I develop electronic textile (E-textile) based wearable technologies for healthcare applications. My research involves the development of novelty functional materials, manufacturing processes such as printing and coating, and applications.
E-textiles are advanced textiles that include electronic functionality ranging from conductive tracks to sensing/actuating, communications and microprocessing. Advanced e-textiles technologies offer great opportunities to push the boundaries of wearable healthcare applications by improving the user experience (e.g. comfortable to wear, easy to use, unobtrusive) and motivating the user adherence.
In addition to the engineering work, I engage with the end users to understand their needs; I work with companies to gain insight on market need, manufacturing and commercialisation.
I am currently working on my EPSRC Fellowship project on Advanced E-textiles for Wearable Therapeutics. The Fellowship project is developing wearable electrotherapy for knee joint pain relief for people with osteoarthritis (OA). OA is an age-related chronic degenerative musculoskeletal condition affecting 8.75 million people in the UK. Knee joint pain is one of the most common symptoms of people with OA. Knee joint pain constrains people’s movement and reduces their quality of life. Our wearable electrotherapy device will enable people to manage their pain at home independently which will lead to a better way of life while reducing the burden on society.
Being an engineer offers me the opportunity to use my skills to develop technologies to solve big problems. I love building up prototypes using materials and processes we developed. My research is very much end user and market oriented because the end goal is to develop products people can access which will help them to live a better life. It has been a very enjoyable and rewarding journey to work with end users, technology developers and other key stakeholders. Their valuable insights have made my research more effective and useful.