Yang Wei

Role

Professor of Wearable Technology

Career overview

Professor Yang Wei

Professor of Wearable Technology
Lead, Smart Wearable Research Group (SWRG)
MTIF Fellow in Smart Medical Textiles and Wearable Technologies

Professor Yang Wei is a leading academic in the field of smart wearables and electronic textiles. He is a Professor at Nottingham Trent University and leads the Smart Wearable Research Group (SWRG), which develops next-generation wearable technologies for healthcare, defence, and industrial applications.

A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Professor Wei is a steering committee member of the EPSRC E-Textile Network, a contributor to the IPC Electronic-Textile Initiative, and a technical committee member for conferences. He is also a guest editor for journals including Sensors and Actuators, Smart Materials and Structures, and Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics.

At NTU’s Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF), a £23M translational research hub, Professor Wei leads initiatives in Smart Medical Textiles, helping accelerate wearable devices from lab to clinic under ISO13485 and ISO10993 standards.

Research Track Record and Grants

Professor Wei has secured and led numerous prestigious research projects funded by EPSRC, NIHR, Innovate UK, Wellcome Leap, CRUK, and others.

His current portfolio includes:

• EPSRC New Investigator Award: Wearable smart medical textiles for managing lymphoedema.
• NIHR i4i Project: Wearable respiratory sensors for hospital and home use.
• Innovate UK KTP with Trelleborg: Development of a smart mattress system for patient monitoring in healthcare settings.
• Wellcome Leap Project: Development of wearable EMG sleeve (Axoband) to quantitively assess people living with sarcopenia.
• CRUK-Funded Project: Development of a bra-integrated breast cancer monitoring system, capable of detecting tumour growth in real-time using textile-based sensors.
• Humane Research Trust Grant: High-throughput human muscle model for sarcopenia research.
• Animal Free Research UK Grant: Technology to improve discovery of treatments for sarcopenia.

Prof Wei also has contributed to the previous projects including:

• EU FP7 Projects: MICROFLEX, CREATIF, OR4FAUTO.
• EPSRC FETT Project: Flexible electronics for textile integration.
• MRC SmartMove: Wearable movement sensors for rehabilitation.

Research Areas

• Smart sensing and biosignal monitoring
• Printed, flexible, and stretchable electronics
• Wearable medical devices and digital healthcare
• Additive manufacturing for textiles
• Textile-integrated RF systems

External activity

• Local organisation committee of EPSRC e-textile conference.
• Technical committee of EPSRC E-Textile conference.
• Steering board member of EPSRC E-Textile network
• Technical committee of iMEDiST conference.
• A regular reviewer of Journals including Sensors and Actuators, Smart Materials and Structures, Sensors, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Advanced Materials Research, Fibres.
• The guest editor of special issue "Sensors for Biopotential, Physiological and Biomedical Monitoring".
• The guest editor of special issue "Smart textile medical device" of Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics".

Sponsors and collaborators

Collaborations

He collaborates with:

• University of Southampton
• Southampton General Hospital
• ASH Wireless Electronics Ltd
• Philips
• Kymira
• PVH Group
• Invengo
• Zaha Hadid Architects
• Trelleborg Coated Fabrics