Centre for Environmental and Biomedical Engineering

Overview

Through interdisciplinary science and engineering, we drive research that protects environmental and public health, supports sustainable development, delivers technologies that foster healthier, more resilient communities, and applies engineering and technology to problems in medicine and biology, from the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of disease to a better understanding of the way the body works.

Working across disciplines, we deliver research and technologies that enable healthier, safer and more sustainable communities. We collaborate closely with industry, healthcare partners, and stakeholders in the UK and internationally to translate scientific excellence into real-world impact.

Research areas

• Environmental health and engineering
• Environmental microbiology
• Small water supplies and water, sanitation and public health (WASH)
• Water resources, earth observation and catchment surveillance
• Biomedical signal processing and machine learning for diagnosis of neurogenerative diseases and the characterisation of healthy ageing
• Computational biomechanics to help optimise clinical (surgical) management of certain pathologies
• Instrumentation for health monitoring and movement analysis for long-term health
• Environmental fluid mechanics and aerodynamics
• Fire and explosion modelling to address cross-cutting safety issues related to energy, transport, and environment
• Urban environment, analytics and noise pollution
• Sensors and measurements.

Facilities

Human Movement Laboratory

The facility supports experiments using optoelectronic systems, electromyography, accelerometers, force plates and instrumented treadmills to analyse movement.

These experiments are being applied in, for example, the efficient measurement of human movement through wearable sensors to highlight the need for further clinical assessment, the identification of neurological damage, understanding of long-term effects of traumatic accidents, and analysis of sports performance.

Environmental Microbiology and Water Quality Laboratory

The facility supports research activities using microbiology techniques and water quality testing procedures in environmental engineering. The facility has a variety of equipment and technical expertise suitable for analysing water, biosolids and soil samples for physical, chemical and microbiological indicators to assess water and environmental quality.

Environmental Flow (EnFlo) Laboratory

EnFlo is a laboratory facility in atmospheric boundary layer flows and environmental aerodynamics. The Laboratory includes a wind-tunnel facility in support of research in fluid flow and dispersion. It supports research on flow and pollutant dispersion processes in the Earth's atmosphere and environment and promotes best practice in the use of laboratory modelling techniques in environmental fluid mechanics.