I am a
I am a senior technician at Northumbria University and I am also sponsored by Ryder Architecture to research new, personalised approaches for measuring indoor environmental quality future building projects, with a focus on health and wellbeing. My work involves using passive environmental sensors and wearable devices.
Researching individualised monitoring of Health, Wellbeing and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in buildings
First Class Honours (84%)
In this role I provide technical support to the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, where I provide technical support with a computer science focus. I am currently exploring research-enabling solutions for digitising our Internet of Things (IoT) network, while supporting researchers within faculty.
Alongside my PhD studies and work as a senior technician, I work supporting teaching at Northumbria University from levels 4 - 7. I teach in a range of subjects and roles within Computer and Information Sciences including demonstrating on Applied Computing and Project Management as well as preparing and delivering course materials on IoT Technologies. In this role, I have also supervised students and undertaken ethical reviews.
Seconded from Ryder Architecture, I worked on multiple projects across the UK and internationally. The primary role within in BIM Academy was to apply computer science to optimise business systems and deliver enhanced productivity, client service and design excellence for clients. The role also involved consultancy, strategic planning, data management and research.
Worked alongside Ryder’s Technologies department on various internal research and development projects. I developed various software systems, Revit plug-ins and optimised work flows for improving efficiencies within the design teams and the wider practice. The role involved developing a strong understanding the industry practices in architectural design and model development, whilst gaining an understanding of the problems that work orders and commissions placed on projects.
Worked closely with industry partners; Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and ViewPoint, on DECCMR and Innovate UK funded projects. The role was a multi-disciplinary role, applying computer science to solve problems affecting the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The role involved researching and applying machine learning principles to develop digital solutions for identifying assets within open standard 3D BIM models.
The role involved volunteering in various urban and rural schools across the Republic of Georgia, whilst accommodated by a local Georgian family. The aim of the program was to integrate native English speakers into the local schools and homes of local families, to instill western pedagogical methodologies and ideals into Georgian culture. The role involved teaching English to school children of all ages.
Abstract: Free-living assessment and remote monitoring is important for healthcare researchers. Moving research beyond the laboratory provides habitual environments for remote assessment that allows research to remain agile even when facing uncontrollable external factors e.g., the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Emergent technologies have the potential to make this form of assessment feasible by providing accessible and affordable mechanisms for conducting free-living research. This paper presents findings from a study that was halted due to the pandemic, but this work highlighted a series of challenges that may present themselves to researchers conducting similar work. By transparently reporting the challenges and solutions rather than just methods, it is hoped that the lessons learned from this study could provide researchers with greater awareness in future studies.
Abstract: Wearable health technologies are becoming pervasive in modern society, due to cost, marketing strategies and the gamification of health. Consequently, these devices have become an interest to healthcare researchers and medical professionals. However, these devices typically come with their own proprietary software—standalone technology that makes daily use for patient management difficult. Challenges surrounding data access present steep learning curves and barriers to entry for many researchers, with computer science commonly being a prerequisite. This chapter explores frameworks for wearable technologies and does so from two angles. The first angle explores the concept of frameworks from the position of systems and data management, that is, software frameworks. In this regard, the chapter presents the challenges and complexities researchers may face when attempting to extract data from these devices. We present several approaches to that researchers can use to collect data, which cater for different levels of technological capability. In presenting these approaches, the lack of digital frameworks, in the context of standardization and governance, is identified. This presents the second angle of frameworks explored by this chapter. There is a need for a National Digital Framework that is tailor-made for wearable technology, but the complexity and heterogeneity of current digital frameworks is indicative of how challenging this process will be. By exposing these needs and presenting researchers with a range of approaches for wearable technology data extraction, it is hoped that researchers of any specialism can drive the research and development of wearable health technologies and the frameworks that underpin them.
Abstract: Monitoring Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is of growing interest for health and wellbeing. New building standards, climate targets and adoption of homeworking strategies are creating needs for scalable, monitoring solutions with onward Cloud connectivity. Low-cost Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors have potential to address these needs, enabling development of bespoke multimodal devices. Here, we present insights into the development of a MEMS-based Internet of things (IoT) enabled multimodal device for IEQ monitoring. A study was conducted to establish the inter-device variability and validity to reference standard sensors/devices. For the multimodal, IEQ monitor, intraclass correlations and Bland-Altman analyses indicated good inter-sensor reliability and good-to-excellent agreement for most sensors. All low-cost sensors were found to respond to environmental changes. Many sensors reported low accuracy but high precision meaning they could be calibrated against reference sensors to increase accuracy. The multimodal device developed here was identified as being fit-for-purpose, providing general indicators of environmental changes for continuous IEQ monitoring.
Abstract: COVID-19 highlights the need for a paradigm shift in healthcare research, moving from laboratories/clinics to remote assessment (i.e. home). Restrictions imposed by COVID often result in a cessation of clinical research. Previously, proposals for remote individualised measurement at scale were made but cost and complexity of physiological and environmental sensing made this unfeasible. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are increasing feasibility, making it more achievable and affordable to conduct remote monitoring. This removes dependency on clinics/laboratories and longitudinal free-living assessment can provide an abundance of information on habitual behaviours and pathology characteristics, often not attainable during supervised assessments. Here, we reviewed emergent low-cost/accessible IoT technologies to inform healthcare researchers about opportunities and constraints. Through experimentation, we explored and demonstrate workflows for individualised remote monitoring with wearables alongside environmental conditions of the buildings they occupy. We also explored the costs associated with cloud platforms and explored the ThingSpeak platform - as an extension of MATLAB to identify its suitability within healthcare research. We found that data/computer science are becoming increasingly common in healthcare, which is resulting in more reliance on multi-disciplinary teams to make innovations with disruptive IoT technologies. The latter enable researchers to experiment with low-cost devices that incorporate a range of sensors for monitoring patients and the environments they inhabit. However, the requirement for high-frequency data (often required in healthcare research, e.g. electrocardiogram, gait analysis) are challenging with current technologies. More research is needed to identify workflows that make low-cost IoT technologies feasible to healthcare researchers measuring high-frequency physiological data f rom wearables. Alternatively, environmental data is readily attainable f rom current technologies, which would be useful to provide context and greater insights to free-living physiological/wearable assessments.
Abstract: Healthcare studies are moving toward individualised measurement. There is need to move beyond supervised assessments in the laboratory/clinic. Longitudinal free-living assessment can provide a wealth of information on patient pathology and habitual behaviour, but cost and complexity of equipment have typically been a barrier. Lack of supervised conditions within free-living assessment means there is need to augment these studies with environmental analysis to provide context to individual measurements. This paper reviews low-cost and accessible Internet of Things (IoT) technologies with the aim of informing biomedical engineers of possibilities, workflows and limitations they present. In doing so, we evidence their use within healthcare research through literature and experimentation. As hardware becomes more affordable and feature rich, the cost of data magnifies. This can be limiting for biomedical engineers exploring low-cost solutions as data costs can make IoT approaches unscalable. IoT technologies can be exploited by biomedical engineers, but more research is needed before these technologies can become commonplace for clinicians and healthcare practitioners. It is hoped that the insights provided by this paper will better equip biomedical engineers to lead and monitor multi-disciplinary research investigations.
Abstract: Wearing inappropriate running shoes may lead to unnecessary injury through continued strain upon the lower extremities; potentially damaging a runner’s performance. Many technologies have been developed for accurate shoe recommendation, which centre on running gait analysis. However, these often require supervised use in the laboratory/shop or exhibit too high a cost for personal use. This work addresses the need for a deployable, inexpensive product with the ability to accurately assess running shoe-type recommendation. This was achieved through quantitative analysis of the running gait from 203 individuals through use of a tri-axial accelerometer and tri-axial gyroscope-based wearable (Mymo). In combination with a custom neural network to provide the shoe-type classifications running within the cloud, we experience an accuracy of 94.6% in classifying the correct type of shoe across unseen test data.
Abstract: Indoor environment quality (IEQ) can negatively affect occupant health and wellbeing. Air quality, as well as thermal, visual and auditory conditions, can determine how comfortable occupants feel within buildings. Some can be measured objectively, but many are assessed by interpreting qualitative responses. Continuous monitoring by passive sensors may be useful to identify links between environmental and physiological changes. Few studies localise measurements to an occupant level perhaps due to many environmental monitoring solutions being large and expensive. Traditional models for occupant comfort analysis often exacerbate this by not differentiating between individual building occupants. This scoping review aims to understand IEQ and explore approaches as to how it is measured with various sensing technologies, identifying trends for monitoring occupant health and wellbeing. Twenty-seven studies were reviewed, and more than 60 state-of-the-art and low-cost IEQ sensors identified. Studies were found to focus on the home or workplace, but not both. This review also found how wearable technology could be used to augment IEQ measurements, creating personalised approaches to health and wellbeing. Opportunities exist to make individuals the primary unit of analysis. Future research should explore holistic personalised approaches to health monitoring in buildings that analyse the individual as they move between environments.
Abstract: The construction sector is undergoing significant changes amidst challenging economic conditions, changes in the pace of technology and increasing global narratives around social, personal and environmental health. These narratives are changing the way the construction sector operates, putting an emphasis on projects that can evidence a measurable impact on these performance indicators. Green Building standards (e.g. WELL and LEED) are addressing these challenges by making occupant health and wellbeing a focus of accreditation within building design. This is ushering in a new understanding of value that counterpoints the concept of value engineering”; which can become more of an exercise of cost-cutting than value improvement. The last decade has seen the rise of the living lab research paradigm, placing individuals at the centre of research and development. Living labs are physical environments that act as a laboratory, gathering data and learning from users. By linking building information and Internet-of-Things (IoT) data with occupant feedback, the construction sector can develop buildings as living labs and take an occupant-centric approach to how they innovate the entire building lifecycle. This paper explores a conceptual approach to how principles, workflows and technologies could be incorporated into a toolbox that would underpin living lab research in buildings. The principles presented, above all else, highlight the need and value of multi-disciplinary research in this domain. Research siloes have resulted in ambiguity in terminology and research methods, which is forcing current research to sit at the precipice of what is possible. By unifying multidisciplinary approaches, i.e. technologies, workflows and disciplines, to create a suite of tools, it is felt that researchers could provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between building and occupant that is currently seen across the literature base. This would add value to researchers and practitioners and aim to address an industry need for transparency, verbosity, and accountability of building information.
Aside to my PhD studies, I am extremely interested in computer science and digital technologies. I love to learn new things and I enjoy 3D modelling, graphic design, Unity games design and music production. I also enjoy video gaming and virtual reality racing simulation. When I am not working and being a slave to the screen, I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughter, as well as spending time cooking, tinkering with electronics, sensors and Arduino projects or playing guitar.
Awarded for best best academic performance in level six Computer Science and Digital Technologies
Awarded whilst volunteering as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher in the Republic of Georgia.