Alex Casson

Alex Casson

Professor

 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1408-1190

Accepting PhD Students

Personal profile

Biography

Alex Casson is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Manchester. He is a specialist in non-invasive bioelectronic interfaces: the design and application of wearable sensors, and skin-conformal flexible sensors, for human body monitoring and data analysis from highly artefact prone naturalistic situations. This work is highly multi-disciplinary, spanning ultra-low power sensing, signal processing and machine learning in power constrained rich environments, and real-time data analysis towards closed loop systems for remote monitoring and digital therapeutics. He has research experience in:
 - Manufacturing using 3D printing, screen printing, and inkjet printing.
 - Ultra low power microelectronic circuit and system design at the discrete and fully custom microchip levels.
 - Sensor signal processing and machine learning for power and time constrained motion artefact rich environments.
 - Using bespoke and off-the-shelf wearable devices in a wide range of environments.

Dr Casson’s ultra low power sensors work is mainly for health and wellness applications, with a strong background in brain interfacing (EEG and transcranial current stimulation) and heart monitoring. Applications focus on both mental health situations including chronic pain, sleep disorders, and autism, and physical health/rehabilitation applications including diabetic foot ulceration, and chronic kidney disease. He has particular interests in closed loop systems: those which are tailored to the individual by personalised manufacturing via printing; and tailored to the individual by adjusting non-invasive stimulation (light, sound, electrical current) using data driven responses/outputs from real-time signal processing.
 
Dr Casson has cross-disciplinary appointments to support this work. He is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester; Visiting Reader (2022-2024) in School of Medicine at the University of Leeds; and Honorary Reader (2022-2024) in the Medical Physics Department at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Future Leader in Innovation, Enterprise and Research (FLIER) for the Academy of Medical Sciences (2022-2024), Bioelectronics technology platform lead for the Henry Royce Institute, and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (2021-2023). Dr Casson is currently a Senior Member of the IEEE and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is a past chair of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network, and the Biomedical Engineering joint steering group.
 
Dr Casson gained his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford where he read Engineering Science specialising in Electronic Engineering (MEng). He completed his PhD from Imperial College London, winning the prize for best doctoral thesis in electrical and electronic engineering. Dr Casson worked as a research associate and research fellow at Imperial College until 2013 when he joined the faculty at the University of Manchester.

Lab overview

Prizes and awards

Awards for me and my team:

2020: Outstanding presentation prize, NYC neuromodulation 2020 international conference. 

2018: Best paper award for journal article in ICT Xpress, with co-authors Arturo Vazquez Galvez, Delaram Jarchi. Total prize value $3500.

2018: Highly commended in the "Better World" showcase for an outstanding contribution to equality and diversity. 

2017: First prize in the University of Manchester 'Venture Further' awards for best spin out, business category. Total value £10,000.

2017: First prize in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering poster competition with PhD student Chris Beach.

2017: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

2016: First prize in the Rogue Resolutions Challenge 2016 with PhD student Siddharth Kohli. Total value £74,000.

2016: First prize in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering poster competition with PhD student Mohammed Abdulaal.

2016: Together with student Sammy Medhi highly commended in the Engineering category international Undergraduate Awards. Described as the "Junior Nobel Prize".

2015: Senior member of the IEEE.

2013: IET JA Lodge award, recognising “promising early-career electrical engineers working in biomedical engineering”.

2012: Runner-up in QUASAR USA dry sensor innovation challenge.

2010: Eryl Cadwaladr Davies prize for best doctoral thesis in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London.

2008: IET Ambition Award to “celebrate the achievements of talented young engineering and technology professionals”.

2006: EPSRC DTA award: £15,000 a year for three years scholarship.

2005, 2004, 2003: ARM limited sponsored student.

2005, 2004, 2003: Lincoln College, University of Oxford, exhibitions and scholarship.

Research interests

My research focuses on creating low power electronic devices combined with real-time signal processing. This has been involved with more than £20 million of research funding across a wide range of projects, funders, and multi-disciplinary working.

Current major projects:

Completed major projects:

  • The wearable clinic: Connecting health, self and care. EPSRC funded.
  • Passively powered non-invasive human body sensing on bio-degradable conformal substrates. EPSRC funded.
  • Neurotherapeutic platform for interventions in chronic pain. EPSRC, Dunhull Medical Turst, MRC funded.
  • Electrical stimulation to delay the onset of dementia. MRC funded.
  • Moving the mountain: Non-conventional human body monitoring to enable energy harvester powered systems. EPSRC funded.
  • EPSRC institutional sponsorship: Healthy nation. EPSRC funded.
  • A two electrode electrocardiography front end for enabling physiological signal measurements in SPHERE. EPSRC IRC SPHERE funded.

Research leadership

I am also involved in a number of leadership activities across the University of Manchester and UK:

Research outputs

My team and I have a number of publications describing my work and achievements and a number of high impact outputs.

Videos descriping our work:

Open data:

Open hardware and software:

Opportunities

 

Postgraduate Opportunities

My lab is always looking for highly motivated and skilled individuals who are interested in pursuing a PhD, and who want to create innovative new sensors which can enhance human performance. Our multi-disciplinary work has exciting opportunities for working at the state-of-the art in a number of high profile areas:

  • Human physiological monitoring.
  • “Killer app” creation: defining new applications in human monitoring.
  • Digital signal processing algorithm design and development.
  • Performance testing and verification methodologies.
  • Microprocessor programming and optimisation.
  • Microelectronic circuit design.
  • Fully custom microchip fabrication.
  • Energy harvester design and development.

If you would like more details please contact [email protected], stating your interests and funding circumstances. Please note that I may not be able to reply to your email unless you include details on both your interests and your funding circumstances.

How to apply

Full application instructions can be found here and full details about postgraduate research in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering can be found here.

Before applying you are strongly encouraged to contact [email protected], stating your interests and funding circumstances. Please note that I may not be able to reply to your email unless you include details on both your interests and your funding circumstances. 

The general procedure for PhD applications is then:

  1. To have an informal conversation by Zoom (or similar). This isn’t mandatory, but helpful to discuss research focus and fit with the lab.

  2. To complete the application form at https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/admissions/how-to-apply/ listing Alex Casson as the potential supervisor.

  3. To have a formal interview by Zoom (or similar) with Alex Casson and another academic.

  4. (If successful) we can then issue an offer letter which can be used to apply for funding.

Note that this process typically takes 1-2 months, allowing for all the forms to be processed. Make sure you apply well in advance of any funding or other deadlines that you may have. 

Funding sources

We have lots of funding opportunities for talented and enthusiastic students. Search the databases below to see which schemes you are eligible for:

Summer internships

Unfortunately my lab cannot accept summer intership students from outside the University of Manchester. Enquires for such placements will not receive a reply.

Impact

My team and I have a wide number of outputs demonstrating our research impact. Our highlights are summarised below. 

2020

  • Chair of the "Peter Wells Memorial Lecture" event, December 2020.
  • As a widening participation fellow PhD student Liam Johnson contributed digital material for secondary school children, including video talks covering ‘Why Study Biosciences’, and a workshop on ‘Bioelectronic Medicine’, December 2020.
  • Alex Casson on the awards committee, IEEE International Conference on Electronic Circuits and Systems, Glasgow, UK, November 2020.
  • Chair of the IET Annual Healthcare Lecture 2020,  November 2020.
  • Appointed external examiner for the courses: MSc Electronic and Electrical Engineering, MSc Electronic and Electrical Systems Engineering, MSc Energy and Power Systems Management; at the University of Portsmouth, UK. November 2020.
  • Invited presentation to the "Toronto leadership council," November 2020.
  • Invited presentation at the InnovateUK Knowledge Transfer Network, neurotechnologies capabilities event, October 2020. [Online due to COVID-19]
  • Member of the University of Manchester “Department forum review” task and finish group, October 2020.
  • Lead on two honorary lectureship positions to increase ties between engineering and Salford Royal hospital, September 2020.
  • PhD student Liam Johnson selected as a widening participation fellow, September 2020.
  • PhD student Andrius Vabalas highly commended in the IET Healthcare Technologies Network William James award for PhD students, September 2020.
  • Invited presentation by postdoctoral researcher Joshua Moore to the University of Basrah, Iraq, September2020. [Online due to COVID-19]
  • Organiser of mini-symposium “Methods for trustworthy and reliable in-the-wild EEG recordings”, and co-organiser of workshop “Creating standardized methods for assessing the efficacy of new EEG techniques” at the 2020 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference, Canada. July 2020.
  • Invited presentation by postdoctoral researcher Miguel Belmonte in a special session on time series physiological signal analysis at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology conference, Canada, July 2020. [Online due to COVID-19]
  • Invited presentation to the University of Manchester digital health domain on UK Biobank, July 2020. [Online due to COVID-19]
  • Alex Casson local chair of the IEEE International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems, July 2020.
  • 1st prize in the Venture Further awards for best spin out company, business category, to PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob. Total prize value £12k, June 2020.
  • Article, "Examining the optimal timing for closed-loop auditory stimulation of slow-wave sleep in young and older adults" selected as the "Editor's choice" in the journal Sleep, June 2020.
  • Two invited presentations at the New York City Neuromodulation conference, May 2020. Awarded an outstanding presentation award. [Online due to COVID-19]
  • Postdoctoral researcher Miguel Belmonte won an award through the Researcher to Innovator to conduct customer-discovery activity, April 2020.
  • Academic sponsor for Research IT lifecycle project on Research Data Management, March 2020.
  • For UK science week, PhD student Liam Johnson helped organise and run a workshop at the Whitworth art gallery for primary school children, March 2020.
  • Outreach demonstration lecture by postdoctoral researcher Joshua Moore to Underwood West Academy, Crewe, March 2020.
  • Outreach demonstration lecture by postdoctoral researcher Joshua Moore to St Peter's RC high school Manchester, February 2020.
  • Invited presentation at UKRI Materials Research Exchange on "Accelerating adoption of new materials into applications" led by KCMC and CPI , February 2020.
  • Invited presentation at the University of Liverpool Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, February 2020.
  • Invited talk at the Innovation Forum 'Pitch in the pub' by PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob, January 2020.
  • Member of the University of Manchester – Health and Safety Executive framework consultancy agreement for as-needed consultancy services, January 2020.
  • Contributor to the IET First Lego league regional final, January 2020.
  • Blog post on outreach activities by postdoctoral researcher Joshua Moore, https://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/uomchemistryblog/2020/01/outreach-community-festival/, January 2020.
  • Presentation at the Advanced Materials in Medicine initiative launch event, highlight bioelectronics research and resources across the University of Manchester, January 2020.

2019

  • Invited presentation at the IEEE UK Circuits and Systems society meeting (IEEE UKCAS), London UK, December 2019.
  • Alex Casson elected chair of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering "forum" representing staff views within the department within the University, December 2019.
  • Presentation on nanoelectronics to year 12 students as part of an outreach event organised by the NanoWoW Centre for Doctoral Training, December 2019.
  • PhD student Chris Beach awarded an EPSRC eFutures travel award to attend the IEEE UK Circuits and Systems society meeting (IEEE UKCAS), London UK, November 2019.
  • Invited presentation at  the IET “IoT in Healthcare” meeting, Liverpool UK, November 2019.
  • Alex Casson chaired the IET Healthcare technologies network annual lecture and gave out the early career awards, October 2019.
  • Invited presentation at the University of Toronto, September 2019.
  • InnovateUK Electech roadmap was published with future directions for the UK electronics industry with input from Dr Casson, September 2019.
  • Organisers of an outreach even on "paper circuits" Ashurst primary school, St Helens working with year groups from 2 – 6, September 2019.
  • Interviewed as of the University of Manchester MSc on public health highlighting new developments in wearable devices, September 2019.
  • Alex Casson part of the Research Data Repository procurement committee for research data management within the University of Manchester, September 2019.
  • Table top demo at the "Clean air for Manchester" launch event, showing our work on wearable devices, September 2019.
  • Alex Casson chair of the IET Healthcare Technologies network, September 2019.
  • Member of the IMechE Biomedical Engineering Division Board, September 2019.
  • Bioelectronics theme lead for the Advanced Materials in Medicine initiative at the University of Manchester, September 2019.
  • Alex Casson part of a panel discussion on healthcare innovation for the Manchester Innovation Forum, August 2019.
  • Co-organiser of mini-symposium “Time-series modelling of physiology” at the 2019 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Germany, July 2019.
  • Invited special session presentation at the 2019 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Germany, July 2019.
  • PhD student Chris Beach gave an invited presentation at the University of Manchester 3D printing innovation community, July 2019.
  • PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob awarded a 'Making a Difference Commended' award for his work on UoM Stories, July 2019.
  • Invited presentation by PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob  on '5 steps to take for an academic entrepreneur' at the Presidents Doctoral Scholars in the pub event, July 2019.
  • Invited talk by PhD student Nikhil Kurian at the 'Innovation Optimizer Showcase 2019' organised by University of Manchester Intellectual Property.
  • Presentation in the "Battle of the Engineers" at the Discover Engineering outreach event, July 2019.
  • Neurofeedback software and smartphone app featured on BBC Northwest Tonight, June 2019.
  • Team evaluators of the "MECD pilot space", moving to a mock up of the £400M new Engineering campus in Manchester for 3 months to evaluate different layout options, May 2019.
  • Invited presentation to the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health "Digital Health domain" on wearable devices, May 2019.
  • Public engagement presentation as part of the Pint of Science festival, May 2019.
  • Invited presentation on wearable signal processing at the University of Surrey, May 2019.
  • Member of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering marketing committee, May 2019.
  • Academic lead of the University of Manchester UK Biobank user community, April 2019.
  • Organisers of an industry showcase showcasing strengths in bioelectronics research (including our own) across the University of Manchester, April 2019.
  • Alex Casson received a letter of commendation from the EPSRC CEO for being in the top 6% of review college members in the last year, March 2019.
  • Trained on Medical Device Regulations (MDR), March 2019.
  • Organisers of an outreach even on "paper circuits" Puss Bank primary school, Macclesfield working with year groups from 2 – 6, March 2019.
  • Research on inkjet printing onto flexible temporary tattoo-like substrates featured in a documentary by BBC Arabic on the Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials, March 2019.
  • Bioelectronics network organised by Dr Casson featured in the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) newsletter, in English (https://iecetech.org/Technical-Committees/2018-04/Clothes-that-reveal-how-you-really-feel) and German (https://www.dke.de/de/news/2019/kleidung-enthuellt-wie-sie-sich-wirklich-fuehlen), April 2019.
  • Organisers of a stand on "paper circuits" at the ScienceX public engagement event at the Trafford centre shopping mall, April 2019.
  • PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob given a Bee Manchester "Bee Proud" award for his work on the "UoM stories event", February 2019.
  • PhD students Chris Beach and Arturo Vazquez Galvez gave an outreach workshop at St. Annes Primary School Sale, February 2019. 
  • PhD student Chris Beach featured in the IET member news, February 2019.

2018

  • "Ignition Award" (£2000) awarded to PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob for user-testing ideas for a spin-off, December 2018.
  • PhD student Chris Beach  finalist in the EPSRC ICT Pioneers "Connected Nation" competition. Invited to present his work to industry experts at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, December 2019.
  • Invited presentation at the MIMIT is 10 anniversary event, Manchester, UK, November 2018.
  • Judge of the IET innovation awards in healthcare technologies, November 2018.
  • Keynote presentation, ICTC conference, South Korea, October 2018.
  • Best paper award for ICT Express journal, October 2018.
  • Invited presentation to EEG research group, Fudan University, China, October 2018.
  • Contributor to Health Innovation Manchester dementia care roadmap, October 2018.
  • Organiser and lead judge of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network early career awards, UK, October 2018.
  • Post-doc James Henshaw featured on BBC Horizon "The Placebo Experiment: Can My Brain Cure My Body", September 2018. 
  • Plenary presentation, BrainBox conference, UK, September 2018.
  • Panel member for EPSRC ICT prioritisation meeting, September 2018.
  • Organisers of bespoke outreach event for Medlock primary school, targeting 60 year 3 (8 years old) pupils, July 2018.
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering reprehensive to the University of Manchester Digital Futures Health & Care theme, July 2018.
  • Associate editor for the 2018 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference, USA, July 2018.
  • Organiser of three invited session: “Wearable EEG for real-life brain monitoring,” “Next steps in real-life brain monitoring: technologies for wearable EEG,” and “Time-series modelling of physiology: Inference, implementation, and interpretability,” at the 2018 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference, USA, July 2018.
  • Session chair for “Wearable systems” and “Next steps in real-life brain monitoring: technologies for wearable EEG,” at the 2018 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference, USA, July 2018.
  • IET travel award (£500) made to PhD student Chris Beach, July 2018.
  • Poster judge at the University of Manchester summer research showcase, UK, July 2018.
  • Leader of a Royal Institution Engineering masterclass - a computer science outreach event for 14 year olds focusing on computer architecture, June 2018.
  • Contributor to InnovateUK “ElecTech” roadmap for the UK electronics industry, June 2018.
  • Organisers of workshop on bioelectronics for the Royce Institute of advanced materials, June 2018.
  • Blog post for EPSRC on “Sleep disturbance in dementia - a better night's sleep for all,” June 2018.
  • Presentation on bioelectronics in Manchester to the IEC working group 119 (printed electronics) and 124 (wearable electronics), Manchester, UK, May 2018.
  • Member of University of Manchester "Bioelectronics" mission to the University of Toronto, Canada, April 2018.
  • Our work discussed in Nature Commentary, "Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression", April 2018.
  • Stand on Brain-Computer Interfacing at the Intu Trafford Centre as part of the “ScienceX” festival, April 2018. An estimated 3000 people visited the stand.
  • Demo by PhD student Nikhil Jacob on real-time neuromodulation as part of the University of Manchester Digilab event, March 2018.
  • Organisers of joint EPSRC-Alzheimer's Society workshop on technologies for sleep disturbance in dementia, March 2018.
  • Lead of the IET “Faraday challenge” held at the University of Manchester, focused on widening participation schools, February 2018.
  • £8500 awarded to PhD student Nikhil Jacob and collaborators to create the "UoM stories" event, February 2018.
  • Presentation by PhD student Nikhil Jacob on “Neurotechnology” at the  Presidents Doctoral Scheme (PDS) in the pub event, February 2018.
  • Invited presentation to the antennas group, University of Kent, UK, February 2018.
  • Invited presentation to Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, UK, January 2018.
  • Highly commended in the University of Manchester "Better World" awards for an outstanding contribution to equality and diversity, February 2018.
  • Personal letter of commendation from the EPSRC CEO for being in the top 7% of peer reviewers in 2016/17, January 2018. 
  • Invited presentation to the "Moble Technology and Healthcare" Mobile Monday at PwC in Manchester, January 2018.

2017

  • Lead of the University of Manchester Bioelectronics Network, December 2017. 
  • PhD student Nikhil Jacob organised an outreach event demoing real-time neuromodulation apps as part of the University of Manchester Digilab event, December 2017.
  • Judge of the IET innovation awards in healthcare technologies, November 2017.
  • PhD student Chris Beach won first prize in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering poster competition, November 2017.
  • Member of EPSRC "HTHive" workshop, bring together for the first time the leading UK researchers funded by EPSRC’s Healthcare Technologies theme, together with key stakeholder groups for talks, workshops and networking, November 2017.
  • Wearable PPG and ECG recording database made publicly available by Physionet, October 2017.
  • PhD student Chris Beach presented at the UK embassy in Tokyo Japan in the Joint UK/Japan IoT workshop, September 2017.
  • PhD student Siddharth Kohli gave invited demo at the 2017 Brain Box initiative conference, September 2017.
  • UMIP innovation optimizer award to support University start-ups. September 2017.
  • Presentation and demo to the IEC technical committee 119 on printing electronics, September 2017.
  • Lead judge for the IET Healthcare Technologies Network early career awards, July 2017.
  • Member of the University of Manchester research data management committee, July 2017.
  • Poster judge at the University of Manchester summer showcase, July 2017.
  • Invited presentation to the neuroimaging division at the University of Manchester, July 2017.
  • Member of the Faculty of Science and Engineering - Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health interactions committee, July 2017.
  • Representative of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering on the University of Manchester "Materials in Medicine" initative, July 2017.
  • Leader of a Royal Institution Engineering masterclass - an computer science outreach event for 14 year olds focusing on computer architecture, July 2017.
  • PhD student Andrius Vabalas ran three "experts by experience" groups with autism@manchester to consider the perspectives of people on the autism spectrum and their families when planning research, June 2017.
  • NeuroD initative presented at the Dementia@Manchester showcase, June 2017.
  • Member of EPSRC/MRC/BBSRC "Technology touching life" workshop, June 2017.
  • Invited talk to the SPHERE interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Bristol, June 2017.
  • Invited presentation to IBM Research in Yorktown USA, June 2017.
  • First prize in the University of Manchester 'Venture Further' awards for best spin out, business category. Total value £10,000. June 2017.
  • Invited presentation to the Army Research Laboratory, USA, May 2017.
  • Invited presentation at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems in the "Ultra-efficient Approaches Enabling Long-term, Mobile EEG for Brain Monitoring" session, Balitmore USA, May 2017.
  • Session chair for "Wearable sensing systems" session at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Balitmore USA, May 2017.
  • Outreach presentations from multiple lab members for A-level Singaporean students visiting the UK, April 2017.
  • Input on healthcare technologies from the IET into a Royal Academy of Engineering green paper on pillar 8 of the industrial strategy (Cultivating World Leading Sectors), April 2017.
  • Fellow of the higher education academy, April 2017.
  • PhD student Andrius Vabalas ran an outreach event in the "research van", going to the community and raising awareness about autism research, April 2017.
  • IET on campus representative for the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, March 2017.
  • School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering representative on the Royce institute for advanced materials "bio-materials" equipment scoping workshops. 

  • Faculty of Science and Engineering representative on the University of Manchester 'DevoHub', collating research of the devolution process in Manchester, March 2017.

  •  

    PhD student Siddharth Kohli made a member of the Brainbox initiative steering committee, aiming to give young neuroscience researchers a voice, March 2017.
  • Vice-chair of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network, February 2017. 
  • Member of IET Internet of Things (IoT) technical and professional network working party representing healthcare, February 2017. 
  • Two presentations, by PhD students Mohammed Abdulaal and Andrius Vabalas, in the inaugural machine learning workshop series in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, February 2017.
  • Invited presentation by PhD student Siddharth Kohli to Banissy lab at Goldsmiths, University of London, February 2017.
  • Demo of graphene based sensing technologies for BBC R&D, February 2017. 
  • Member of workshop defining next generation signal processing challenges and opportunities for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, February 2017.
  • Presenter at the University of Manchester NeuroD workshops, building critical mass in technologies for neurodegeneration research across the University and stakeholder groups, January and Febrary 2017. 
  • Invited demo of our closed-loop, non-invasive, neuromodulation technology work by PhD student Siddharth Kohli, as part of the Neuromodulation conference in New York, January 2017.

2016

  • Invited outreach event on wearable technology at the National Media Museum, Bradford, December 2016.
  • Blog post by PhD student Siddharth Kohli for the Brain Box Initiative which aims to “Give Young Neuroscientists a Voice”, December 2016.
  • Organiser of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network awards scheme, promoting the careers of early stage biomedical engineers, November 2016.
  • Video bog for Rogue Resolutions, UK based company, by PhD student Siddharth Kohli, November 2016.
  • Guest editor for journal Sensors special issue "Sensors for healthcare system", October 2016.
  • Associate member of the EPSRC peer review college, October 2016.
  • Member of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network executive committee, October 2016.
  • Together with student Sammy Madhi highly commended in the Engineering category international Undergraduate Awards. Described as the "Junior Nobel Prize", shortlisted from over 5000 entries, September 2016.
  • Member of scoping working on new IET Internet of Things (IoT) technical and professional network, September 2016. 
  • Invited presentation to the MEIbioeng conference in the Signal Processing track, September 2016.
  • Outreach stand at the Stockport Grammar School careers event, September 2016.
  • Organiser and session chair of a mini-symposium at the 2016 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Orlando: "Next generation electroencephalography recording electrodes," August 2016.
  • Two invited papers and presentations at the 2016 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Orlando, August 2016.
  • Associate editor, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, Orlando, August 2016.
  • First prize in the Rogue Resolutions Challenge 2016 with PhD student Siddharth Kohli, July 2016.
  • Co-theme lead for the University of Manchester 'Healthy Nation' research theme, July 2016.
  • Third prize in the School of Materials Science poster competition with PhD student Meera Dulabh, June 2016.
  • Student Sammy Madhi awarded the best final year individual project prize, June 2016.
  • Leader of a Royal Institution Engineering masterclass - an electronics outreach event for 14 year olds focusing on heart monitoring, June 2016.
  • Invited presentation by PhD student Meera Dulabh to the Augmented-Virtual Reality Innovation Forum, June 2016.
  • Delivered 'Battle of the Engineers' overview of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and two workshops on Graphene based bio-sensing as part of the University of Manchester 'Discover Engineering Day', June 2016.
  • News article covering our wearable work and its impact made by Future Everything, May 2016, 
  • “Neurodating” video for The Hits FM, UK. >18k views on Facebook in 1st week, May 2016.
  • Public talk as part of the pint of science festival, May 2016.
  • Invited presentation to the Computational Health Informatics group, University of Oxford, April 2016.
  • Invited presentation to the Diabetic Foot Ulceration network, Manchester, March 2016.
  • Invited presentation to the MRC network meeting on big data in hearing aids, Mary 2016.
  • Organisers of an outreach event demoing real-time brainwave monitoring, specifically invited to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, March 2016.
  • Member of workshop defining ‘Human-like computing’ for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, February 2016.
  • Research of PhD student Meera Dulabh featured on the University of Manchester materials blog, February 2016.
  • Organisers of an outreach event demoing real-time brainwave monitoring as part of the University of Manchester Digilab event, February, October and December 2016.
  • Invited presentation at the Rogers lab, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, January 2016.

2015

  • Invited presentation to the Cognitive Research Informed Surgical Techniques lab, University of Leeds, December 2015.
  • Senior member of the IEEE, December 2015.
  • Organisers of an outreach event demoing real-time brainwave monitoring as part of the University of Manchester Digilab event, November 2015.
  • Co-organisers of an outreach event demoing out-of-the-lab eye tracking and brain monitoring at the Manchester museum of science and industry as part of the Manchester Science Festival, November 2015.
  • Technical contributors to an ESRC funded outreach event on the science of emotions at the Manchester museum of science and industry, November 2015.
  • Plenary lecture at the Cardio mHealth conference, Tabarz, September 2015. Also acted as session chair and on the scientific advisory board.
  • Presented the Engineering and Physical Sciences challenges of bioelectronics for neuromodulation at joint EPSRC-Wellcome Trust scoping workshop, September 2015.
  • Invited presentation at Connected Health 2015 conference by the Health-Tech Innovation labs, London, September 2015.
  • Invited presentation on digital health at the MEIbioeng conference, Leeds, September 2015.
  • Invited presentation in special session "Signal processing for healthcare: applications, challenges and opportunities" at the European Signal Processing Conference in Nice, September 2015.
  • Texas Instruments expert advisory panel member, September 2015.
  • Organiser and session chair of a mini-symposium at the 2015 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Milan: "mHealth review: Cross-disciplinary technologies, deployments and future trends," August 2015.
  • Presenter in invited session "Biosignal monitoring and processing for ubiquitous health care" IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Milan, August 2015.
  • Good clinical practice certified, March 2015.
  • Leader of a Royal Institution Engineering masterclass - an computer science outreach event for 14 year olds focusing on computer architecture, March 2015.
  • Invited presentation at the Cognitive Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology group at the University of Manchester, January 2015.
  • Principle investigator on EPSRC grant “Moving the mountain: Non-conventional human body monitoring to enable energy harvester powered systems”, January 2015.

2014

  • Invited presentation at the Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering group at The University of Surrey, November 2014.
  • Panel member in the "Wearable technology ethics discussion" as part of the University of Manchester DigiLab launch event, October 2014.
  • Featured engineer on EEweb.com, September 2014.
  • Organiser and session chair of a mini-symposium at the 2014 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Chicago: "Going beyond gadgets: Bringing out science in mHealth," August 2014.
  • Co-organiser of a special symposium at the 2014 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Chicago: "The A-W of wearable sensors," August 2014.
  • Invited presentation at the microSystems research group at Newcastle University, July 2014.
  • Invited presentation to the Connected Health Innovation Centre at The University of Manchester, May 2014.
  • Leader of a Royal Institution Engineering masterclass - an electronics outreach event for 14 year olds focusing on heart monitoring, May 2014.
  • Invited presentation at the Centre for Intelligent Sensing, Queen Mary University of London, UK, May 2014.
  • Invited presentation at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tubingen, Germany, March 2014.
  • Starting member of the Manchester-MindTech Healthcare Technology Co-operative network funded by the EPSRC, March 2014.

2012 to 2013

  • Participant in the Royal Society pairing scheme spending a week in Westminster, December 2013.
  • Poster judge at the 2013 Daphne Jackson trust research conference.
  • Organiser and session chair of IET sponsored mini-symposium at the 2013 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in Osaka, Japan: “mHealth review”.
  • Invited speaker at the 2013 Human-Computer Interaction International conference.
  • Invited presentation to the Global eHealth unit at Imperial College London, February 2013.
  • Invited presentation to the Centre for Bio-inspired technology at Imperial College London, October 2012.
  • Presented a poster "Sick of charging batteries" about my low power electronics work at the British Science Festival in Aberdeen in September 2012.
  • Runner-up in QUASAR USA Dry Sensor Innovation Challenge, 2012.
  • Organiser and session chair of a mini-symposium at the 2012 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in San Diego: "Dealing with Lots of Data: Databases, Performance Metrics and Competitions As Tools for Research".
  • Co-organiser of a second mini-symposium at the 2012 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference in San Diego: "Mobile Health and Mobile Devices: Improving Global Health by Lightening the Load for Healthcare Professionals and Providing Expert Care Anywhere".
  • Speaker in the joint McGill University–Imperial College London Neuroengineering workshop, March 2012.
  • Presented my work on very low power circuit design for wearable EEG systems at the UK Houses of Parliament in March 2012 as part of the "SET for Britain" event.

2008 to 2011

  • Invited speaker at the 2011 ACM ISABEL conference, October 2011.
  • Speaker in a mini-symposium "Reliable and trustworthy physiological signal monitoring in daily-life", organised by Julien Penders from IMEC, at the 33rd international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Boston, September 2011.
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department postdoctoral staff representative, 2011 and 2012.
  • Awarded the Eryl Cadwaladr Davies prize for the best doctoral thesis in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering department, Imperial College London, academic year 2009-2010, in May 2011.
  • Invited article for the CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation magazine 2011.
  • Invited speaker at the 2010 IEEE ISABEL conference.
  • Co-organiser and session chair of a mini-symposium "Towards future truly wearable medical devices: From application to ASIC" at the 32nd international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, September 2010.
  • Paper "Wearable electroencephalography" was the 4th most accessed paper in the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine in May 2010. It was then the 2nd most accessed in June 2010 and the top accessed in July 2010.
  • Paper "Toward Online Data Reduction for Portable Electroencephalography Systems in Epilepsy" was the 2nd most accessed paper in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering in December 2009.
  • Awarded an IET postgraduate scholarship in November 2008.
  • Co-organiser of conference special conference "Towards Truly Wearable Electroencephalography" was organised by us at the 30th international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vancouver, August 2008.
  • "Removing the wires from EEG monitoring" presentation to world leading neurologists at the Chalfont Epilepsy Centre, April 2008.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 1 - No Poverty
  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Areas of expertise

  • TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Digital Futures
  • Institute for Data Science and AI
  • Dementia@Manchester
  • Advanced Materials in Medicine
  • Autism@Manchester
  • Manchester Precision Medicine Institute
  • Sustainable Futures
  • Christabel Pankhurst Institute
  • Thomas Ashton Institute
  • Manchester Environmental Research Institute
  • Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing

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