Research output per year
Research output per year
Accepting PhD Students
Alex Casson is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Manchester. He is a specialist in non-invasive bioelectronic interfaces: the design and application of wearable sensors, and skin-conformal flexible sensors, for human body monitoring and data analysis from highly artefact prone naturalistic situations. This work is highly multi-disciplinary, spanning ultra-low power sensing, signal processing and machine learning in power constrained rich environments, and real-time data analysis towards closed loop systems for remote monitoring and digital therapeutics. He has research experience in:
- Manufacturing using 3D printing, screen printing, and inkjet printing.
- Ultra low power microelectronic circuit and system design at the discrete and fully custom microchip levels.
- Sensor signal processing and machine learning for power and time constrained motion artefact rich environments.
- Using bespoke and off-the-shelf wearable devices in a wide range of environments.
Professor Casson’s ultra low power sensors work is mainly for health and wellness applications, with a strong background in brain interfacing (EEG and transcranial current stimulation) and heart monitoring. Applications focus on both mental health situations including chronic pain, sleep disorders, and autism, and physical health/rehabilitation applications including diabetic foot ulceration, and chronic kidney disease. He has particular interests in closed loop systems: those which are tailored to the individual by personalised manufacturing via printing; and tailored to the individual by adjusting non-invasive stimulation (light, sound, electrical current) using data driven responses/outputs from real-time signal processing.
Professor Casson has cross-disciplinary appointments to support this work. He is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester; Visiting Reader (2022-2024) in School of Medicine at the University of Leeds; and Honorary Reader (2022-2024) in the Medical Physics Department at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Future Leader in Innovation, Enterprise and Research (FLIER) for the Academy of Medical Sciences (2022-2024), Bioelectronics technology platform lead for the Henry Royce Institute, and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (2021-2023). Professor Casson is currently a Senior Member of the IEEE and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is a past chair of the IET Healthcare Technologies Network, and the Biomedical Engineering joint steering group.
Professor Casson gained his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford where he read Engineering Science specialising in Electronic Engineering (MEng). He completed his PhD from Imperial College London, winning the prize for best doctoral thesis in electrical and electronic engineering. Professor Casson worked as a research associate and research fellow at Imperial College until 2013 when he joined the faculty at the University of Manchester.
Awards for me and my team:
2024: Student travel award for IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium for PhD student Charis Whyte.
2024: 2nd prize in the Venture Further awards for best spin out company, healthcare category for PhD student Liam Johnson.
2023: IEEE Body Sensor Networks conference travel award for PhD student Le Xing.
2023: IET Healthcare Technologies Network William James award for PhD student Le Xing.
2023: Best outstanding contribution to research impact, University of Manchester staff prize for postdoctoral researchers Zixin Wang and Mahdi Saleh.
2023: Eli and Britt Harari Enterprise Award for PhD student Liam Johnson.
2023: Researcher to Innovator award to investigate research commercialisation for PhD student Liam Johnson
2022: Highly commended poster award at the World Congress for Neurorehabilitation, MD student Stephen Halpin.
2022: 1st prize in UK Health Security Agency PhD student event, for PhD student Liam Johnson.
2022: Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers scholarship for PhD student Liam Johnson.
2021: 1st prize in School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering postgraduate research poster competition, University of Manchester, UK, for PhD student Liam Johnson.
2020: 1st prize in the Venture Further awards for best spin out company, business category for PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob.
2020: Outstanding presentation prize, NYC neuromodulation 2020 international conference.
2019: PhD student Nikhil Kurian Jacob given a Bee Manchester “Bee Proud” award for his work on the “UoM stories” event.
2018: Best paper award for journal article in ICT Xpress, with co-authors Arturo Vazquez Galvez, Delaram Jarchi.
2018: Highly commended in the "Better World" showcase for an outstanding contribution to equality and diversity.
2017: First prize in the University of Manchester 'Venture Further' awards for best spin out, business category for PhD student Eleanor Trimble.
2017: First prize in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering poster competition for PhD student Chris Beach.
2016: First prize in the Rogue Resolutions Challenge 2016 with PhD student Siddharth Kohli.
2016: First prize in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering poster competition with PhD student Mohammed Abdulaal.
2016: Together with student Sammy Medhi highly commended in the Engineering category international Undergraduate Awards. Described as the "Junior Nobel Prize".
2013: IET JA Lodge award, recognising “promising early-career electrical engineers working in biomedical engineering”.
2012: Runner-up in QUASAR USA dry sensor innovation challenge.
2010: Eryl Cadwaladr Davies prize for best doctoral thesis in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London.
2008: IET Ambition Award to “celebrate the achievements of talented young engineering and technology professionals”.
2005, 2004, 2003: ARM limited sponsored student.
2005, 2004, 2003: Lincoln College, University of Oxford, exhibitions and scholarship.
My research focuses on creating low power electronic devices combined with real-time signal processing. This has been involved with more than £20 million of research funding across a wide range of projects, funders, and multi-disciplinary working.
Current major projects:
Completed major projects:
I am also involved in a number of leadership activities across the University of Manchester and UK:
My team and I have a number of publications describing my work and achievements and a number of high impact outputs.
Videos descriping our work:
Open data:
Open hardware and software:
My lab is always looking for highly motivated and skilled individuals who are interested in pursuing a PhD, and who want to create innovative new sensors which can enhance human performance. Our multi-disciplinary work has exciting opportunities for working at the state-of-the art in a number of high profile areas:
If you would like more details please contact [email protected], stating your interests and funding circumstances. Please note that I may not be able to reply to your email unless you include details on both your interests and your funding circumstances.
Full application instructions can be found here and full details about postgraduate research in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering can be found here.
Before applying you are strongly encouraged to contact [email protected], stating your interests and funding circumstances. Please note that I may not be able to reply to your email unless you include details on both your interests and your funding circumstances.
The general procedure for PhD applications is then:
To have an informal conversation by Zoom (or similar). This isn’t mandatory, but helpful to discuss research focus and fit with the lab.
To complete the application form at https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/admissions/how-to-apply/ listing Alex Casson as the potential supervisor.
To have a formal interview by Zoom (or similar) with Alex Casson and another academic.
(If successful) we can then issue an offer letter which can be used to apply for funding.
Note that this process typically takes 1-2 months, allowing for all the forms to be processed. Make sure you apply well in advance of any funding or other deadlines that you may have.
We have lots of funding opportunities for talented and enthusiastic students. Search the databases below to see which schemes you are eligible for:
Unfortunately my lab cannot accept summer intership students from outside the University of Manchester. Enquires for such placements will not receive a reply.
My team and I have a wide number of outputs demonstrating our research impact. Our highlights are summarised below.
2019
Faculty of Science and Engineering representative on the University of Manchester 'DevoHub', collating research of the devolution process in Manchester, March 2017.
PhD student Siddharth Kohli made a member of the Brainbox initiative steering committee, aiming to give young neuroscience researchers a voice, March 2017.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Arvin, F. (PI), Casson, A. (CoI) & Lennox, B. (CoI)
1/10/20 → 30/09/25
Project: Research
Jones, A. (PI), Bower, P. (CoI), Brooks, J. (CoI), Brown, C. (CoI), Casson, A. (CoI), Charalambous, C. (CoI), Sivan, M. (CoI), Taylor, J. (CoI) & Trujillo-Barreto, N. (CoI)
1/04/21 → 14/06/21
Project: Research
Casson, A. (PI), Grieve, B. (PI), Ozanyan, K. (PI), Blanford, C. (PI), Cartmell, S. (PI), Li, Y. (PI), Ballestrem, C. (PI), Reid, A. (PI), Turner, M. (PI), Wong, L. S. (PI), Yeates, S. (PI), Trimble, E. (PI), Jones, C. (CoI), Scully, P. (CoI), Holmes, M. (CoI), Wimpenny, I. (CoI), Humphrey, B. (CoI), Turner, M. (CoI), Dobson, C. (CoI), Halsall, M. (CoI), Jones, S. (CoI), Echtermeyer, T. (CoI), Wijekoon, J. (CoI), Curry, R. (CoI), Picardo, M. (CoI), Tracey, K. (CoI), Persaud, K. (CoI), Migliorato, M. (CoI), Treves Brown, B. (CoI), Ozanyan, K. (CoI), Wright, P. (CoI), Majewski, L. (CoI), Hodgson, A. (CoI), Dudek, P. (CoI), Gaydecki, P. (CoI), Morgan, P. (CoI), Zhang, H. (CoI), Keavney, B. (CoI), Brenchley, P. (CoI), Fields, R. (CoI), Khan, U. (CoI), Casiraghi, C. (CoI), Blaker, J. (CoI), Saiani, A. (CoI), Vijayaraghavan, A. (CoI), Lu, J. (CoI), Kell, D. (CoI), Donald, A. (PGR student), Ozols, M. (CoI), Derby, B. (CoI), Sharma, J. (CoI), Mills, E. C. (CoI), Mohd Nawi, I. (PGR student), Tandon, B. (PGR student), Read, M. (CoI), Zhu, Q. (CoI), Ren, L. (CoI), Waigh, T. (CoI), Petersen, R. (CoI), Beach, C. (PGR student), Brown, T. (CoI), Thomas, A. (CoI) & Crowe, I. (CoI)
1/02/18 → 31/07/18
Project: Research
Casson, A. (Academic expert member)
Activity: Membership › Membership of committee › Research
Beach, C. (Contributor), Cooper, G. (Contributor), Weightman, A. (Contributor), Hodson-Tole, E. (Creator), Reeves, N. D. (Creator), Casson, A. (Contributor) & Hodson-Tole, E. F. (Contributor), Mendeley Data, 2 Mar 2021
DOI: 10.17632/ppwxdgbbx4.1, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/ppwxdgbbx4
Dataset
Casson, A. (Creator), University of Manchester Figshare, 27 May 2022
DOI: 10.48420/19606930.v1, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/software/Closed_Loop_Sound_Stimulation_During_Sleep_In_Matlab/19606930/1
Dataset
Casson, A. (Contributor), Gowen, E. (Contributor), Poliakoff, E. (Contributor) & Vabalas, A. (Creator), Mendeley Data, 6 Mar 2020
DOI: 10.17632/fnt6jtc5np.4, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/fnt6jtc5np
Dataset
Beach, C. (Creator) & Casson, A. (Creator), University of Manchester Figshare, 27 May 2022
DOI: 10.48420/14720964.v1, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/software/UK_Biobank_Kinetic_Energy_Harvesting/14720964/1
Dataset
Casson, A. (Creator), Mendeley Data, 6 Mar 2020
DOI: 10.17632/tczn9t59rs.2, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/tczn9t59rs
Dataset