
we conducted 105 customer discovery interviews concluded that there are market and industry needs
within three potential markets: advanced materi- for our stretchable conductive material.
als, wearable electronics, and sensors for sports and The interviewees in wearable electronics are tech-
rehabilitation. The interviewees cover three main cus- nical and business experts in global sports apparel
tomer segments: material suppliers (both technical companies, including Nike, Under Armor, Reebok,
and business sectors in global chemical companies, and Adidas. The interview results could be sum-
including Dow, DuPont, and Gore); business part- marized into two main conclusions. Firstly, current
ners (both technical and business sectors in global wearable electronics require a form factor, such as a
sports apparel companies, including Nike and Under watch band, shirt, or chest band. Oftentimes, these
Armour); and end users (University of Delaware form factors are rigid and uncomfortable to wear,
College of Health Sciences and Delaware Blue Hens so wearable electronics free of form factors are the
basketball team). rising stars in next generation wearable electronics.
Our interviewees in the advanced materials field Secondly, most of the performance tracking products
are technical and business experts, i.e., the early can only measure global body response, such as heart
adapters, from global chemical companies, includ- rate and acceleration. There is a demand for a product
ing DuPont, Gore, and Dow. One of the commercial that could quantify local body performance, such as

Figure 9. The ranking of priority of current challenges in stretchable conductive materials as determined from
customer interviews.