Research Programme

Four enduring themes organise my work in medical engineering and computational design. Each begins with a clinically meaningful question and connects imaging, mechanics, modelling, design, manufacturing and validation.

02 — SPINE HEALTH & FRACTURE-RISK PREDICTION

How can routinely acquired imaging reveal clinically useful biomechanical risk?

The work integrates opportunistic CT biomarkers, automated vertebral segmentation and mesh generation, scalable CT-to-FE pipelines, fracture-load estimation and metastatic-spine biomechanics. The emphasis is automation without losing biological or mechanical meaning.

CURRENT DIRECTIONS

Automated vertebral FE setup · BoneMesh · material-group reduction · opportunistic fracture risk · metastatic-spine models

CLINICAL VALUE

Earlier risk identification, more consistent analysis, and better evidence for intervention.

04 — ASSISTIVE SYSTEMS FOR FUNCTION & CARE

How can engineering extend function while respecting comfort, context and real use?

This theme includes prosthetic sockets and upper-limb devices, knee-unloader braces, smart hydrocephalus shunts, scanner-compatible CPR systems, rehabilitation monitoring and wearable care technologies.

01 — BONE-HEALING DIGITAL TWINS

How can we predict and guide healing for an individual patient?

This programme combines patient-specific mechanobiology, adaptive tissue models, angiogenesis, uncertainty quantification, and reduced-order prediction. Current work includes BoneMesh, PBMGA workflows, mechanobiological fracture-healing models and implant dynamization.

METHODS

CT and micro-CT · finite-element modelling · mechanoregulation · uncertainty analysis · surrogate modelling

TRANSLATIONAL AIM

Move from retrospective simulation toward clinically interpretable digital twins that support treatment choice and device design.

03 — PATIENT-SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS

How much personalisation is enough to improve function, reliability and affordability?

Projects span interlocking osteotomy reconstruction, laser-based bone resection, CF-PEEK fracture plates, meniscal implants, surgical guides and dynamic bone-healing devices. Pragmatic customisation links patient anatomy to robust design and advanced manufacturing.

CURRENT DIRECTIONS

Non-planar osteotomy mechanics · interlocking reconstruction · fracture fixation · meniscal solutions · focused-ultrasound processing

DESIGN PRINCIPLE

Personalise where it changes clinical value; standardise where it improves access and manufacture.

CURRENT DIRECTIONS

Comfort-driven prosthesis design · soft robotics · rehabilitation monitoring · wearable sensing · clinically grounded co-design

HUMAN FACTOR

Extreme users, clinicians and lived experience are treated as sources of engineering insight, not an afterthought.

FROM PROGRAMME TO PROJECT

Funding supports the work, but does not define its intellectual structure. Individual grants, collaborations, publications, supervision projects and technology-transfer outcomes sit within these four themes—allowing the programme to remain coherent as specific projects begin and end.