Research Assistant

Research Assistant in Electronic Design for Knitted Sensing and Energy Harvesting

We are seeking a motivated Research Assistant with hands-on expertise in electronic circuit design and instrumentation to join our interdisciplinary team developing next-generation knitted wearable systems for sensing and energy harvesting.

The successful candidate will support the design and development of electronic systems that interface with knitted fabric transducers — including triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and piezoelectric structures — enabling real-time signal acquisition, power management, and data transmission in body-worn prototypes.

You will be expected to:

• Design low-noise signal conditioning circuits (charge amplifiers, analogue front-ends) for high-impedance triboelectric and piezoelectric knitted fabric sensors/harvesters
• Develop power management electronics for energy harvested from knitted TENGs, including signal conditioning, rectification, storage, and maximum power point tracking circuits
• Build embedded data acquisition systems for real-time capture and wireless transmission of sensor signals from wearable fabric prototypes using ultra-low-power BLE or NFC protocols
• Characterise the electrical output of knitted fabric transducers (voltage, current, power density) under controlled and body-worn test conditions
• Collaborate with textile engineers and computational modellers to translate fabric design parameters into testable electronic systems
• Publication & Dissemination: Contribute to research findings for journal publications, conferences, and stakeholder presentations

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Hands-on experience in analogue and mixed-signal circuit design, PCB layout, and prototyping
• Proficiency in electronics design tools (e.g. Altium, KiCad, LTspice, or equivalent)
• Experience with microcontroller or FPGA-based embedded systems and sensor interfacing , including low-power wireless protocols (BLE or NFC)
• Experience with energy harvesting circuits (triboelectric, piezoelectric, or thermoelectric sources) is preferred
• Familiarity with wearable electronics, flexible circuits, or e-textile integration is an advantage