Smart Wearable Research (SWR) Group

The Smart Wearable Research (SWR) group is the part of the Department of Engineering at Nottingham Trent University. We are researching into novel wearable materials and systems for sensors, actuators, displays and communications in medical, sport, creative and personal protective equipment sectors. Our research expertise ranges from flexible and microelectronic, printed circuity, optical fibres to functional electronic materials.

We apply our research across the following areas:

• Wearable technologies: electronic-textiles, medical sensors and actuators
• Sport engineering: environmental physiology, human performance, product design
• Smart materials: functional electronic materials, metamaterials, 3D/4D materials
• Sensing system: physical sensors, chemical sensors, optical sensors
• Medical devices: physiologic parameters monitoring, electrostimulation

Our academics, researchers and students work closely with the Medical Technologies and Advanced Materials and Health and Wellbeing research themes.

Most recently published papers from SWR group (2019):

• M Liu, T Ward, D Young, H Matos, Y Wei, J Adams, K Yang, Electronic textiles based wearable electrotherapy for pain relief, Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2019.
• Y Wei, N Gracheva, J Tudor, A Non-invasive Subtle Pulse Rate Extraction Method Based on Eulerian Video Magnification, UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, 2019.
• Abiodun Komolafe, Russel Torah, Yang Wei, Helga Nunes‐Matos, Menglong Li, Dorothy Hardy, Tilak Dias, Michael Tudor, Stephen Beeby, Integrating Flexible Filament Circuits for E‐Textile Applications, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2019.
• Russel Torah, Yang Wei, Neil Grabham, Yi Li, Marc de Vos, Todor Todorov, Boris Popov, Vlad Marinov, Svetlozar Stoyanov, Vlad Todorov, John Tudor, Enabling platform technology for smart fabric design and printing, Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics, 2019.
• Yang Wei, Kai Yang, Martin Browne, Luciana Bostan, Peter Worsley, Wearable Electrical Stimulation to Improve Lymphatic Function, IEEE Sensors Letters, 2019.
• Frederique J Vanheusden, Michael A Chesnaye, David M Simpson, Steven L Bell, Envelope frequency following responses are stronger for high-pass than low-pass filtered vowels, International journal of audiology, 2019.
• Frederique J Vanheusden, Steven L Bell, Michael A Chesnaye, David M Simpson, Improved Detection of Vowel Envelope Frequency Following Responses Using Hotelling’s T2 Analysis, Ear and hearing, 2019.
• Steve H Faulkner, Iris Broekhuijzen, Margherita Raccuglia, Maarten Hupperets, Simon G Hodder, George Havenith, The Threshold Ambient Temperature for the Use of Precooling to Improve Cycling Time-Trial Performance, International journal of sports physiology and performance, 2019.
• Kate L Spilsbury, Myra A Nimmo, Barry W Fudge, Jamie SM Pringle, Mark W Orme, Steve H Faulkner, Effects of an increase in intensity during tapering on 1500-m running performance, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2019.
• Katy E Griggs, George Havenith, Mike J Price, Victoria Louise Goosey-Tolfrey, Evaporative heat loss insufficient to attain heat balance at rest in individuals with a spinal cord injury at high ambient temperature, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.
• Katy E Griggs, Ben T Stephenson, Michael J Price, Victoria L Goosey-Tolfrey, Heat-related issues and practical applications for Paralympic athletes at Tokyo 2020, Temperature, 2019.
• Masoud SoltanRezaee, Mahdi Bodaghi, Amin Farrokhabadi, Reza Hedayati, Nonlinear stability analysis of piecewise actuated piezoelectric microstructures, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 2019.
• Mahdi Bodaghi, Reza Noroozi, Ali Zolfagharian, Mohamad Fotouhi, Saeed Norouzi, 4D printing self-morphing structures, Materials, 2019.
• Markellos Ntagios, Habib Nassar, Abhilash Pullanchiyodan, William Taube Navaraj, Ravinder Dahiya, Robotic hands with intrinsic tactile sensing via 3D printed soft pressure sensors, Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2019.
• João Neto, Ayoub Zumeit, William Navaraj, Ravinder Dahiya, Reliability investigation of Via-bridges for flexible electronics, 2019 IEEE International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems (FLEPS), 2019

PhD projects:

• Novel Manufacturing Methods to Realise Electronic Textiles – Working closely with industry to develop next generation manufacturing methods to achieve electronic textiles.
• Effects of optimisation of clothing design and aerodynamics on human thermoregulation during endurance performance