People

Iain Evans

Introduction

After more than fifteen years as an international consultant working for Ove Arup and Partners in the UK, Germany, China and South east Asia, I returned to academia to teach and to study for my PhD. My teaching interests include product design, project management, system design and manufacturing. The majority of my teaching time is spent on individual and group projects which are mostly themed around renewable energy design, product design and commercial applications.

Research Interests

My PhD research involved the development and clinical testing of an affordable novel rehabilitation measurement device to support children with traumatic brain injuries and Cerebral Palsy. I maintain an interest in the field of rehabilitation measurement.

I have maintained a lifelong interest in sustainable energy sources and related engineering challenges, focussing on the potential for mass-deployed small-scale domestic systems and devices.

Somewhat unrelated but fascinating is the measurement of impacts, primarily on human bone and tissue and I am starting to investigate this.

Postgraduate Supervision

Renewable energy systems - wind, water, solar, biomass.

PhD supervision investigating use of novel ceramics in hyperthermic treatment of cancer

Industrial Relevance

The benefits of long-term rehabilitation are well documented. Unfortunately, current health care systems do not support long-term rehabilitation due to cost and/or supply of therapist. The proposed rehabilitation measurement system is a form of therapy which provides immediate and graded feedback to patients, therapist and carers.

Micro-generation and harvesting are now becoming popular as the electronics to optimise this become readily available and demand grows for diverse and reliable sustainable energy sources to supplement battery and grid power sources. The potential of smart micro-grids is beginning to become evident and I have maintained a series of student projects in support of this.

Impact measurement and assessment have been dominated by military and vehicle applications although there is growing interest in sports and rehabilitation engineering. The limited availability of low-cost simulated materials and equipment for assessing impacts on limbs, etc, currently restricts applied research into domestic impacts such as slips, trips and falls, particularly in the older and/or vulnerable population.