Inside the William Johnston Building at Florida State University, students are testing how fabrics hold up under pressure, heat, moisture and wear by using the same tools found in industry labs.
The Textile Testing Lab, led by Meredith McQuerry, the Carol E. Avery Associate Professor in the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, gives students direct experience evaluating product performance while also supporting faculty research and industry partnerships.
Associate Professor Meredith McQuerry leads FSU’s Textile Testing Lab, where students use industry-standard equipment to analyze how fabrics withstand pressure, heat, moisture and wear. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship)
Funding from the Student Technology Fee, a resource managed by FSU’s Information Technology Services that has distributed more than $72 million across campus to support instructional technology since 2010, has reshaped the lab, allowing it to replace most of its core equipment and keep pace with industry standards. McQuerry called the support transformational.
“The lab is used first and foremost as a teaching space,” she said. “Students don’t just read about testing standards. They perform the tests themselves.”
“I cannot stress enough how transformational the Student Technology Fee funding program has been,” McQuerry said. “I have applied for it nearly every year I have been here, and we are so grateful to have received funding to replace almost every single piece of equipment in the Textile Testing Lab.”
That hands-on work is central to the lab’s role. Students in product evaluation and quality assurance courses learn how materials fail, how products perform, and how to interpret testing data — skills used in fields like sourcing, product development and quality control.