Guided Sensor Project
The Guided Sensor Project runs during the first term and helps the students to familiarise themselves with the basic concepts of sensing. We are using open source technology such as Arduino microcontroller boards and Raspberry Pi mini computers to teach how to read out a sensor and store its data for future analysis.
All students receive their own Arduino and Raspberry Pi which they can keep and build their own sensor systems. Students typically form small teams, e.g. comprising engineers, physicists and biologists, to tackle the challenges in electronics, programming and making sense of the data.
The project is interdisciplinary, e.g. building a pulse-oximeter, which engages students from different scientific backgrounds.
Mini Research Project
Each Sensor CDT student carries out a three months Mini Research Project. In line with the spirit of the Sensor CDT, project supervisors are from a wide range of sciences, technology and medicine. Some projects are in collaboration with our industrial partners.
The range of topics is varied and challenges the students in new areas of sensor technologies and applications with which they are not intimately familiar.
At the end of the project the students present research talks and papers, some of which are published in scientific journals.
Topics of previous mini projects include
- gas sensor technologies (employing carbon nanotubes, organic TFTs and absorption spectroscopy) and applications (breath analysis and detection of volatile organic compounds inside buildings)
- tumor cell recognition by detecting chemical markers
- surface acoustic wave sensors
- decoding of semantic word categories from electro-/magnetoencephalography data
- synthesis of nanostructures
- development of a low cost, open source fluorescence
microscope capable of continuous live cell imaging - wireless sensor networks for bridge monitoring
- disposable DNA/protein sensors using microfluidics
- fabrication of lab on chip devices
- measuring protein binding affinities with AFM
- rapid optical screening technique that measures the shape of virus particles
Sensor Team Challenge
During the Sensor Team Challenge all MRes students work together on a project for around three months during the summer. The Sensor CDT teaching team, together with our industry and academic partners, develops a project outline which allows all students in the cohort to use their particular strengths and backgrounds to participate in the project. The Team Challenge outline is kept deliberately open for the students to contribute their own ideas.
The students develop the project outline into a full project proposal with work packages, milestones, deliverables, and a management structure. Mentors from academia and industry provide helpful advise to the students, but the project itself is fully run and managed by the students.
Topics
- A context-appropriate oxygen concentrator and ventilatorsystem to save lives in low-resource settings (2021)
- A system of doorway mounted thermal sensors to count room occupancy (2020)
- An open-source soil health monitoring system (2019)
- Monitoring air-quality with citizen scientists (2018)
- A cell-free sensor platform for the quantification of arsenic concentrations in drinking water (2017)
- An optical projection tomography system (2016)
- Sensors for assisted living of older people (2015)
Outcomes
The outcomes of the Team Challenge vary from year, depending on the nature of the project. They have included publications, a spin-off company, and fully working open-source devices. Each year the students present the outcomes of their Team Challenge at the international Sensors Day conference.
User engagement
The Sensor CDT teaching team is always open to suggestions for future team challenges. Please contact us.
