Research Assistant

Research Officer in Textile Fabrication and Characterisation for Wearable Energy Harvesting

We are seeking a motivated Research Officer with interest in textile fabrication, and materials characterisation to join our interdisciplinary team developing next-generation knitted wearable systems for sensing and energy harvesting.

The successful candidate will play a central role in the design, fabrication, and testing of knitted structures using a CNC knitting machine, with a particular focus on engineering textile architectures for energy harvesting applications. You will work closely with researchers in electronics, CNC knitting, and modelling to translate material and structural concepts into functional knitted prototypes for body-worn systems.

Key Responsibilities

You will be expected to:

• Design and fabricate knitted structures using a CNC knitting machine for wearable sensing and energy harvesting applications.
• Develop and optimise knit architectures, yarn selections, stitch patterns, and structural parameters to improve mechanical performance and energy harvesting capability.
• Characterise knitted fabrics under controlled laboratory and body-worn conditions, including mechanical, structural, and functional testing.
• Support the development of textile samples for triboelectric, piezoelectric, and related wearable transducer systems.
• Investigate the influence of knitting parameters on fabric properties such as stretch, durability, porosity, comfort, and transduction performance.
• Collaborate with electronic engineers to ensure knitted structures are compatible with sensor integration, signal acquisition, and power harvesting systems.
• Work with computational modellers to relate textile design variables to experimental performance.
• Contribute to research outputs, including journal publications, conference presentations, and stakeholder enagements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Textile Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• Practical experience in fabrication, prototyping, and experimental characterisation of engineered materials or structures.
• Hands-on experience with textile manufacturing, knit design, or CNC knitting processes is desirable.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work across disciplinary boundaries.
• Experience using laboratory instrumentation and/or mechanical testing methods for material or textile characterisation.