Complex Additive Materials Group

We are based in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge and use materials chemistry, additive manufacturing, and computational design/learning to realize entirely new devices and materials whose structure and composition is optimized from the nano- to the macro-scale to improve interaction with the human body and enhance lives.

If you are interested in either a Ph.D. or postdoctoral position please get in touch! There is currently an opening in our group:
https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/39182/

Image: Felice Frankel

RESEARCH

Anchor 2

Group Members

DIGITALLY TAILORED MEDICAL DEVICES

Producing wearable and implantable medical devices that better mimic and integrate with patients/wearers.

LEARNING 3D PRINTERS

Understanding how machine learning approaches can improve the capabilities of 3D printers.

MATERIALS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Developing new materials whose structure and composition are engineered across multiple length scales to enable unique functionality.

Anchor 1

Douglas Brion

PhD Student (Starting October 2019)

I studied Electronic and Information Engineering at Imperial College London where I developed an optical-based, automatic error detection system for FDM 3D printers. Subsequently, I have been working on software and tooling for 3D printers, recently developing a cloud-based platform for remote control, monitoring and data acquisition.

Zehao Ji

PhD Student (Starting October 2019)

Zehao graduated from University of Sheffield with BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and continued his study with MRes Ultra Precision Manufacturing at Cambridge in October 2018. During the MRes year, Zehao did his mini-project in Online optical in-situ characterization of the FDM process.

PhD Student (Starting October 2019)

Sebastian Pattinson

University Lecturer (Assistant Professor)

Before joining the Department, Sebastian was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT where he developed 1) new additively manufactured devices whose structure and composition are designed to improve interaction with the human body 2) scalable and sustainable methods for 3D printing cellulose, the world's most abundant organic polymer. He received Ph.D. and Masters degrees in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, where he developed synthesis methods to control the structure and function of nanomaterials. His awards include a UK Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard award, US National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship; UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Training Grant; MIT Translational Fellowship; and a (Google) X Moonshot Fellowship.

Cassi Henderson

Postdoc

Cassi completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge as a joint student of the Analytical Biotechnology group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing group, under the supervision of Dr Lisa Hall and Dr Ronan Daly. Her work focused on the integration of functional materials, assay development and manufacturing design to enable biosensors to be produced for affordable, rapid, and point-of-care detection of diseases. Prior to starting her PhD, Cassi received her BSE in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the commercialization of early stage medical technologies.

Xijin Hua

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Xijin Hua obtained his PhD degree from the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) at University of Leeds, where he worked on the stratified design, development and biomechanical analysis of orthopaedic hip implants. He was then working as a research fellow in iMBE, focusing on the biomechanical analysis of articular cartilage in natural hip joint through imaging technique, finite element analysis and parameterised modelling. Before joining the Department, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow in the Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, working on the multiscale computational biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system, soft tissue and hip joint through coupling a multibody dynamics model of the human body, a finite element model of hip joint and articular cartilage, and a finite element model of the fluid flow within hip joint. His awards include a Fully-funded International Research Scholarship, an European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, and an Imaged-based Biomedical Modelling Fellowship.

Kerr Samson

Postdoc

Prior to joining the Department, Kerr was a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering (IB3) at Heriot-Watt University, where he had previously completed his PhD in biomedical engineering (2020). His work focuses on the development of novel drug delivery systems, and 3D printable materials for biomedical purposes. Kerr has additional industrial experience regarding the research and manufacturing of biomedical devices. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology (2014), and MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (2015) from The University of Strathclyde. During his PhD, he was awarded a John Moyes Lessells travel scholarship from The Royal Society of Edinburgh, which enabled him to collaborate with Dr. Tim Dargaville at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane.

Lefan Wang

Postdoc

Lefan received her PhD degree in Engineering at the Cardiff University in 2018, with her research on the development of wearable sensors for hand motion monitoring. Then she worked as a Postdoc Research Fellow in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, where she mainly focused on the design of sensing system for the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. Tri-axis inductive force sensors were explored and optimised using 3D finite element modelling. A sensing insole with an integration of 64 tri-axis force sensors was designed to measure plantar pressure and shear stress simultaneously. Her awards include International travel grants, Innovative Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Research Development Fellowship, and International Doctoral Scholarship.

Douglas Brion

PhD Student

Daiki Ikeuchi

PhD Student

Daiki completed his B.Eng. and M.Phil. at the University of Sydney where he worked on one of Future Science Platform projects (FSP AIM) with the Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, as a research affiliate. His work was focused on the interface between additive manufacturing and machine learning to facilitate greater quality control for the commercial integration of deposition-based additive manufacturing technologies. His awards include Peterhouse Graduate Studentship, Research Training Program (International) scholarship, AIM Openness Award and CSIRO Research Supplementary Funds.

Zehao Ji

PhD Student

Zehao graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and continued his studies with an MRes in Ultra Precision Manufacturing at Cambridge in October 2018. During the MRes year, Zehao did his mini-project in Online optical in-situ characterization of the FDM process.

Haihui Yan

PhD Student

Haihui graduated with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. During her studies, she completed an internship at Bosch Rexroth in the Application Engineering Department, where she worked upon radial piston motors for hydraulic machinery including agricultural and forestry applications. She also completed her MEng project with Bosch Rexroth focusing on the modelling of a hydraulic valve. Following this, she joined the AgriFoRwArdS CDT to pursue a PhD in Agri-food robotics.

Miaomiao Zou

PhD Student

Miaomiao completed her B.Eng. study of Material Engineering at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) in 2018. As an exchange student, she did her bachelor thesis on dental regenerative materials at NMI, Germany. In 2021, she received her master's degree from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) where she focused on DLP 3D printing of biomimetic structures for functional devices.

Home: About

Publications

Automated recognition and correction of warp deformation in extrusion additive manufacturing, DAJ Brion, M Shen, SW Pattinson, Additive Manufacturing, in press. DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2022.102838
S.W. Pattinson, M.E. Huber, S. Kim, J. Lee, S. Grunsfeld, R. Roberts, G. Dreifus, C. Meier, L. Liu, N. Hogan, A.J. Hart, Printed Materials with Locally Tailored Elasticity for Compliant Wearable and Implantable Devices, Advanced Functional Materials 2019, 29, 1901815. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201901815
Won 1st Prize at 2017 MIT Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition
Won Best Poster Prize at 2017 MIT Materials Day Symposium
Press Coverage: 3D Printing Industry, ScienceDaily, Becker's Hospital Review
S.W. Pattinson, A.J. Hart, Additive Manufacturing of Cellulosic Materials with Robust Mechanics and Antimicrobial Functionality, Advanced Materials Technologies 2017, 2 1600084. DOI: 10.1002/admt.201600084
Selected as 1 of 10 articles featured as “Best of Advanced Materials Technologies 2017”
Press Coverage: MIT Technology Review, Materials Today, Science Daily, 3DPrint.com
B. Viswanath, M. Bedewy, E.R. Meshot, S.W. Pattinson, E.S. Polsen, F. Laye, D.N. Zakharov, E.A. Stach, A.J. Hart. Real-Time Environmental TEM Investigation of Self-Organization and Mechanical Competition in Carbon Nanotube Forest Growth, ACS Nano 2016, 10, 11496-11504. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b07251
D. N. Zakharov, M. Bedewy, V. Balakrishnan, S. W. Pattinson, E. R. Meshot, A. J. Hart and E. A. Stach, Fast Imaging of Carbon Nanotube Growth by Environmental TEM, Microscopy and Microanalysis 2015, 21, 2327-2328. DOI:10.1017/S1431927615012416
E. Polsen, D. McNerny, B. Viswanath, S.W. Pattinson, A.J. Hart, High-Speed Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Graphene using a Concentric Tube CVD Reactor, Scientific Reports 2015, 5, 10257. DOI: 10.1038/srep10257
S.W. Pattinson, B. Viswanath, D. Zakharov, J. Li, E.A. Stach, A.J. Hart, Mechanism and Enhanced Yield of Carbon Nanotube Growth on Stainless Steel by Oxygen-Induced Surface Reconstruction, Chemistry of Materials 2015, 27, 932-937. DOI: 10.1021/cm504209u
P. Gebhardt,* S.W. Pattinson,* Z. Ren, J. Elliott, D. Cooke, D. Eder. Crystal Engineering with Graphene. Nanoscale 2014, 6, 7319-7324. DOI: 10.1039/C4NR00320A
*equal contribution
S. Boncel, S.W. Pattinson, V. Geiser, M.S.P. Shaffer, K.K.K. Koziol. En Route to Controlled Catalytic CVD Synthesis of Densely Packed and Vertically Aligned Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotube Arrays. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology 2014, 5, 219-233. DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.5.24
S.W. Pattinson, R.D. Rivas, A.H. Windle, C. Ducati, E.A. Stach, K.K.K. Koziol. In-situ Observation of the Effect of Nitrogen on Carbon Nanotube Synthesis. Chemistry of Materials 2013, 25, 2921-2923. DOI: 10.1021/cm401216q
S.W. Pattinson, A.H. Windle, K.K.K. Koziol. Facile Processing of Zeolite Based Catalyst Support for Carbon Nanotube Synthesis. Materials Letters 2013, 93, 404-407. DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2012.10.119
S.W. Pattinson, V. Ranganathan, H.K. Murakami, K.K.K. Koziol, A.H. Windle. Nitrogen-Induced Catalyst Restructuring for Epitaxial Growth of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes. ACS Nano 2012, 6, 7723-7730. DOI: 10.1021/nn301517g
C. Chatzikomis, S.W. Pattinson, K.K.K. Koziol, I.M. Hutchings. Controlled Patterning of Carbon Nanotubes via Inkjet Printing. Journal of Materials Science 2012, 47, 5760-5765. DOI: 10.1007/s10853-012-6467-2
S.W. Pattinson, K. Prehn, I.A. Kinloch, D. Eder, K.K.K. Koziol, K. Schulte, A.H. Windle. The Life and Death of Carbon Nanotubes. RSC Advances 2012, 2, 2909-2913. DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00660J
Z. Ren, E. Kim, S.W. Pattinson, K.S. Subrahmanyam, C.N.R. Rao, A.K. Cheetham, D. Eder. Hybridizing Photoactive Zeolites with Graphene: a Powerful Strategy to Superior Photocatalytic Properties. Chemical Science 2012, 3, 209-216. DOI: 10.1039/C1SC00511A
S. Neocleus, S.W. Pattinson, A.M. Moisala Motta, A.H. Windle, D. Eder. Hierarchical Carbon Nanotube-Inorganic Hybrid Structures involving CNT Arrays and CNT Fibers. Functional Materials Letters 2011, 4, 83-89. DOI: 10.1142/S1793604711001609
L. Li, M. Krissanasaeranee, S.W. Pattinson, M. Stefik, U. Wiesner, U. Steiner, D. Eder.Enhanced Photocatalytic Properties in Well-Ordered Mesoporous WO3. Chemical Communications 2010, 46, 7620-7622. DOI: 10.1039/C0CC01237H