Engineering: Health, Technology and the Digital World

Health, Technology and the Digital World is a research theme within which you can focus your studies as part of our suite of Engineering research programmes (MPhil, PhD, EngD).

The Health, Technology, and the Digital World research theme provides a framework for the research undertaken in the fields of High Frequency Communications Engineering and Medical Engineering, Medical Physics, and Medical Electronics. The combination of these disciplines allows for a truly innovative approach and enables exciting new solutions for the security, healthcare and medical requirements of a modern society.

From the investigation of treatments for osteoarthritis, and advanced electronic diagnostics, to improving the efficiency of mobile communications networks and developing new generations of sensors for use in fuel cells and medical devices, the Health, Security and the Digital World theme brings together Cardiff School of Engineering’s expertise in the fields of high frequency engineering and biomedical engineering.

By bringing together the research and training interests and expertise of the biomedical engineering related groups across the university, the work places Cardiff University in the forefront of medical engineering and enables it to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

Man wearing a blue shirt. He's smiling into the camera. — Dr Zaid Aboush

Contacts

Administrative contact(s)

Postgraduate Research Admissions, School of Engineering

engineering-pgr@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 029 2087 4642

Researchers working within the theme’s Centre for High Frequency Engineering are engaged in world class research in the fundamental science and engineering applications of magnetic and electronic materials, wireless communications systems, sensor technologies, signal processing and microfluidics.

Some of the key areas being worked on are:

establishing new RF design methodologies involving waveform engineering to address challenges imposed by high frequency SATCOM, radar and wireless communication systems
optimising simultaneously the digital base-band signal processing and RF functionality within wireless communication systems
developing new, interdisciplinary uses of microwave engineering, e.g. microfluidic sensors using miniaturised resonators
applying new concepts for signal and data processing of multi-sensor and multi-modal signals in the important fields of security, mobile/wireless systems and biomedicine
investigating fundamental properties of new magnetic materials, from bulk to nanoscale, and their applications for sensors and non-destructive evaluation, and to investigate the effects of magnetic fields on the human body
exploring opportunities in precision micro- and nano-particle synthesis by exploiting multiphase flow regimes in microfluidic reactors
investigating the fundamentals of emerging electronic materials such as indium nitride, thin film spintronics and hybrid materials.

Multidisciplinary research work in medical engineering, medical physics, and medical electronics, is represented by the Biomedical Engineering Research Group and involves the coalescence of the research interests and infrastructure of all the groups within Cardiff University working in Medical Engineering related fields.

Examples of current work in this area include:

design, development and testing of orthopaedic implants
development of numerical models to analyse the movement of human joints
working with spinal surgeons to gain an understanding of the biomechanics of spinal instrumentation and spinal constructs
clinical trials to analyse knee function in order to characterise normal pathological and total knee replacement;
investigation into head injuries in infants
human body response to blunt and sharp impacts
design of wheelchair seats
robotics in rehabilitation
imaging in the cardiovascular field and novel applications of MRI and whole body scanners.