Dr Morteza Amjadi is a Senior lecturer (Associate Professor) of Biomedical Engineering in the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. He received his Dr Sc. in Mechanical Engineering jointly from Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich in 2018. He obtained his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2014, and B.Sc. in Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) in 2012. Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in October 2022, he was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom.

Dr Amjadi has published over 25 papers in high-impact journals & conferences including Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, and Advanced Science. Some of his publications are among highly cited papers in the fields of flexible sensors, advanced materials, and nanocomposites (Google Scholar citations > 7k). In 2018, he has been nominated for the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal, awarded by the Max Planck Society to young scientists for their outstanding scientific achievements. He received the best presentation award in KMEMS2014 conference. Dr Amjadi serves as a peer reviewer for 40+ journals and conferences such as Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials, Soft Robotics, Materials Horizons, Nanoscale, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Carbon, Advanced Electronic Materials, Journal of Materials Chemistry A-C, Advanced Materials Technologies, Soft Mater, Materials & Design, Advanced Engineering Materials, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), and IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

Dr Amjadi’s interdisciplinary research interests include wearable sensors, nanoscale materials, nanocomposites, bioinspired designs, soft robotics, and healthcare technologies. He leads the Soft Transducers and Robotics (STAR) Laboratory at the University of Glasgow where his team aims to design multifunctional soft machines utilizing novel mechanical designs, advanced materials, bioinspired structures, and digital manufacturing processes. Such soft systems have many applications, ranging from wearable medical devices for healthcare monitoring to non-invasive surgical tools and soft robots for safe human-robot interaction. The main research themes of the STAR Laboratory are:

• Wearable Sensors for Healthcare: Current trend in the design of wearable and skin-mountable sensors is to combine functional nanomaterials as sensing elements with flexible polymers in the form of nanocomposites. The STAR Laboratory concentrates on nanocomposites-based flexible physical sensors for human motion detection, personalized healthcare, and soft robotics.

• Bioinspired Structures: Nature provides plenty of inspiration for the development of smart materials. For instance, spiders can sense extremely small mechanical vibrations through their crack-shaped slit organs. Geckos adhere to complex surfaces with their adhesive pads consisting dense arrays of fine hairs. Inspired by such biological systems, the STAR Laboratory seeks to design high-performance wearable sensors, soft robots, and skin adhesives.

• Soft Robotics: Soft robots offer safe interaction with the human body and soft biological materials. Flexible sensors and actuators are the key components of soft robots, enabling them to propel and sense the surrounding environment, respectively. The STAR Laboratory advances the design and fabrication of programmable soft actuators, together with their integration with flexible sensors towards multifunctional soft machines.

• Digital Manufacturing of Soft Machines: Despite notable progress on the fabrication of individual soft sensors, actuators, energy storage, and electronic circuits, compact and reliable packaging of all these components remains challenging. The STAR Laboratory focuses on digital manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and laser micromachining to facilitate the transfer of large-area computer-aided designs into low-cost and robust multifunctional soft systems.

Selected publications

Jeong, Y. et al. (2021) Ultra-wide range pressure sensor based on a microstructured conductive nanocomposite for wearable workout monitoring. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 10(9), 2001461. (doi: 10.1002/adhm.202001461) (PMID:33694309)

All publications

List by: Type | Date

2023: Innovate UK SBRI, A Soft Skin-intErfacing Strain Sensor for Overdose detection and pRevention (ASSESSOR) (~ £88.5k), PI.

2023-2026: EPSRC (EP/W025752/1), Dielectrophoretic roll system for high performance electronics using contactless selective assembly of nanostructures on large areas (~ £1.08M), Co-I.

2023: University of Glasgow Mid-career Fund (~ £24.8k), PI.

2023: University of Glasgow Early-career Fund (~ £10k), PI.

2022: University of Glasgow, Equipment Fund (~ £10k), PI.

2021-2024: PhD Studentship, University of Glasgow/Heriot-Watt University, PI.

2020-2024: EPSRC CDT in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Development of Soft Robotic Prosthesis, PI.

2020-2022: EPSRC, Wearable Piezoresistive Fiber Sensors for Mobility and Gait Analysis of People with Lipoedema (~ £25k), PI.

Current PhD Students

I have been involved in delivering the following courses at Heriot-Watt University:

• Spring 2022: B50DH–Engineering Manufacture
• Spring 2022: B51JC–Group Project 3
• Spring 2022: B50JA–Group Project 1
• Spring 2022: B81EZ–Critical Analysis and Research Preparation
• Fall 2021: B59SC–Mechanics of Materials B
• Fall 2021: B50DG–Engineering Design
• Fall 2021: B51JB–Group Project 2
• Spring 2021: B50DH–Engineering Manufacture
• Spring 2021: B50JA–Group Project 1
• Spring 2021: B81EZ–Critical Analysis and Research Preparation
• Fall 2020: B59EG– Mechanical Engineering Science 7
• Fall 2020: B50DG–Engineering Design
• Fall 2020: B57AS–Mechanical Engineering in Context 1
• Spring 2020: B50DH–Engineering Manufacture
• Spring 2020: B81EZ–Critical Analysis and Research Preparation
• Fall 2019: B59EG– Mechanical Engineering Science 7
• Fall 2019: B50DG–Engineering Design

We are always looking for motivated and talented individuals to join our group. Please get in touch at Morteza.Amjadi@glasgow.ac.uk if you are interested in our research. For more infomration about our research activites, visit the website of STAR Laboratory.