Rhys Williams

Research description

My research investigates heat-related discomfort encountered when wearing lower-limb prosthetics. Excess sweating may appear to be a minor annoyance, but it can cause slipping of the prosthesis which can lead to skin damage and infection and severely reduced quality of life. I use a combination of interviews, questionnaires, diaries and sensor studies in the lab and in the wild to comprehensively explain this phenomenon and how it occurs in the real world. This data can be used in the future development of prosthetic limbs that mitigate or prevent thermal discomfort occurring. I'm supervised by Dr Catherine Holloway (UCLIC) and Professor Mark Miodownik (Mechanical Engineering/ Institute of Making)

Brief biography

My undergraduate was in Physics with Medical Physics at UCL where I specialised in functional near-infrared spectroscopic brain imaging, working with the Biomedical Optics group for my dissertation and a summer. After that I moved onto my MRes in Medical Innovation and Entrepreneurship where I began to become interested in prosthetics.

Achievements

• 2016 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Summer fellowship (At U. of Tokyo/ NRCD)
• 2016 Research through making award (Institute of Making)
• 2015 London Health Tech Challenge winner (London Business School)