In the late 2000s, Kumaran Thillainadarajah (D-TME'10), an international student from Sri Lanka studying engineering at the University of New Brunswick, became interested in nanotechnology. It was a research area that was transitioning from theoretical concepts to practical applications, particularly in materials science and medicine, with the development of nano-sized drug delivery systems and diagnostic tools.

Fortunately for Kumaran, one of the global leaders in molecular nanotechnology research, Dr. Felipe Chibante, was the Richard J. Currie chair in nanotechnology in the faculty of engineering at UNB. Kumaran asked to be his first summer student researcher, and one of their projects was with UNB’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering to design an ultra-thin film using carbon nanotubes to work with prosthetic limbs to detect and measure pressure. “About 100,000 – an entire forest of nanotubes – would fit onto the head of a needle,” Kumaran explains. “They are a hundred times stronger than steel, and at the same time, they are flexible and more importantly, pressure-sensitive.”

He was hooked.

With Chibante’s mentorship, Kumaran developed prototypes to take to a number of UNB’s business plan competitions and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru Competition, where he won startup seed funding. He took classes in UNB’s Technology Management and Entrepreneurship program that helped him learn business skills and introduced him to the startup ecosystem.

“UNB gave me all the tools I needed to start SmartSkin, including the connections and exposure to other disciplines that have been so valuable.”

SmartSkin has steadily grown right in Fredericton to a global go-to for some of the largest brands in the world. The sensor technology has morphed from prosthetics to packaging applications. “There wasn’t a straight line between pressure sensor and packaging it took a long while to explore applications and commercialize. We listened to customers, learned, tried to understand their issues, and explore how to help. To this day we are constantly innovating and developing new products based on customer feedback. We’ve become really good and choosing problems and solving them.”

SmartSkin is now redefining how production lines operate embedding real-time intelligence directly into the manufacturing process. “The SmartSkin enables manufacturing plants to centerline their filling and packaging processes our patented sensor suite measures the unseen forces that cause breakage, inefficiency, and downtime. This isn’t just monitoring; it’s precision feedback that empowers teams to act instantly, preventing issues before they escalate.”

In pharmaceutical operations, SmartSkin becomes part of the fill-finish and packaging process, continuously protecting container integrity and ensuring every vial, syringe, or cartridge meets the highest quality standards. In beverage production, their technology works within canning and bottling lines to detect misalignment, excessive force, or weaknesses in lightweight packaging — enabling rapid adjustments without interrupting production.

SmartSkin is helping customers switch from reactive to proactive maintenance. That shift has made the Fredericton company the standard for nearly all of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies and nearly every major beverage manufacturer — embedding zero-defect production into the heart of their operations.

Along the way, SmartSkin has been recognized locally and internationally, most notably with two Supplier Awards from Coca Cola, Best Pharmaceutical Manufacturing innovation at the 2020 PharmaPack awards in Paris and most recently, Best Manufacturing/Processing Innovation at World Beverage Innovation Awards 2024 in Nuremberg.

The company now has a team of over 80 full-time employees, mostly in New Brunswick, including a technical team of 35 engineers, scientists and technicians that are responsible for programming, designing and manufacturing our products. They also have team members in 17 cities across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. “Nine out of the first ten employees were from UNB and many are still with us.”

SmartSkin is an amazing UNB and New Brunswick success story, and Kumaran himself is a thoughtful and purpose-drive entrepreneur. But he fully credits UNB and the ecosystem of support in New Brunswick.

“SmartSkin was only possible because of UNB and investors and mentors right here in New Brunswick. You can build a company almost anywhere if you can find the right people. That's the value of our relationship with UNB: they recruit and build the kind of talent that we need and it's been a huge part of our success. I was just a kid with an idea, and so many people from the community reached out to help me simply because they wanted to see me succeed. I think that’s pretty unique, and it’s why I am proud to say SmartSkin is a UNB success story and proudly based in New Brunswick.”