News and Projects

A new research paper from my research group shows the latest developments in our work developing wearable assistive linkage fabrics. The work was led by PhD student Christian Partik. We are developing wearable assistive devices that can actively modulate stiffness on demand is envisioned to support joints and facilitate limb movement. This paper shows how…

I am leading this project which was recently awarded UKRI £1.75M funding to address the plastic waste issues of nappies, incontinence products and period products. With birth rates increasing in some parts of the world and ageing populations a significant factor in others, demand is rising for disposable nappies, period products, incontinence pads and similar…

In our latest paper we describe how we used hyperspectral imaging to create an automatic identification and and classification system for biodegradable and compostable plastics. Read the paper here.

PhD in Animate materials to solve plastic waste issues Restoration of forests is part of the strategy to achieve net-zero target emissions by enhancing the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The UK has pledged to plant 2 billion trees by 2050. The most common afforestation strategy uses tree shelters to protect planted seedlings…

Our new research paper published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability is based on a 2 year citizen science study on home compostable plastics. We engaged with 9,701 UK citizens geographically spread across the UK to examine their capability, opportunity, and motivation to do this. Of this cohort 1,648 citizens performed home compost experiments to…

Our research paper ‘Additive manufacturing techniques for smart prosthetic liners‘ has been awarded the Jack Perkins Prize for best paper in the journal Medical Engineering and Physics in 2021. The work was led by the brilliant Dr Ben Oldfrey.

Our latest paper is a method to use behaviour change to improve compostable plastic disposal: Its FREE and OPEN ACCESS

I wrote an article for the The Chemical Engineer magazine about ethical research goals and the power of citizen science. Its FREE to read.

Accepted the Thornton Medal by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining on behalf of my research team for a talk on sustainability in materials systems.

Our latest paper reviews a key technology to make biodegradable and compostable plastic sustainable – automatic sorting. Its FREE and OPEN ACCESS here: