Mechanical Emerging Design (MED) Group

Biosensors and chemical sensors enable high resolution detections for digital healthcare and environmental monitoring applications. These sensors are typically developed under ideal laboratory conditions using homogeneous samples, resulting in optimal sensor performance. However, in clinical settings, the presence of complex buffer matrices and variability in sample composition introduces significant "noise," which can compromise the reliability and effectiveness of these sensors. Our perception on molecular binding interaction is one key challenge to fully characterise sensors (link). This project aims to build new guidelines based on developing novel multiscale approaches to understand binding kinetics and inform microfluidic technologies for the development of fast and reliable measurement techniques, tackling challenges associated with current technologies.

Efficient energy management and the reduction of energy consumption are critical to realising the full environmental benefits. especially in electric transportation. Optimising how energy is stored, delivered, and consumed becomes essential to lowering carbon emissions and reducing reliance on non-renewable resources. In this project, we focus on the development of high-performance energy storage systems, renewable-integrated energy management strategies, and the mechanical design for minimal energy consumption. By combining intelligent control algorithms with renewable energy sources, we aim to enable efficient and resilient power delivery for electric mobility (link). Beyond using renewable energy systems, we use innovative mechanical design to reduce energy consumption in electric transportation to move toward environmental sustainability.

Nanomaterials are central to the development of next-generation technologies aimed at environmental sustainability, enabling innovative solutions in areas such as energy harvesting, pollutant sensing, and resource-efficient systems. Their high surface-to-volume ratio and tunable properties make them ideal candidates for integration into low-power, highly sensitive environmental sensors and energy-efficient devices. However, as material dimensions shrink to the nanoscale, surface effects dominate their functional behaviour, introducing size-dependent physical responses that present both opportunities and challenges. Understanding and harnessing these effects is key to engineering reliable, high-performance nanomaterial-based systems for sustainable environmental monitoring, energy management, and green technology applications. An example of such challenges was review on the size-dependent mechanical behaviour of nanowires (link). This project studies the size effect in the operational behaviour of nanostructures such as nanoporous materials (link), 1D architectures such as nanowires (link) and 2D materials (link). This project employs characterization techniques assisted by multiscale modelling approaches to understand the physical properties of nanoscale materials and their reliable during operational performance.