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Photonic Sensors

Welcome to the Polymer Sensors & Devices Research Group

We create sensor systems from functionalised polymer materials.

We use optical or electrical methods to interrogate them.

We measure parameters in challenging environments for medical, environmental and industrial applications, where sensors have to be tiny, embedded, exposed to dangerous liquids and gases or electromagnetic or radiation environments.

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Polymer Sensors & Devices Research Group

The Sensors and Devices Group designs and develops sensors from new materials, integrates them into sensor arrays and systems and applies them to a range of measurement problems.

Applications range from medical sensing, human motion, environmental and chemical sensing, and process analytics. Sensors detect or measure parameters in the physical world and transfer data to the digital world.

Skills Analogue to digital transference skills are useful tools for students in the 21st Century. Digitally sensed data can be processed using statistical and signal processing concepts, and analysed using artificial intelligence (AI). The skills developed will prepare students for careers in digital manufacturing, digital twins and smart factories, in chemical engineering process plants and medical device characterisation and testing.

Context: Working in smart materials for sensors, and instrumentation applied to healthcare and process technologies, using photonic and laser technologies to generate new materials and devices, and configure them in systems to extract signals and data via artificial intelligence such as sensor fusion and machine/deep learning.

Themes ranging from Manufacturing the Future/Digital Manufacturing; Smart Materials for Photonics & Sensing; Sensing for Challenging Engineering and Extreme Environments; to Healthcare and Assistive Technologies, applying advanced functional materials to create wearable/ implantable sensors for use in medtech, industrial and structural health monitoring.