About Us
Find out about the SEMS group, our interests and capabilities.
The Smart Electronic Materials and Systems (SEMS) Research Group is part of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. We are actively researching systems and materials for sensing industrial, environmental or biological parameters. Our expertise ranges from nanoscale electronic materials through to complete wireless sensor systems for the Internet of Things.
We print our novel functional electronic materials, including sensors and electroluminescent inks, onto fabrics in our Printed Electronics and Materials lab. Our research includes the use of wireless sensor systems to monitor diverse parameters including the health of engines and the effectiveness of agricultural irrigation, and we can power these systems using our own energy harvesting technology.
Research
Our current research projects.
News
Catch up with our latest news.
Mahmoud Wagih wins Best Student Paper Prize at...
<a href="https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/mahm1g15">Mahmoud Wagih Mohamed</a>, a PhD student from the SEMS Research Group, has won the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE <a href-"https://www.mtt.org/">MTT-S</a> Wireless Power Transfer Conference. The conference was held as part of <a href="http://www.wpw2019.org/">Wireless Power Week 2019</a>, which featured around 200 presentations. His paper, entitled <a href="https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/431955/">"Millimeter-wave textile antenna for on-body RF energy harvesting in future 5G networks"</a> presented the first antenna on textile for wearable ambient RF energy harvesting in the 26 GHz and 28 GHz bands. The antenna was fabricated on a 310μm woven polyester substrate using etched ultra-thin Polyimide copper laminates with a minimum feature size of 150μm. A high robustness against human proximity was demonstrated with a stable bandwidth and improved gain. Mahmoud is supervised by <a href="https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/spb">Prof Steve Beeby</a> and <a href="https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/asw1v08">Dr Alex Weddell</a>, and is contributing to joint research activities under the <a href="http://www.enables-project.eu/">EnABLES project</a>.
Read MoreFunctional Electronic Textiles Workshop
A workshop showcasing the final results of the EPSRC project on Functional Electronic Textiles was held at Nottingham Trent University Conference Centre on 16th May 2019. The project, which investigates new assembly methods to add electronic functionality to textiles, started on 1st March 2015 and ends 28th Aug 2019. More details on the project are available on the <a href="https://www.fett.ecs.soton.ac.uk/">website</a>. The project leader, <a href="https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/spb">Prof. Steve Beeby</a> from the University of Southampton, opened proceedings by presenting the main results and objectives of the project. <a href="https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/art-design/tilak-dias">Prof. Tilak Dias</a>, the project leader at Nottingham Trent University, then presented the main results from his group. Attendees were then able to examine and discuss the significant number of samples and demonstrators produced in the project. Examples included fabrics incorporating radio frequency identification tags and fabric-integrated accelerometers enabling movement monitoring with data transmitted via Bluetooth. Also shown was a fabric stretch sensor, energy harvesting and supercapacitor fabrics, a smart bandage for wound temperature and humidity monitoring, an LED curtain as well as electronic yarns containing LEDs, light emitting shoelaces, acoustic sensing yarns and a cycling jacket with light emitting sections. Finally there was an opportunity to tour the laboratories at Nottingham Trent University. <a href="https://etextilesnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/fett-workshop-2-introduction.pdf">FETT Project Overview [PDF]</a>
Read MoreSEMS Group 3 Minute Thesis Competition 2019
The SEMS Research Group has once again held a 3 Minute Thesis competition. All PhD students in the group were invited to present.
Read MoreRecent SEMS publications
Novel active electrodes for ECG monitoring on woven textiles fabricated by screen and stencil printing - Paul Gordon, Russel Torah, Stephen Beeby and Michael Tudor
Type: Article
| 2015
| Item not available on this server.
Encapsulated textile organic solar cells fabricated by spray coating - Yi Li, Sasikumar Arumugam, Chirenjeevi Krishnan, Martin Charlton and Stephen Beeby
Type: Article
| 2019
| Item availability restricted.
Random-telegraph-noise and wave-particle duality found in a silicon nano-wire - Kouta Ibukuro, Fayong Liu, Muhammad Husain, Zuo Li, Yoshishige Tsuchiya, Harvey Rutt and Shinichi Saito
Type: Conference or Workshop Item
| 2018
Type: Patent
| 2018
Connecting and powering flexible IoT, an insole case study - Mahmoud Wagih, Yang Wei, Sheng Yong and Stephen Beeby
Type: Conference or Workshop Item
| 2018